[stylist] Speeding audio up

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Jackie and others,

I too initially struggled with auditory learning. As previously
mentioned, my first semester back to university was a real
make-it-or-break-it moment. I had to begin with reading anything,
electronic or narrated, pretty slow for study purposes. I used JAWS
rather fast, but to truly absorb material, I had to adjust the rate
quite a bit. By the second semester though, I was acquainted with using
my auditory skills, and by the end of my undergrad, I was able to listen
to audio material much quicker and understand the material at a faster
rate. It's like anything; the more you use it, the more that skill will
develop. A similar thing happened with me during travel with a white
cane. It took me time to adjust to using other senses without having to
really focus and strain those senses. Now, I've reached a point where my
other senses naturally kick in now, and I no longer have to strain those
"muscles" to work. We all have differing levels of ability and
comprehension, but I do believe the more we work on anything in life,
the better we can become. I also was in a sink or swim situation with
school. I either learned to study a certain way and devise my own
methods so I could do well, or I settle into an average routine, not
expecting much academically. The latter isn't exactly my personality so
I had to adjust in order to compete; mostly with myself, but whatever,
smile! Ha-ha! Jackie, JAWS can be adjusted to slower or faster speeds by
going to the JAWS menu, go to options, then voices then global voice
adjustment; from here, you tab through the options until you find the
"Rate" option and adjust it the speed by arrowing up or down, or doing
page up or page down to adjust at 10% increments at a time. Depending on
your version of JAWS, the directions may be slightly different, but it
shouldn't be so different you can't figure it out from these directions.
Also, when in MS Word Outlook, Excel and some websites, you can slow
JAWS down, or speed it up, by pressing the Control key, Alt key and page
up or page down keys at the same time, and this will change the rate of
speed while you're in the document. If you close it or alt tab to
another window, you will have to adjust the speed again, but this is a
nice way to adjust the speed without doing it permanently or going into
the JAWS menu.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 4
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 12:21:16 -0700
From: "Jacqueline Williams" <jackieleepoet at cox.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] what I've been reading...
Message-ID: <7A1B6897F80B4206A88E5FF5342923C3 at JackiLeePoet>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Ashley,
You describe very well the detail of what happens to me. It seems that
if the auditory mode  is not a person's strong one when sight is lost,
the effort to listen attentively takes more energy and concentration
than some others experience. It interests me that Chris can listen while
doing many things. And he listens fast. First, this must indicate a
portable recorder, and an excellent auditory modality.  I am a slow
listener because of only limited hearing in my right ear. I have a FM
system that talks to my hearing aid, so that when it is fully charged, I
can do kitchen tasks and still listen to material. It runs out in a few
hours however. I had a totally blind teacher for computer classes for a
short time. He played JAWS at such a speed, I could understand nothing.
So, yes, I guess the visually impaired can indeed be "speed" readers.
Like Chris, I take Newsweek, The Writer, and add The Atlantic Monthly,
The reader's Digest, and listen to about ten other magazines on
Sunsounds of Arizona which reads from about 250 magazines, and
newspapers from across the country. My favorites are Science of our
Times, Mindscapes, the Future magazines, Time, The Economist, and
various medical news letters. Yes, it is paralyzing at times, but
addictive. 
The only justification is that by feeding the mind with such a variety,
and then drifting off into a daydream state, many ideas for writing
start to jell. Time for all? Ignore e-mails for a time, I guess. Thanks
for sharing a common dilemma, Ashley. Jackie