Category: Independent Living Resources

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Accessible Assistive Technology Resources Bridges Blog Educational Resources Employment Resources Extracurricular Resources Independent Living Resources Recreation Resources Series: March Madness, Reading Edition; March, 2023

Voice Dream Reader and More!

March Madness – Reading Edition!

March is National Reading Month, so the Bridges Technical Assistance Center’s Helpdesk is celebrating March Madness – Reading Edition! This month, we will be sharing reading-related resources all month long.

In this third installment of our “March Madness – Reading Edition!” series, we delve into Voice Dream Reader as well as some other accessible reading apps.

About Voice Dream Reader

Voice Dream Reader is a versatile, navigable, and intuitive tool. For ten dollars, you can buy lifelong access to a powerful reading app.

Files that Voice Dream Reader Can Read

You can read multiple file types, including EPUB (that are DRM Free), DAISY Audio, DAISY Text, Plain Text, HTML, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Additionally, Voice Dream Reader can scan many PDF files, even some that other readers might struggle with. If there is a PDF you want to read, you can check if Voice Dream Reader can do it by simply sharing the file with the app, and opening it. If Voice Dream Reader it gives you the option, you can proceed with the scan and read the PDF.

Easy to Load Files into Voice Dream Reader

Sometimes it can be frustrating to make sure the file you want is in a place that your reading app can access. You can store and organize books and other files from a variety of sources, including others apps, the web, and Bookshare. You can also use Voice Dream Reader to access local files on your device.

From a shared Google Drive folder to an online news article to anything from your Bookshare account, you should be able to access virtually any reading material. You should be able to navigate it systematically and customize how quickly and with which voice it is read to you. You can also keep track of it based on (1) where it came from, (2) when you downloaded it, and (3) other, more creative criteria up to and including renaming the file to something that makes more sense to you.

Other Voice Dream Reader Features

  • Can pair with a refreshable braille display
  • Control of Reading Modes
  • Audio Controls
  • Library Management
  • Annotation
  • Visual Controls
  • OCR
  • Free companion Apple Watch app can play your reading list offline while not connected to iPhone
  • Play recordings, like Zoom recordings. For example, if you save a Zoom meeting recording in Dropbox, you can then share it to Voice Dream Reader and play it back from there – including voice controls (speed, etc.).

Voice Dream Reader Limitations

Performance

Of course, no tool is perfect, and no reader is best for every situation. For example, when reading a data table, Voice Dream Reader will just represent the data as a block of text. Maybe that’s good enough for you. If not, perhaps the solution exists within the app itself, and perhaps it would be best to organize that data elsewhere. Either way, Voice Dream Reader tends to work well in the majority of circumstances. If there’s an issue with how best to use it, whether it’s a good fit for you, or what other apps might be best to supplement it, please reach out to us at the Free Bridges Helpdesk; we’re here to help you figure out how best to meet your needs and achieve your goals.

Cost

Voice Dream Reader is a paid app. It costs ten dollars ($10), but this is a one-time cost. You do not need to pay any additional fees for upgrades.

Platform

The Voice Dream Reader app is ONLY available on iOS platforms. This includes iPhones and iPads. However, Voice Dream Reader is not available on Android devices, and it is not available to use on a computer.

Other Free Accessible Reading Apps

NaturalReader

Dolphin EasyReader

BARD: Braille and Audio Reading Download

Bridges Can Help

For more information, including help in funding the hardware or software needed to access reading materials, please reach out to us at the Free Bridges Helpdesk.

Even if you just want to chat about the different options and experiment with them, we are happy to set up a phone call, Zoom meeting, or FaceTime meeting to work with you on any topic.

Whatever you decide, and however you go about it, we look forward to hearing from you. And, happy reading!

Contact us

Follow the Bridges Helpdesk Facebook page for more transition tips, and please contact the Bridges Technical Assistance Center’s Free Helpdesk for Maryland Blind/Low Vision Transition Students, Families, and Educators anytime using:

This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.

