Blog post - the challenges of a blind author and reader.

[A.L.]

What are the challenges facing readers and authors who have some level of blindness. Just because someone has restricted vision doesn't mean they don't enjoy books, or indeed wish to write them. What are the options for such readers and writers? Here is some research into the situation and the woeful choice of e-readers available, followed by an interview with an author with an impressive collection of books to her name, but who suffers from glaucoma and is now completely blind.

http://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2...
Victoria Zigler

[Michael]

Good to see that Victoria contacted you, I pointed her in the direction of your original request about it.

[A.L.]

Yes thanks. Very interesting chat and her book list is impressive. My father is partially blind and I know he struggled to find large print books. He can read normal print but only in small chunks...well he could, he eyesight is much worse now. Technology and my father don't mix but even so I don't think there are many options available anyway.

[Karen]

So interesting, as it's a huge problem we're encountering with my mum. She loves a good story. Have at last got her to have a go with the RNIB talking books. We know the number available is very limited tho, and of those, there are some issues with the age of the recording (some have lots of background noise). But they are expensive to record - the RNIB quoted me £2K to record a book. It is particularly brilliant cos it's all on one disc to use on the Daisy player so there's no faffing about trying to find the next disc to insert. But I have just found someone locally who records Talking Newspapers items who is charging me £600 to record my book... Incidentally, having approached RNIB to say we were happy to commission a recording as there was no other way my mum could 'read' my book, they never got back to us... But it is really difficult trying to find books on the RNIB catalogue for mum to read. There doesn't seem to be a feedback forum as on here where I can ask people what they thought, as obviously an 84 yr old lady with her life experience will have different tastes to whatever the publishers are pushing out as a 'good read'. Maybe we shd have our own Goodreads for Sight Impaired forum?

[Laurel]

Just to let you know, there will be more on the blog about this. Due to time issues (my SEVENTEENTH title/edition just came out this week), I was not able to respond to the original inquiry. Probably will later this week.

For those who don't know me: I am low vision American medieval science fiction author Laurel A. Rockefeller of the Peers of Beinan series. People are shocked when they see I worked as a graphic artist and commercial photographer in Manhattan from 2004 to 2009 when I lost my job to the recession and that I have done ALL of my own art work (including 10 house heraldry emblazons and more than half a dozen personal heraldry emblazons, plus all the book covers).

In 1985 a car hit me crossing the street, destroying most of my visual cortexes. My brain was able to rewire somewhat as I was in junior high at the time, but I lost the ability to process signals from the rods (black/white/grey sensors) in my retinas. As a result, I have double/triple vision with anything that is not a color. I also have difficulties with low frequency light. That is, I can see blue and purple best and red/orange worst.

None of the e-readers are compatible with my type of sight loss.

This is also why I do not do read/reviews for people. If I force myself to read through the distortions too much, my brain completely loses all control of ocular muscles and I become COMPLETELY BLIND. I never know when this will happen, so it's much more frightening for me (based on conversations I've had at National Federation for the Blind meetings) than for my ocular-impaired/blind friends.

[Steven]

apologies, i'm coming to this thread late and i can't work out how to reply to specific posts on my iphone.
it's an interesting thread and i'm glad Alexandra have found my other thread.
i wanted in particular to reply to karen's post re the rnib. i used to use the service a lot but as my hearing have gotten worse audio books have become harder for me to access. hopefully my cochlear implant which i am getting at the end of the month will help with this. i'm aware the selection is limited but i think that they do a good job with the very limited resources at their disposal. have you ever heard of a site called audibleddcodduk. they have a massive selection of audio books as downloads which can be listened to on a computer or MP3 player. while the books themselves are expensive you can join a number of membership plans which get you a huge amount of the price. happy !answer any questions you might have about the talking book service as a long time user if you want to pm me, feel free!

[Karen]

Thanks Steven. And my mum does struggle with some of the talking books as she only has hearing in one ear, and that's not brilliant. At least she can have the volume on full.
I was wondering about the Audible website. It took a long time to get her to try the RNIB's daisy player and she still has problems using it now - hitting the wrong button for example. So I am always a bit wary of asking her to try something new. But if I can download a book onto a memory stick, I am hoping that might work.

[Steven]

Hi karen. sorry but i think the mamory stick idea won't work, at least with audibles books. they have drm protection same as some ebooks to prevent people downloading like you suggest and selling them on! there is a list of the compatible devices on the audible site so may be worth checking.

[Karen]

Thanks Steve. I thought there must be a catch!
No way they could make it that simple for us.
Will have a look at the other devices as you suggest.

[Steven]

if you can still get hold of one karen, the kindle keyboard supports audible audio books. you could put them on there via usb and give the device ! your mum. the keyboard kindle have a neat feature called voice guide that will read what is on the screen alowing her ! easily navigate to the audio book. not sure how easy it would be to get an old keyboard model now though as amazon have stopped selling them i think.

[Karen]

Thanks Simon - actually my beloved kindle is a keyboard one!

[Laurel]

Yesterday someone I met on public transit asked me to visit his website -- I was website administrator and web writer in Manhattan before I lost my job in 2009 (still looking for work).

This was a person who met me with my white cane out. His site is black text (small font no less) with pure white background. So you know my response to him was "this site is not accessible, I cannot see it."

What was really shocking to me was his response of "well MOST PEOPLE CAN see black," effectively chiding me for my sight loss.

I cannot stress enough to everyone just how important it is to realize that sight loss takes many forms and requires many different approaches. What works for someone with open angle glaucoma won't work for me with traumatic brain injury sight loss.

This about this as you publish and please endeavor to implement multiple accessibility options.

[A.L.]

I suppose with the production of audio books it is the cost which prohibits many indie authors. Most sites like Amazon simply don't provide the information of what other choices might be.

On the side of good news my large print edition went live on Amazon today. I might consider audible but at present I cannot afford it.

Thinking of donating a couple of copies of the large print edition to the library.

[Laurel]

Alexandra wrote: "I suppose with the production of audio books it is the cost which prohibits many indie authors. Most sites like Amazon simply don't provide the information of what other choices might be.

On the s..."

Excellent idea about the library. Remember that regular libraries accept book donations more readily than libraries for the blind do; until you reach a certain status, they won't offer your large print book to patrons like myself -- this from the Carnegie Library for the Blind in Pittsburgh PA.

I want to record the audio books when I have the time and means. I use enough Asian language words in my books that ME recording them is the surest way to make sure readers hear it right.

When I was in university studying Asian medieval history, the readers for my textbooks mis-pronounced Chinese SO BADLY (bless them for trying), I could not follow the homework. Imagine it taking you 20 minutes after you hear something to realize that the subject of the discussion is the city of Beijing -- or about the Kangxi emperor (Kangxi was 17th and 18th century emperor who reigned the longest in Chinese history, a man who was ethnically Manchu and not Han Chinese).

Yeah, I'm sensitive to that! :)

[A.L.]

I've just found this article about a potential braille e-reader, but the company is short of money. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-...