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Large Print Book Help
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Erin
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Oct 26, 2011 03:54PM
I hope you can help me. My elderly mother is losing more of her eyesight. My sister is wondering whether we should get her a nook or kindle so she can adjust the size of the font. Reading is one of my mom's favorite things, but she is "not-technical minded" and I'm worried the various options on either of these readers might frustrate her (she can't understand how to email, etc) She buys most of her books. I guess I"m wondering if any of you have been in a similar situation and if so if the electronic reader worked. If not, are there certain stores that carry more large print books than others? She does like to hold a book in her hands. I'm wondering if getting her an ott light to read by might be helpful as well. She dislikes those clear magnifiers you can put over the text.
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Oh, I hope Chrissie pipes in here. (She has vision problems and a Kindle.)
Hi Erin!
Start reading at message 101 in this thread:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...
Chrissie is thrilled with her Kindle, and she is unable to read even LP books comfortably. There is a newer model coming out, with no buttons. Every thing is done on the touch screen.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005...
Start reading at message 101 in this thread:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...
Chrissie is thrilled with her Kindle, and she is unable to read even LP books comfortably. There is a newer model coming out, with no buttons. Every thing is done on the touch screen.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005...
Yes, I am here. I use a Kindle simply due to my lousy vision. I highly recommend it. Iam extrememly pleased. BUT there are parts of the menu that are not possible to make large. For these parts you must read with a magniying glass. (Magnifying glasses with a blue light in them work best!) I suggest you look at the KIndle. I have heard that it has a screen that is easier to read than a Nook. I am not sure if the newest Fire Kindle with color has the same really good screen for poor vision. I have Kindle 3 and that is excellent. I am looking into this other kind of machine that you put a book into and then the text is scanned onto a screen at a much larger size. I have not tried it yet. It is expensive. I have just heard it exists. Maybe the hospital can refer you to a place where yu can view such appliances. I have such an appointment. First of all contact an association for Poor Vision. You want to get all the help you can. You want to try the appliances before you buy them. And of course it is good if you can get the economic help that is available. I was given this advice by a friend here on GR! She was absolutely right. Don't battle this alone. Get someone to help you. I have just begun, so I don't know that much yet.
Erin, I will chip in here as well. My mother has advanced macular degeneration and her vision has deteriorated beyond being able to use an e-reader. Although she has a reader which will magnify text onto a screen in very large print, it is not suitable for reading anything other than single pages. The only option for her was to move to audiobooks. We download books from various sites and burn them onto cds for her to play. At her age and without useful vision, she could not learn to use an mp3 player.
Audiobooks are also available from the local organisation for people with visual impairment and from the library, but it was hard to find books she was interested in from those sources, whereas we have no difficulty at all finding audiobooks to suit her taste.
The audiobook experiment has been very successful and my mother has adjusted to it very well. As she has health problems which affect her mobility as well as her vision, she spends a lot of her day listening.
Hopefully this option won't become necessary for your mother, but if text does get beyond her, it's good to know that high quality audiobooks are widely available, including from free sources.
Kim; say hi to your Mom. I am seriously considering audios now, although I have been very negative in the past. You take what is available, right? I am now having difficulty with the largest font size on my Kindle. I have advanced diabetic macular edema. Not surprising after 50 years with diabetes!
Specifically, here is what I have been worried about. Aren't the prices even higher than Kindle books? If you have no choice, you have no choice. I too am worried about my ability to get the "audio" ro my MP3 or CD player. It is difficult to read the computer, but I assume I can manage if my husband shows me what buttone to push. Is an MP3 harder to function than a CD player? I read a lot. I need something that works easily. What about stopping at a particular place, can you backtrack a little when you staart reading again. I might have to remember what was going on! I only read one book at a time, so this ought to cause less trouble.
Another issue is availability and variety of books available. I do not necessarily like the most popular books, rather more the biographies. I rarely read classics. Who do you recommend? What is the difference between Audible and Amazon? How are they related and who has more books at a cheaper price?