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Accessible Assistive Technology Resources Bridges Blog Educational Resources Employment Resources Independent Living Resources Information Resources Recreation Resources Series: March Madness, Reading Edition; March, 2023

Bookshare’s New App: Bookshare Reader

March Madness – Reading Edition!

March is National Reading Month, so the Bridges Technical Assistance Center’s Helpdesk is celebrating March Madness – Reading Edition! This month, we will be sharing reading-related resources all month long. Additionally, on Sunday, March 19, from 8-9 pm, we will host a Student Zoom Meeting featuring Accessible Reading Tools. We look forward to enjoying March Madness with you!

In this second installment of our “March Madness – Reading Edition!” series, we explore the new, free reading app from Bookshare: Bookshare Reader.

Bookshare Background

Bookshare is a service that provides accessible books to qualifying individuals. Bookshare provides a wide range of titles including textbooks, bestsellers, children’s books, career resources, and more. To find out more, check out our Bridges Blog post: Bookshare.

Accessing Bookshare Books

Once you have a Bookshare account, you can access books by either downloading or streaming them. When you download Bookshare titles, you may choose the file format in which you want to access the book using print, enlarged print, audio, and Braille. These file formats include (though not every format for every title): EPUB, DAISY, DAISY with images, BRF, Microsoft Word, DAISY with audio, and MP3.

About Bookshare Reader

Reading Bookshare Books

Like other reading apps, Bookshare Reader allows the user the ability to change the speaking rate and to change the voice itself. In addition, a reader can navigate Bookshare books by using headings coded into the book. However, the coding is not perfect, so navigation can, sometimes, be more problematic.

How Can I Use Bookshare Reader?

Bookshare Reader can be used in multiple ways. Using your Windows OS, MacOS, or Chrome laptop, you can run it through an internet browser on Bookshare (by choosing “Read Now” when you select a book). You can use the same method to stream books on your phone, or you can download and use the iOS Bookshare Reader app or the Android Bookshare Reader app. There is also a Bookshare Reader Skill on Alexa-enabled smart devices and speakers, and you can search for and read Bookshare books using this skill.  

Bookshare Reader is new and improving. It’s free, geared toward people with all print disabilities, and customizable by the consumer.

Why Should I Use Bookshare Reader?

If you’re wondering why yet another reading app has been created, Bookshare Reader has advantages that other options, including the commonly-used alternative, Voice Dream Reader, do not. For example, as long as one has a Bookshare account, it is entirely free. Further, with Bookshare Reader, the text is presented in such a way as to be more readable by your device itself, or by Bookshare’s own voices. Please note: if you use Bookshare Reader on your iOS phone, you must make sure that VoiceOver is off while the reader is speaking, or else the voices will clash. But at the same time, this makes it easier to read out loud by going line-by-line. In the end, Bookshare Reader provides an additional option to use, and individuals can choose which app to use and when to use it to meet their individual needs and comfort levels.

Try It and Help Make It Better

Most new software has hiccups, and that’s to be expected. While it is frustrating that one needs to turn off VoiceOver to use the Bookshare Reader app, it’s a problem that can be fixed.

One might ask why the problem exists in the first place. Well, even though Bookshare is focused on individuals with print disabilities, blind and low vision users are in the minority of Bookshare users. There are many more individuals with learning disabilities and typical vision who use Bookshare. Maybe that’s why the VoiceOver bug wasn’t fixed before release.  

But not to worry … we can help! Bookshare cannot improve its instructional materials or its content without feedback from its constituencies. So if you notice something that could be better, please reach out to us at the Free Bridges Helpdesk or to Bookshare directly; we never know how much better things can get unless we try.

Contact us

Follow the Bridges Helpdesk Facebook page for more transition tips, and please contact the Bridges Technical Assistance Center’s Free Helpdesk for Maryland Blind/Low Vision Transition Students, Families, and Educators anytime using:

This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.

