Talking Books from the Library of Congress National Library Service have changed format several times since the first recordings back in 1931, from recorded disks to cassette tapes to digital flash cartridges that could be played with a free NLS player. Along the way NLS licensed the makers of several devices, most notably the Victor Reader Stream and the APH BookPort, to enable direct download of titles and Talking Book playback. With the advent of accessible mobile devices, however, many NLS patrons found themselves having to cart around two devices—their mobile phone or tablet to stay in touch, read Audible and Bookshare titles, navigate with GPS, and other essential tasks—and a second device to play their Talking Books. This state of affairs was cumbersome and, for many, reason enough to begin relying on other resources for reading matter.
In September of 2013 NLS released version 1.0 of the BARD Mobile app for iOS, which ran on iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. Using this app, NLS patrons could quickly scan newly added books and magazines, download them to their devices, then listen to, bookmark, and navigate their way through the entire NLS digital collection. As an iPhone and iPad user, I was thrilled. Android users still had to use a separate device to play Talking Books, but finally, with the recent release of the BARD Mobile for Android app, they, too, now have a single-device reading solution.
BARD Mobile for Android is available from Google Play for devices running Android version 4.1 Jelly Bean or later. The app is free, but in order to download and listen to BARD books and magazines you must first be registered with your local braille and talking-book library or call 1-800-NLS-READ to apply for service.
Once registered, you will be provided with a login and password, which you will use the first time you sign into the BARD Mobile app.
Exploring the BARD Mobile for Android App
Both the Android and iOS apps feature navigation bars with Bookshelf, Get Books, and Now Reading, tabs running across the bottom for iOS and the top for Android. The iOS version includes a Settings tab. The Android version places app settings in the More Options menu, where you will also find controls specific to the task at hand, along with context-sensitive help and a link to your device's accessibility settings.
The features and functionality of BARD Mobile for Android and iOS are quite similar. Below, we'll take a tour of the Android app, pressing the "Pause" button on occasion to point out a difference or two between it and the iOS version.
Get Books
The Get Books tab offers four options:
- Browse Wish List
- Recently Added Books
- Recently Added Magazines
- Browse BARD
BARD Mobile for iOS includes two additional options here: Braille Books and Braille Magazines. I was told by an NLS representative that they are waiting for a few necessary BrailleBack feature updates before they can provide a workable braille reading solution.
Wish List
When you find a book you wish to read using either the NLS desktop website or the Browse BARD control we will discuss soon, you are offered the choice to either download the title or add it to your wish list. Access the app's Wish List control to display and download these books and magazines to your phone or tablet. As you will see, this is often my preferred way of adding books to my Android device.
Recently Added Titles
The Recently Added Books and Magazines option summons a chronological list of new titles available in the NLS collection, along with older books that have recently been made available in digital format. Long pressing any title calls up the annotation, and a double tap prompts you to select the folder into which the book will be downloaded. This is an extremely useful feature. The size of Digital Talking Book (DTB) files can be several hundred megabytes. Placing your titles on an SD card allows you to download dozens of books without using critical device memory.
The iOS app adds dates to the title lists, such as "Today," "Thursday," or "June 1." The Android app does not include dates, which can make it difficult to know how far down to scan if you are like me and prefer checking in just once or twice a week to see what's new. Also, neither app uses heading or link elements, so you can't change TalkBack granularity to facilitate quick navigation. More often than not, I find it much easier to visit the BARD website and browse books there. I can use my screen reader's headings quick navigation key to move rapidly through the Recently Added Books and Magazines pages, add books that pique my interest to my Wish List, then download them to my device from there.
Browse BARD
This last option opens a Web view of your regional library's website, which is the primary point of contact for NLS patrons. Here you can set TalkBack granularity to Web Controls, Lists and Sections, which, in my experience, makes browsing titles using the app considerably easier than using the Recent Books and Magazines controls.
Using the Browse BARD option, you can accomplish all but one of the same tasks that you can on the BARD desktop site, including searching for books by title or author, browsing recent additions to the NLS collection, browsing the most popular titles, and accessing a list of titles you have previously downloaded. You can't download books and magazines directly from the Browse Bard tab, however. Instead, add them to your wish list and then download them to your device as described above.
Bookshelf
The BARD Mobile Bookshelf tab offers options to access downloaded audio books and magazines, along with a comprehensive User Guide for the app itself. The HTML text is well formatted with headings and lists; it was easy to locate and review information about topics of interest. You can also access the app documentation on the BARD website.
The Audio Books and Magazine controls each provide a count of the number of titles currently on the device. Double tap a title to begin playback; long press to call up the annotation screen, which also includes a "Play Now" button.