And what do you do with your hands? I am scared I will fall asleep! In the day time when my husband is gone I would like to not use earphones, but in the evening it is better if I do. Does this cause trouble.
I really know nothing and I am scared of buying something and then finding out it was not really workable for me.
I will not be accessible for about a week and a half, so if I do not respond it is not that I am not interested.
Jeanette, the screen on the new modell is maybe different. I do not know if the readability is as good as on KIndle 3. It is meant to play games on and that is not really the same usage as reading a book. I do not know! I have read that management of the book content is a bit different but will soon be improved up to the standard of Kindle 3. My info is hazy. Just be careful so you buy what is best for you.
I will go now and see if I can get some links to sites that helped me and might help you Erin.
Here is a site to get help if you are visually impaired, irregardless of where you live: http://http://www.mdsupport.org/resources/ag...
Magniscopic glasses: http://www.amd.org/living-with-amd/12...
A magnifyer like a ruler: http://www.rnib.org.uk/shop/Pages/Pro...
Magnifyers on stands: http://standmagnifiers.net/default.aspx
I do not advise buying stuff without testing them first. I tried the rules magnifying glass and it did not work at all!
The most importand link is the first one. I would not know these links if a person here at GR hadn't been so kind and told me of them: Thank you Genia!
First, Erin, good luck! Take a look at what is out there, like Chrissie recommends. And, keep asking here on goodreads. Lots of people want to be helpful. :)
Chrissie, I am looking at the Kindle Touch, which is the next generation for reading books. I like that the buttons are gone, and everything is handled through the Touch Screen. It is amazing how much the display looks like paper.
The Kindle Fire is color, and meant for playing games, and running apps, too. I'm not much interested in that. I download Kindle books to my computer, but I don't enjoy reading them here, sitting at my desk.
Kim is asleep right now, so she won't get back to you until this evening, at least. I'm curious about licensing issues, too, as she lives in Australia.
Chrissie, I am looking at the Kindle Touch, which is the next generation for reading books. I like that the buttons are gone, and everything is handled through the Touch Screen. It is amazing how much the display looks like paper.
The Kindle Fire is color, and meant for playing games, and running apps, too. I'm not much interested in that. I download Kindle books to my computer, but I don't enjoy reading them here, sitting at my desk.
Kim is asleep right now, so she won't get back to you until this evening, at least. I'm curious about licensing issues, too, as she lives in Australia.
Jeanette, I didn't know anything about Kindle Touch. I thought you meant Kindle Fire. That is the one I am worried that people will get and think it is good for book reading. Maybe it is. I do not know. Do you know if the Kindle Touch has large font in the menus? I know they are working on this, but I don't think it is available yet on Kindle 3. They usually do updates.
Kindle Touch is the newest model, just for reading books. It has no buttons on it, anywhere. You flip pages just by tapping the page. They have one here in the store near me. What kind of menu do you mean, Chrissie? What are the menu choices you need larger? I will go look at the Kindle Touch again, if you let me know which menus. I haven't played around with it much, but I'm happy to look again. I am really leaning towards buying one.
Chrissie, You should look into if there are any free audiobook programs in your area. There are tons in the U.S. (such as this one: http://www.loc.gov/nls/ - they have audio books) and I read for awhile, taping books, for blind people in my local area. School books & such.
Jeanette on a Kindle you have a menu of all the book you have in the appliance. That list is call ed a menu. Thal ist of books has teeny font that cannot be enlarged in my Kindle 3.Lisa, the free audios in my area are all in Dutch. I am signed up with the Dutch organization b/c my hospital is in the Flemish area. I will ask more at the hospital appt in November.
Maybe my vision will get better after their next intervention? One can always hope, although I am very stupid. I have to make these changes anyway for the long term. I have hopefully many more years left. :0)
I am terribly stressed right now so I might not get back to GR for a while.......
I got it, Chrissie. Now I know what you mean, and I will look into it on the newest generation of the Kindle.
Jeanette, I even have trouble now reading the letters on the buttons. How do the size of the letters compare on the Kindle Touch and Kindle Three?