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Bridges Blog Educational Resources Employment Resources Extracurricular Resources Independent Living Resources Recreation Resources Series: March Madness, Reading Edition; March, 2023

Free and Low-cost Braille Books

March Madness – Reading Edition!

March is National Reading Month, so the Bridges Technical Assistance Center’s Helpdesk is celebrating March Madness – Reading Edition! This month, we will be sharing reading-related resources all month long. Additionally, on March 19, from 8-9 pm, we will host a Student Meeting featuring a new reading tool: Bookshare Reader. We look forward to enjoying March Madness with you!

  • March 7: Free and Low-cost Braille Books
  • March 14: Bookshare’s New App: Bookshare Reader
  • March 21: Voice Dream Reader
  • March 28: Accessible College Textbook Program

In this first installment of our “March Madness – Reading Edition!” series, we share resources for – and reasons to obtain – free and low-cost braille books.

Why Braille Books?

This post focuses on braille books (rather than books with enlarged print) because braille books can be difficult to find. Unlike print, braille is a tactile medium, and even refreshable braille has the limitation of only displaying one line at a time. Accessing and using hard copy braille books helps an individual develop efficient braille-reading hand movements, provides spatial information (multiple lines at one time without needing to scroll up or down), and is available even when electronics break down.

Ways to Use Hard-copy Braille Books

There are multiple ways to use these hard-copy braille books – even if you don’t yet read braille!

Current braille readers can:

Individuals learning (or interested in learning) braille:

While nothing replaces quality instruction (in braille or print), you might consider using braille books to help you learn to read braille. Just like with print, reading braille takes PRACTICE! These braille resources can provide you with some self-teaching opportunities. For this purpose, consider getting some books that you enjoy and know by heart). When you read the braille, you will already know what the word is, so you will actually be teaching your fingers what the word feels like! This works best for books in UEB (Unified English Braille) and note that punctuation (period, question mark, etc.) is attached to the word they follow – just like in print.

Please reach out to us at the Bridges Helpdesk for any assistance we can provide.

Free Braille Books to Keep

Seedlings’ Book Angel Program for Children with Vision Loss

Through this program, blind/low vision U.S. children ages birth through 21 may order up to FIVE (5) free braille books per year. Please note that this is limited to books on one or two volumes.

Temple Beth El Braille Book Bindery

Individuals may choose from many Braille books in either contracted or uncontracted Braille. The volunteers of Temple Beth El Sisterhood provide these books at no cost, but they welcome donations of Braille paper, Braille binding supplies, and money to support this mission.

Free Braille Books Program from the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults (AAF)

Hard copy braille books. 2023 books include:

Braille Institute’s Special Collection

Blind/low vision children in the U.S. and Canada may order up to 2 Dots for Tots® kits two times per year (targeted at ages 2-5, but open to all—might be great books to read to younger family members, neighbors, etc.).

Free Braille Books on Loan

Maryland State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled (LBPD) branch of the National Library Service (NLS)

Choose from thousands of braille book titles and over 30 magazines in Braille and electronic Braille formats. Books & magazines can be mailed or downloaded for FREE.

If you are not yet registered as a Library patron, you can complete an English LBPD application or a Spanish LBPD application and email it to the LBPD at reference.desk@maryland.gov.  

If you are not certain whether you are registered as a patron of the Library, please contact the Library at 410-230-2424 or 800-964-9209.

Low-cost Braille Books (to Keep)

BRL—Beulah Reimer Legacy

Very reasonably priced, high-quality Braille-print picture books. Great for learning braille as a teen with books you grew up loving and for braille readers taking care of younger children.

Seedlings Braille Books (for purchase)

Seedlings has a wide variety of braille books for purchase (after you get your three free Angel books—see above). Here are the categories of Seedlings books, followed y the number of titles in each category:

National Braille Press (NBP)

NBP has a variety of titles including some not available anywhere else, including technology guides for blind/low vision individuals, cookbooks, recreational reading, books in Spanish and English, and more.