The Bookshelf's downloaded book and magazine screens each include a "More options menu button. Here you can sort titles by name, date, or recent activity. You can create new subfolders, rename them, and move titles between them. This is a handy way to archive books you have finished but may wish to consult from time to time. This feature is not available on the iOS version.
Titles can be side loaded, but they must be placed into the same folder as the rest of your BARD device library. The current app version does not allow the BARD library folder to be changed without resetting the app and losing all of your current content.
Double tap the "Delete" button and you are presented with a checkbox list of titles and folders you can remove from your device. "Settings" and "Help" buttons round out the selections.
Currently Reading
As mentioned above, when you open a book or magazine from the Bookshelf tab, the book begins to play automatically. You are placed into the Now Playing screen, where touch controls emulate the hardware playback controls on the Digital Talking Book Player.
As with the current iOS app, BARD Mobile for Android's primary playback controls are positioned in three rows of three buttons each. Here's a quick summary of their functions, starting at the bottom row and moving up.
- At the bottom center, just above the device's home button, a button toggles between "Speed" and "Tone." Select either of these options and the buttons to the left and right will "Decrease Speed/Tone" or "Increase Speed/Tone," depending on how the toggle is set. There are 10 tone settings, but on the devices I tested, the differences between settings 1 and 10 were not extremely pronounced. The variable speed options range from 50 percent to 300 percent, and the speech was quite understandable, even at higher settings.
- The second row includes "Rewind," Play/Stop," and "Fast Forward." Double tap "Rewind" or "Fast Forward" to advance five seconds in the desired direction; do this twice to move ten seconds. A long press moves in larger increments, with announcements at various points, such as five minutes or one hour. The "Play/Stop" button is located in the row's center. Playback will continue, even if you move to another BARD Mobile tab, return to the device Home screen, open another app, or after the screen dims and/or locks. Here, the iOS app has a definite advantage over the Android version. Using iOS, I can two-finger double tap to stop playback, then repeat the gesture to restart playback. I was unable to do this using the Android version, which made it more awkward listening to a book when, for example, I was walking my dog and needed to stop playback for a minute or two at a busy intersection. Some versions of Android place media controls on the Notification Bar, but they are still not as easy to access as the iOS two-finger double tap. There is no sleep timer.
- The third row of buttons from the bottom, "Previous," "Jump By," and "Next," enable quick navigation in the desired direction. The "Jump By" options differ, depending on how the title is organized, but usually include "Section," "Bookmark," and "Phrase."
The center buttons for each of these rows is larger than the ones to the left and right. The "Speed/Tone" and "Jump By" toggles are blue; the "Play/Stop" button toggles from green to red, depending on which state the player is in. Buttons also have different shapes, square for the decrease and increase speed buttons, for example, and outward pointing arrows for "Rewind" and "Fast Forward." These elements will be useful to many low vision users.
Additional app controls include Navigation and Bookmark, which are located above the nine primary playback controls. The Navigation button summons and displays a list of sections, with titles where available, that you can use to advance immediately to the desired chapter or section. You can also advance to any of the time stamped bookmarks, which are created by pressing the "Bookmark" button, located just above the "Next" button.
The top half of the Now Playing screen also displays time elapsed/total time information, along with the percentage of the title completed. Finally, at the very top of the Now Playing screen, the app displays the current title being read, and the current chapter or article name.
Both swipe gestures and explore by touch work well to navigate the Now Playing screen. My only complaint is that I wish the "Play/Stop" button were much larger, especially since I can't use the two-finger double tap to pause and resume playback.
Final Thoughts
All in all, I found accessing and playing BARD content on my Android devices a pleasurable experience. My biggest complaints—the lack of a sleep timer and of a play/pause gesture—are both current Android accessibility limitations. If I were a devoted braille user, I would also lament the current inability to download and read braille titles.
There is another major app feature lacking on both platforms, and which is not a current accessibility limitation. Both Audible and Kindle synch downloads, bookmarks, and last-played positions between and among various devices logged into the same account. With the release of BARD Mobile for Android, it's now more likely than ever that NLS patrons will wish to play content on more than one phone or tablet. This capability is not included in the latest iOS app beta version, however, so it may be quite a while before listening to Talking Books becomes a truly mobile experience.
More articles from this author:
Help Me See: The Organization Dedicated to Eliminating Cataract Blindness Globally
A Review of the Be My Eyes Remote Sighted Helper App for Apple iOS
Related articles:
A Collection of Accessible Apps for Your Android Device by J.J. Meddaugh
Android's Big Step Forward: A Review of the Screen Enhancement Features of Android 4.2.2 by John Rempel