I will take a look at all of them, and report back. :)
Chrissie wrote: "I am seriously considering audios now, although I have been very negative in the past. You take what is available, right? I am now having difficulty with the largest font..."Chrissie, first can I say how sorry I am that your vision has further deteriorated. I completely understand how very stressful this must be for you, as I have watched the same thing happen to my mum.
In relation to audibooks, we subscribe to Audible, which is a subsidiary of Amazon. Audiobooks are certainly more expensive than e-books and regular books, but I guess at least part of that is accounted for by the cost involved in getting a professional to do the narration. An Audible subscription costs about $7.95 per month for the first three months and $14.95 per month thereafter. For the subscription price you get a credit, which will generally buy one book. You can use the credit to buy a book with an expensive list price, which is what we do. As a subscriber, you can buy any additional books at a 30% discount. Audible has a wide range of titles available, including biographies and other non-fiction and new titles are always being added.
There are also free audiobook sources for books in the public domain. We use a couple of French language sites. And there's also librivox.org, which has books in the public domain narrated by volunteers. A lot of those books are, of course, classics. However, there is a lot of non-fiction in there as well.
As for mp3 players, I use an iPod, which is not hard to use, but I guess would be a bit harder to learn to use with compromised vision. If you can use a computer, you can definitely learn to use an mp3 player. You can also listen to audiobooks directly from the computer, through iTunes. At least with the iPod (and it's the only mp3 player with which I'm familiar) it is possible to rewind to listen to a bit that's been missed. This can't be done on a cd.
I don't just sit and listen to audiobooks. I always listen when I'm doing something else, so what to do with my hands isn't an issue. My mother found this difficult when she first started listening to audiobooks, but she now doesn't have any problem at all. She says she has got used to listening and just listening, as it is the only way she can "read" and she won't give up reading.
My mum lives alone, so she listens without headphones. I always listen with headphones (unless I'm in the car, in which case the iPod is plugged into the sound system). I haven't found that headphones cause me any problems. The ones I use are very comfortable.
I've just been talking about this issue with my husband, having told him about your post. He is an IT person and does the techical stuff around here, including burning the cds for my mother. (I should say here that Audible allows the burning of cds from their downloaded books). He hasn't seen an mp3 player specifically designed for a person with low vision, but he is going to investigate the issue further. He wonders whether anyone has designed an mp3 app for the iPad and is going to look into that as well. (If there isn't one, he's talking about designing one with big clear buttons!) So I will get back to you with more information about suitable mp3 players if there is more information to be had!
All the best Chrissie. I know full well that when you've had a lifetime of reading, being read to seems like second best (if that!). However, I can't tell you how much better my mother has coped with her vision loss through having access to good audiobooks. And if it hadn't been the necessity of finding some way for her to still enjoy books, I would never have realised that I actually enjoy being read to and now I'm never without an audiobook on the go.
Kim, wow! I really appreciate all you help and advice. I will not be on the computer for abut a week. Then when I get back on I will check out more. I really want to thank you. Maybe you r Mom used Lucentis? that didn't work for me! We will try something else, so I haven't totally given up all hope. 50 years tih diabetes. Something has to happen. I am still extremely lucky.
Again thank you for your help and I will talk to you more later, OK? You can also send me a PM if you would rather. But isn't it good that others see they are not alone with vision problems?
I think I can manage a MP3. I manage an insulin pump without really reading it. You kind of know where to push the buttons. You learn with practice. They also beep so you can use those signals.
You are very welcome, Chrissie. My husband's checking things out already and I should have more to report when you get back online. Take care.
Chrissie wrote: "I am terribly stressed right now so I might not get back to GR for a while....... "Sorry you're so stressed, Chrissie, but completely understandable. I hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable trip and can put some of these worries on the back burner. We'll be happy to see you when you return.
Wow! You have all been so helpful, thank you SO much for all the links to resources and helpful ideas. I will research more of these to see which ones would best suit her lifestyle. If anyone has anything else to add, I'm still listening. Thank you!
I'll report back about the new Kindle, too.
