As we have described in many past issues of AccessWorld, just because you've lost your sight, it definitely does not mean you have lost your desire and ability to read books, magazines, and newspapers. In the February 2016 issue, I described how to use the National Federation of the Blind's NFB Newsline service to listen to local and national newspapers, magazines, and other materials on the phone; read them on your accessible computer; or download them to your mobile device. In the July issue I reported some exciting new accessibility features on the Amazon Kindle, which enables you to listen to nearly any book in Amazon's massive catalog. Smartphone and tablet users will also be familiar with the Amazon Kindle apps for iOS and Android, which are also extremely accessible.

The very first accessible books and magazines were produced by the Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). These recordings are more familiarly known as Talking Books. Perhaps you are already familiar with this excellent service because you regularly receive NLS book cartridges, which you play using the free on-loan NLS player.

Recently, NLS made its extensive catalog even more convenient and accessible. "Our regional librarians report that many more of their patrons would use downloadable BARD books if there weren't so many steps involved in finding a book online, downloading the files, and then adding them to a Talking Book player," says NLS Consumer Relations Officer Judith Dixon. The result is a free new Windows PC app called BARD Express. For many newly blind individuals who have not yet leveled up to expert mode on their accessible computers, the app will significantly improve the Talking Book experience, solving problems you may not have even realized existed. Longtime users of the BARD website and the various smartphone apps may wish to skip ahead to the section of this article titled "Introducing BARD Express," where we will take a guided tour of this Windows app and its myriad functionality.

A Far Smoother Talking Book Experience

Currently, there are several ways to obtain Talking Book titles. You can contact your NLS regional library and request a book, or enjoy one of the occasional selections that match your reading history that your librarian may periodically send your way. You can also subscribe to a supported magazine, such as People or Sports Illustrated, and each new issue will be sent out on an NLS cartridge for you to listen to and then return. Additionally, you can download NLS titles directly, either by visiting the BARD website, or by using your mobile app to download the DAISY audio files directly to your device.

All of these methods have their drawbacks. If you use an NLS player and rely on your regional library, the time between requesting a book and receiving the NLS cartridge can run several days, at best. Cartridges arrive labeled in braille, but as a newly blind individual, perhaps you do not read braille yet. Each book or magazine arrives on its own cartridge, so if you wish to read several books at once you have to keep track of each cartridge so you won't return a book in the wrong shipping container. The best way to do this is to store titles you are not currently reading in their cases. This can make travel difficult. Bringing a half-dozen books with you to read on your beach vacation can fill a good portion of your carryon. Not to mention your NLS player, which can be a bit unwieldy at times.

The BARD website offers patrons significantly more control over their reading. Once an account has been created through your regional library, you can browse books by title, author, subject, popularity, or date added. When you find a book or magazine you'd like to read, you can download it directly or add it to your wish list so you can grab it the next time you log on.

As an NLS patron you certainly have a lot more freedom when it comes to books and magazines you have downloaded. For one thing, cartridges can hold multiple books, which can be deleted when you're finished so you'll have room for even more. However, before you can listen to a downloaded title, you must first transfer it to a blank NLS cartridge, an action that takes some basic browser and file management skills. BARD downloadable titles arrive in archived .zip files. To read a title, you must first locate it in your Downloads folder, unzip the file, then copy the file to the blank cartridge. New accessible computer users may find this task daunting enough to feel it's not worth the effort.

Android, iOS, and Fire tablet users have an easier time of things. They can download titles directly to their devices. Other third-party DAISY book players also offer direct title search and book downloads. The most popular are the Victor Reader Stream and the Book Port Plus, but you can find a complete list on the BARD resource page website. Imagine, a palm-size device that can hold dozens of books and that will save your place in each as you switch among them. Plus, the titles you borrow never need to be dropped in the mailbox for return.

The BARD website also has its limitations. For example, you can run searches for Westerns, and then for Science Fiction on the site, but you aren't able to scan recent titles for all subjects except Westerns and Science Fiction. If you're finally ready to read the Harry Potter series, it's difficult to find the books in their proper order.

Introducing BARD Express

BARD Express runs on any Windows 7, 8.1, or 10 computer. You will need a BARD account and password to use the app, and after logging in you will hear an announcement as the app downloads a list of recent library additions.

The app makes excellent use of the Tab key, but also offers many shortcut keys, such as Ctrl + J to "Browse by subjects," and Ctrl + B to access your bookshelf.