American Printing House for the Blind (APH)

While APH books are not necessarily low in price, schools have funds that can only be spent at APH. In addition to textbooks and early learning books, APH offers books with tactile graphics that can be helpful in science and other classes.

The Braille Bookstore

The Braille Bookstore offers many titles in hard copy braille for all ages, including adults.

Read How You Want

Read How You Want is a commercial publisher of accessible books, and available formats include Braille and DAISY digital books. While this publisher is located in Australia, prices are in U.S. dollars, and the variety of titles includes many that are not common in the U.S.

Braille Library & Transcribing Services, Inc.

This group offers braille in three ways:

Categories include:

Louis Database of Accessible Materials

“The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) maintains and promotes the Louis Database of Accessible Materials, named in honor of Louis Braille. Louis contains information on accessible materials produced by over 75 organizations throughout the United States and Canada. These materials include educational materials in braille, large print, audio, and electronic file format.

Our aim is to provide maximum visibility to accessible educational materials and to meet that goal, the Louis search also includes information from these national repositories.”

Bookshare – Embossing Bookshare Books

While Bookshare does not provide hard copy books, it does provide the option to download books in BRF (braille-ready file) format. Note: you must be a member of Bookshare to download these files. Then, you may either emboss the books yourself or find another entity (teacher, agency, individual) to perform the embossing.

Contact us

Follow the Bridges Helpdesk Facebook page for more transition tips, and please contact the Bridges Technical Assistance Center’s Free Helpdesk for Maryland Blind/Low Vision Transition Students, Families, and Educators anytime using:

This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.

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Accessible Assistive Technology Resources Bridges Blog Independent Living Resources Series: Jumping Into January 2023

JAWS Screen Reading Software Offers Even More in 2023!

Jumping Into January, Part 1

2022 is over, and it’s time to jump into 2023! Join us as we explore revamped and new resources to help you on your Transition journey – through school and beyond!

In this second installment of our “Jumping Into January” series, we share new possibilities with the popular screen reading software, JAWS (as well as a way to snag an annual license at a great price).

What’s New with JAWS?

Smart Glance

As you probably know, developers of web pages often use text effects, like enlarged text, different kinds of fonts, colors, etc., to draw visual attention to certain parts of the web page. Unfortunately, those developers do not always add the code needed to make these visual changes accessible to users of screen reading software.

Smart Glance helps give you some of that otherwise inaccessible information. When you activate it, the “new Smart Glance feature analyzes the page and ranks textual content in reverse order based upon the infrequency of its color, text attribute or font usage on the page. Colors, fonts, or attributes used least will rank highest as potential points of interest, referred to as glance highlights.” Quotation from Freedom Scientific’s What’s New in JAWS 2023 Screen Reading Software web page.

More from Freedom Scientific’s What’s New in JAWS 2023 Screen Reading Software web page:

Please also note: “In Adobe Acrobat, we discovered that the JAWS Smart Glance feature was causing longer than usual load times for larger PDF documents. To resolve this issue, we have turned off Smart Glance only in Adobe. Note that if you press Y or SHIFT+Y in Adobe, JAWS still announces “there are no glance highlights on this page.””

Additional JAWS updates

On the What’s New in JAWS 2023 Screen Reading Software page, check out the following topics heading level 3.

On the What’s New in JAWS 2023 Screen Reading Software page, check out “Enhancements in JAWS 2023.2212.23,” a heading, level 2.

What about ZoomText?

As you might know, Freedom Scientific, the maker of JAWS, also produces the powerful screen magnification software called ZoomText. Not surprisingly, the dedicated and talented staff at Freedom Scientific have updated ZoomText as well.