Mod
Lee wrote: "Comfy readers are the best!"100% agreed. Such a great group of people! I love it in here!
Comfy readers are the best! I agree. It is just that I need REALLY serious, grim books to grab my attention....... As long as you let me talk about such "distracting" rather than soothing, comfy reads, all is perfect. It is the members that make a group what it is. And what members we have!!! YAY!Thanks for all you advice to Erin and I.
All of you take care and we can all talk later.
Comfy readers are the best! I agree. It is just that I need REALLY serious, grim books to grab my attention....... As long as you let me talk about such "distracting" rather than soothing, comfy reads, all is perfect. It is the members that make a group what it is. And what members we have!!! YAY!Thanks for all you advice to Erin and I.
All of you take care and we can all talk later.
Mod
Kim, I am back! When we were in France I checked out MP3 players. I think I can figure out where to push if I have a silver one. Black on black doesn't work. However, I cannot read the scree even with a magnifying glass. I am thinking that I will not be able to go to the menu and select the book I want to listen to. It is not that I listen to two books at the same time, but that I have to select the book to read it right? I want to be able to pause and write things down, otherwise I must quit reviews too. Most people listen to music on MP3s, right?. I think it is important that I can stop and backtrack a bit when I pick up the "audio" again. Am I correct, for this reason a CD player is worse? But is an IPod best? OK, I am acting childish. I know. As long as possible I want to READ rather than listen. One reason is economics! I read a lot. I read three books in France. No four. i am going to go bankrupt. I have to keep all balls up in the air. I will be checking out tools for reading real books. I am hoping that I will be able to read the books I have purchased and am so eager to read. On the other hand I know that I must be in the hospital for some days and I think an audio would be something to get my mind off of eye problems. This would be a case where I need an audio. So maybe I should try different alternatives........I just think I do not want to waste money on something that will not be used later. I am stupid. I keep hoping. Maybe something will get better? I just keep hanging on to that. And if I cannot, then it will be audios, because I am NOT giving up literature. That is just not an alternative.
I do need earphones for when my husband is home. When he not, I will not uses them. But earphones do not fit in my ears. They are small like everything else on my body. So I guess I should get those big ones.
I believe I should try audios, so I have a book for the hospital. That will be my safety pillow. Do you think an ipod is better than a MP3? What are audios meant to lestened on? I know nothing. I want the machine to be simple. I want to manage without asking for help. I have nothing against asking for help once in a while, but constantly is a pain in the butt.
Say hi to your Mom. Tell her she is not alone! Knowing she has managed, tells me that I will manage too.
Sorry this message is so diffuse.
The one thing I will recommend, Chrissie, is good headphones, rather than the little earbud things. They have better sound, and are more comfortable. My daughter uses them on her computer to do her language work.
Jeanette, thanks. Good Idea. Whatever happened to Erin, who started this thread?! I wish she would join us again.
She might come back -- you revived the topic.
Chrissie wrote: "I want to be able to pause and write things down, otherwise I must quit reviews too."Noooooooooooooooooo!!!! Not THAT!
Chrissie, I hope you can continue to find a way to read print books, but, yes, you should definitely try audiobooks. I know many who love them.
I can see it. I loved being read to when young and even now, and it's kind of like being read to. I assume if you're engaged in a book, whether the words are coming to you via sight or sound, the experience is still reading the book.
Best wishes. I hope you find something that will work for you for your entire life.
When is the hospital?!
Lisa, Kindle is more expensive than paperbacks. Compare prices. Audios are a lot more expensive than Kindles. So for economic reasons, Kindles are better than audios and paperbacks are better than Kindles. I even sent a letter to Amazon asking them to think of perhaps putting a program into place for those who spend a lot, life offering cheaper prices if you go over a given limit. I will use audios if I have to. I will maybe use audios as an alternative for particular occasions. I still do not know when the hospital time is set........ Dam doctors! I will send you a PM when I know.
I just feel that others to deal with this issue should jin the thread. I KNOW I am not alone. People should be willing to talk. Then people know they are not alone.