Pressing Ctrl + R summons a list of recently added titles. Use your cursor keys to quickly scan the list, which by default displays both the author and title for 50 books per page. Pressing Alt + N summons the next 50 titles, Alt + P returns you to the previous 50.

When you find a title that interests you, press the Tab key to add the book to your Wish List, download the book onto your computer, or access the book details, such as the book category and the book's annotation. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts Alt + W, Alt + D, and Alt + B to accomplish the same tasks respectively.

Now that you have a book downloaded, it's time to add it to a blank cartridge. Some regional libraries will supply blank book cartridges. Others will have to purchase them from a third party vendor, such as APH or Perkins Solutions. These cartridges are identical to the ones you have been receiving from your regional library, except they do not have braille labels, and they use a USB cable to connect to your PC.

Tabbing to your Library, or using CTRL + B, you can locate your book and have the app automatically place all the proper files onto your blank cartridge. The average book requires 140 megabytes of storage space, and the most popular size of cartridge holds a full four gigabytes, which means you can likely store 24 books or more—nearly 400 hours of audio—on a single cartridge. How's that for convenience?

To access multiple books and magazines you've added to a cartridge, press and hold your player's Play/Pause button with the machine turned on. You will hear a tone, and the player will announce "Bookshelf" and the number of books on the cartridge. Press the right and left Arrow keys to move through the bookshelf. Press Enter on the book you wish to read.

Searches and Filters

The place where BARD Express truly outshines the web interface is when you wish to perform a search or filter the results of a search. We've already mentioned the Harry Potter series, and indeed, it turns up as one of about 4,100 designated series. Type in an "H" and you reduce this to a mere 1,604. Type in "Harry" and it becomes a manageable 8 entries, including Harry and Emily Adventure, Harry Bosche series, Horrible Harry, and the Harry Potter books, which you can view and download in the order they were released.

Search filtering is also enhanced using the BARD Express app. On the website, or using the search BARD website option on the mobile apps, you can filter your results to a single subject category. You can search for "Romance," for example, or books categorized as "Family." Using the Express app, you can check and uncheck multiple categories at once. So, say you want to browse all the new books but don't want to view titles tagged as "For Very Young Readers." Simply uncheck that category and those titles will not show up in any search results or recent addition lists until you access the subject filter menu again and recheck it.

Help and Options

BARD Express offers context-sensitive help via the F1 key. You can also access various help topics, including a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, by pressing the Alt + H Help hotkey.

Press the ALT + V View menu hotkey to set program defaults, such as the number of books shown on each page, which can be left at the default 50, or increased to 100, 500, or 1,000.

By default, search results display the title and author only. Feel free to use the app's Alt + V "Column Configuration" setting to add several other fields, such as Narrator, Book Length, and even the Book Annotation to the display list. I have added annotations to my results display so I don't have to press a second key to hear what the book is about. Since this information is at the end of the spoken line, I can always press the Down Arrow key to interrupt speech if I know from the title alone it doesn't interest me.

Patrons with low vision can also use the View menu to increase the program's font size up to four times. Note: There is currently no keyboard shortcut to do this.

Final Chapter

Along with a hotkey that would quickly change the font size, there are a few other features I would love to see implemented in BARD Express. First, I think many people would benefit from the ability to listen to Talking Books on their computers. I think even more people would appreciate the ability to start a book on the computer, then resume where they left off on a mobile app, perhaps even using an Amazon Echo.

I do enjoy the ability to quickly scan newly added titles. I do this frequently. However, if I miss a few days I can't always remember which day it was when I last searched, so I wind up scanning down a lot further than necessary. How much easier frequent scanning would be if BARD Express remembered the last day I performed a scan of recently added titles and offered a "From your last visit to today" option.

That said, I already find BARD Express a far more elegant way to search for books than my iPhone. I can quickly find the books I want and add them to my Wish list, then access this list from my iPhone and download them from there.

Let me conclude this article with a personal note of encouragement to the newly blind reader. I am a lifetime avid reader, but throughout the 70s, 80s, and on into the 90s I found my reading list greatly limited by the lack of availability of works covering arcane topics, or access to best sellers when they were still popular, which meant I couldn't join in on the discussion. Today, thanks to a growing list of accessible resources, I can read nearly any book I want, often on the very day it's published.

Want to increase your reading options even further? Check out AFB's web primer: Using Technology for Reading: Solutions for People with Visual Impairments and Blindness.

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Author
Bill Holton
Article Topic
Product Evaluations and Guides