Tethered View in ZoomText and Fusion

Tethered View allows you to keep access to important tools while enlarging another portion of the screen. It “opens a new window inside the magnified area that brings the activity into view. Tethered View currently supports the Windows Start menu search, Excel formula bar, Word Comments pane, and links list on a web page (Fusion only).” Quotation from Freedom Scientific’s What’s New in ZoomText 2023 Magnifier/Reader web page.

Early Adopter Program

The Early Adopter Program empowers you to, essentially, be a beta tester for upcoming software. It “lets you preview new and updated product features that are in development. As we gradually introduce features, you can evaluate them and provide feedback that will help us make improvements before the final release. The Freeze View Update is our first feature available for evaluation using the Early Adopter Program. It’s an update to the existing Freeze View in ZoomText and Fusion, that provides you with additional functionality.” One example is “When Freeze View is activated using the Early Adopter Program, you can create and display up to four Freeze Views simultaneously.” Quotations from Freedom Scientific’s What’s New in ZoomText 2023 Magnifier/Reader web page.

Additional ZoomText updates

On the What’s New in ZoomText 2023 Magnifier/Reader web page, check out “Other Changes,” a heading, level 3.

Want Both JAWS and ZoomText? Use Fusion!

As noted above, JAWS is a powerful screen reader, and ZoomText screen magnification software gives you more choices in how to visually navigate using your computer. But you don’t have to choose only one. If you would benefit from both screen reading and screen magnification, you can get features of both JAWS and ZoomText in Fusion. Check out Fusion updates on the What’s New in Fusion 2023 web page.

Tell Me about some Good Prices

Sponsored licenses

Certain universities have multi-user licenses for JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion. As a result, their current students, staff, and faculty are entitled to free annual home licenses of one of these software choices. To find out if you are eligible, enter your email at the Is my email eligible to download a license? web page.

American Printing House for the Blind

Each year, the U.S. government provides money to each state that can only be spent at the American Printing House for the Blind. These “federal quota” funds can be spent on Freedom Scientific software. To find out more, check out APH’s JAWS – Zoom Text-Fusion Suite (Freedom Scientific Software Suite) web page. Please feel free to contact the Bridges Helpdesk for more information.

NOPBC membership

Freedom Scientific also offers a free annual home license for any one of its software solutions for members of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC). NOPBC membership cost $15 while full-price annual licenses for JAWS, ZoomText, or Fusion cost $95, $85, or $170, respectively. Check out NOPBC’s Become a Member web page for more details, and reach out to the Bridges Helpdesk with any questions.

Contact us

Follow the Bridges Helpdesk Facebook page for more transition tips, and please contact the Free Helpdesk for Maryland Blind/Low Vision Transition Students, Families, and Educators anytime using:

Voice mail: Call (443) 320-4003, leave a voice mail message, and we will return your call

This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.

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Advocacy Resources Bridges Blog Employment Resources Independent Living Resources Information Resources Recreation Resources Series: Blind/Low Vision Consumer Groups, May 2022

Blind/Low Vision Consumer Groups — Students in the NFB and the ACB

With summer nearly upon us, we invite you to join us as we explore the two largest blindness/low vision groups in the United States throughout the month of May. Regardless of whether you plan to participate in a convention this summer, we will cover the ins and outs of these organizations and how they can provide support to transition-age students.

In this fourth installment of our organization exploration, we hear from student leaders in each consumer group.

Maryland Association of Blind Students

Qualik Ford serves as president of the Maryland Association of Blind Students. In this interview, he shares information about what the Maryland Association of Blind Students does and how to contact them.

American Council of Blind Students

Aaron Espinoza serves as president of the American Council of Blind Students. In this interview, he shares information about what the American Council of Blind Students does and how to contact them.

Contact us

Follow the Bridges Helpdesk Facebook page for more transition tips, and please contact the Free Helpdesk for Maryland Blind/Low Vision Transition Students, Families, and Educators anytime using:

This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.