Hi Chrissie. Since you've been away my husband has done some more thinking about the audiobook issue. He believes that at some point you might want to look at the iPad. It has a good voice feature, in that it will read what's on the screen to you and you can also easily use it to play audiobooks. This may be a way down the track yet in terms of your needs, but he thinks it's a good option. He is going to give me a link to send you to a podcast done by some people with visual impairments talking about Apple products - apparently a bit technical, but still worthwhile. In relation to one of the questions you posed earlier, an iPod is an mp3 player. It's the only mp3 player I'm familiar with, but there may be others that can meet your needs, such as being able to re-wind. You can definitely do that on an iPod. I have to do it quite a lot!!
Also, as far as headphones are concerned, I used to think that I wouldn't be able to get used to ear bud type headphones, but after years of using "proper" headphones, I now have good quality, in-ear ones which I find very comfortable. The best ones come with different size buds to fit all ears shapes and sizes. I think it is worth spending money on good quality headphones of whatever description suits you, although the best quality is not at all necessary for listening to text.
Also, speaking of audio, have you ever used the text to voice feature on the Kindle? I haven't and I understand that it sounds a bit tinny, but I've heard that others have got used to it, so you might want to see what it's like for you. My husband says that the speech function on the iPad is much better.
As for prices, there is no doubt that audio is not cheap, unless you download free audiobooks from a site such as librivox.org. This is a reason why you might see how the text-to-voice feature on Kindle or on something like an iPad works and whether it is something you could get used to.
I will post again later the podcast link to the discussion about Apple products for people with visual impairments.
Chrissie wrote: "I even sent a letter to Amazon asking them to think of perhaps putting a program into place for those who spend a lot, life offering cheaper prices if you go over a given limit. I will use audios if I have to. I will maybe use audios as an alternative for particular occasions. I still do not know when the hospital time is set........ Dam doctors! I will send you a PM when I know. "
Thanks in advance for the pm. Damn doctors indeed.
That's great that you wrote Amazon. They could do a great service to people with special needs, and boost up their image for all of us if they would do that.
Lisa, it doesn't hurt ot talk to Amazon, so I figured why not try!Kim, what do you suggest for good ear bud marks? I agree, it is best to buy one good product than keep trying bad ones...... We had a big earphone set, but they are so clumsy.
I would be thankful for the link.
And I will test the text to voice on my Kindle.
I think my next step is to find the best MP3. I think it is good I have one. It is not good I wait until the last minute and run out and buy the wrong thing. Since I haven't used them for sudios, I do not know what questions to pose when I test them. I can only think of the need to:
1. read the menu to get to the book
2. be able to re-wind
3. downloading should be simple even if vision is bad
Do you have more suggestions or recommendations? Please give me a specific product name you recommend.
Maybe others have other preferences. You could try and do what you need to do and pretend you just see very blurry. Then tell me if your gadget works! And give me the name.
So the best two sites to check are Audible and librivox.org.
I am going to set this stuff up now, rather than later.
I want to thank everybody for help - but I feel rather embarassed that Erin disappeared and no one else joins in. Me, I do appreciate your help tremendously.
I am going to stop being such a dam chicken! I have bookmarked both Audible and Librivox on my computer. I even found a book I want to listen to: Joan of Arc by Mark Twain. At Audible they have some info on MP3 that are compatible. I will take this list with me to the store. This weekend I want to buy an MP3. I do not trust salespeople. So please tell me what MP3 you belive would work for me. Then I will go to the store and test them. Please tell me what steps I should test in the store so I can be sure the gadget works with my vision.
:0)
ETA Pls tell me the specific name of ear plugs that are really comfortable and GOOD! I want to test them too. I have those big ones, so I don't have to really buy anything, but while I am there.....
Ooops, maybe I should do this after my appointment next week when I check out hospital gadgets. They might in fact have a MP3 for people with low vision. So I will do it not this but next weekend.
Chrissie - my mp3 player is the Apple iPod and I use Sennheiser ear phones with a remote control (the remote control device is on the ear phone cord and I use it to turn the iPod on and off and the volume up and down). The model is SKU 67504 MM30i. However, head phones are a very individual choice and you may prefer the ones that don't fit into your ears. In any event, I've found Sennheiser to be a good brand. I have a set of their noise-cancelling headphones which I use when I fly. Here is the link to a series of podcasts which my husband has found. He listened to some of them. The podcasts are by a group of blind people who are talking about the features of products made by Apple which assist people with visual impairments.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/maccessib...
As well as going to a general electronics store to look at the range of mp3 players, you might want to go to the nearest Apple store and get sales staff there to show you the iPod and also the iPad. Staff in Apple stores are very knowledgeable and very helpful, in my experience. I've even been into the Apple store in Sydney and had one of the staff tell me that I'd find something I was looking for cheaper at the electronics shop down the road.
You might find the iPad more suited to your needs than a small mp3 player. It is more portable than a lap top computer but big enough to have easy-to-use controls. A small mp3 player like an iPod is good for me, because I listen to books while I am walking and using public transport. If you are mostly going to listen at home, or in other places where you are not moving around, a very small device is not of any great advantage to you.
Whichever device you go for, you need to get one which you can use by feeling the controls, or by having a voice function telling you what you are doing. I don't know if there are any products other than the Apple iPad and the latest iPhone (which includes voice function to read what's on the screen and also has a built-in mp3 player), which do that. However, there may be other products out there. For this reason I think it is a good idea to see what the hospital offers.
Also, is there an organisation for people with visual impairment in Belgium from which you can get some advice about what's available? If there is such an organisation people there should be completely up to date with the technology.
I checked out the text to voice function on the Kindle today. It's not great, but not as bad as I thought it would be. You can choose a male or female voice. The voices are clear enough, (although somewhat mechanical) and you can adjust the reading speed.
I would just like to thank all of those who have come with ideas. I have been to a Low Vision Center. I had no idea that such great tools were available, but one needs expert help to find the appropriate tool for each individual. My primary recommendation is to get help from such an association supporting those who are visually impaired. Do not try and solve this yourself. Here again is a link to such associations afound all over the world: http://www.mdsupport.org/resources/ag...Let me also mention that Audible in association with Amazon has the largest quantity of contemporary audios. I discovered that audible audios can be listened on a Kindle. You do not need to buy another appliance if you already have a Kindle. Librivox audios do NOT work to listen to on a Kindle.
Those who want to look more into audios should check out "Daisy" on the internet.
Chrissie wrote: "Here again is a link to such associations afound all over the world: http://www.mdsupport.org/resources/ag... who want to look more into audios should check out "Daisy" on the internet."Thanks, Chrissie. Very helpful list of resources!
It's good to know that Kindle handles audiobooks, too.
Jeannette wrote: "It's good to know that Kindle handles audiobooks, too."Only from Audible.
No problem. It opens the possibility that audiobooks loaned from the library might play on the Kindle some day, too. I didn't know the Kindle had an audio component.
Jeannette wrote: "No problem. It opens the possibility that audiobooks loaned from the library might play on the Kindle some day, too. I didn't know the Kindle had an audio component."And you can connect earphones.
I just might ask Santa to bring one for Christmas.
Chrissie, although I knew about the Kindle's speech function, I had no idea that it could play books from Audible. That is great to know. I hope you find some books you really want to listen to. My mum had a daisy for a while, but the organisation she got it from didn't seem to have a lot of books she wanted to read. We do much better at finding books for her at Audible. The expense is the only issue.
Here's a review of the new Kindle Touch. They mention an mp3 capability for some future date.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/review...
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/review...
Oooooh, just looking at the pictures, that Kindle Touch looks great! I wish I had one- but I'm too cheap. Plus, they're always coming out with newer versions of things, so it'd be kinda pointless to buy that now, if they're gonna come out with something better in a few months.
This is the newest model, but you have a point. But, I have to buy it sometime, and Christmas is a good excuse.
Haha, yeah, I keep on forgetting that it's almost Christmas time. Man, where have the days gone?
