Audio books

I am new to this area also, so don’t consider mine expert advice!

One place where you can purchase and download books to an MP3 player is http://www.audible.com. What I have heard is that the iPods have the best sound quality. The iPod Shuffle is *not* particularly good for Audiobooks because it lacks bookmarking capabilities (the ability to pick up the next day right where you stopped, rather than having to fastforward to your place). The iPod Mini — no longer made, but widely sold used on the net for about $200 — is good for audiobooks, as are the regular iPods being sold now ($300 and $400), and the iPod Nano. In general, the higher the cost the more mass storage you have on the iPod. You would not want the photo iPod, and you would not need the video iPod. If cost is a factor and you are only interested in audiobooks, then the iPod Mini is probably the most cost-effective.

One nice thing about Audible.com, compared to other websites, is they keep track of books you have purchased. If you ever lose your digital copy, this means they will allow you to download the book again for free. Also, they have audio samples on the website so you can hear what the reader sounds like before purchasing.

If you have the right computer hardware and the know-how, you can convert any book on CD to digital format. Once on your computer in digital format, you can then download from your computer to your iPod. You can also “burn” digital books you have downloaded (from a site such as Audible) onto CD.

That’s about the extent of my knowledge right now. The Audible website has quite a bit of information. Another good source of information about iPods is http://www.ilounge.com/ — look for their FAQs.

There are also programs that will convert E-books to MP3. Many of these are text-to-speech readers.

http://www.naturalreaders.com/

http://www.audiobookcreator.com/

http://www.premier-programming.com/elib/etext_reader.htm

http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/

http://www.zero2000.com/

There are quite a number of places to get E-books. Some older books that are out of copyright can be downloaded for free. http://www.bookshare.org provides an e-book lending library for people with print disabilities. There is a yearly subscription fee for downloading copyrighted books.

Hope this helps. :)

Another good resource is: http://librivox.org/

You can also volunteer to become a reader as well.

Mari,
I mentioned it in another post. My 10th grade son has made tremendous progress with his reading - decoding, fluency and comprehension, using this method. Here’s what I posted to someone else who asked:

There are a few ways that I’m aware of. One is to buy an audio book at audible.com. This will be in MP3 format and then can be downloaded to an iPod.
If the book is in the public domain, you can download it in digital format to your computer. Then, using a program such as TextAloud MP3 available at www.nextup.com for about $30, you can attach a voice and voice rate to it and convert it to MP3. Then you can download it to an iPod. The additional voices at nextup.com - NeoSpeech Kate and Paul are excellent quality computer generated voices and worth listening to to determine if you should buy those voices as well.

If your child has a demonstrated disability, they can obtain a membership to www.bookshare.org where you have access to books that are copyrighted. (My son has a membership that the high school pays for as part of his IEP) They can be downloaded to the computer and then converted to MP3 using Textaloud and then downloaded to the iPod
An important point to remember is to adjust the voice and reading speed to what your child prefers. This is very subjective. The voice and speed that works for you may not be appropriate for your child.
Consider an assistive technology evaluation as these ideas will be recommended and demonstrated to your child’s IEP team.
Hope this helps.
Karen Janowski
Assistive Technology Consultant
781-983-1737

Please help me understand this MP3 thing.

My son uses audio books and a visit to the college he will be starting at revealed that they are at the RFBD tape level. We know that certain textbooks may only be availbale from RFBD, but in the past we found the tapes cumbersome in terms of finding the spot. Also the monotone of the readers made some text dull especially compared to professionally recorded books. I am aware of bookshare.org, although we do not have a membership yet. We have also successfully used e-reader for the computer from Premiere.

So, an MP3 is like a digital tape player?
Books that my son has been listening to on tape or cd can be downloaded via the computer/internet?

Is the MP3 voice a computer voice? which is OK, but different than having a recording by a professional actor or are some books on the MP3 a real human voice? People listen to music and it is certainly not “Mr. Roboto.”

I have seen offers for e-books. Are those visual text only, but then a screen reader could make them audio and then they could be downloaded to an MP3 player?

Thanks for your help in understanding. My son says his main concern is the quality of the recording. The screen reader is tolerable. Professional recording are preferred. Thanks again.

Angela,
What would probably work best would be to ask these questions to those on the assistive technology team at your son’s school. They are great questions and it’s probably easiest to have someone take you through the process. There are improved computer generated voices (you can listen to demos of the different voices that are available at www.nextup.com) and your son can choose one that he prefers.

Many textbook publishers offer a digital version of their textbooks. (My son has access to his social study textbook online and he listens to it in one of the text-to-speech programs that we have.) It is much easier to find your place with digital versions as opposed to books on tape as you have mentioned.

If there isn’t anyone available at your son’s school, call me and I will try to talk you through the process. This can be very empowering for your son as he moves on to college.
Karen

Sorry the link in the previous message doesn’t work. Just type it in and it will work.
Karen

Just my $.02 worth on this. :)

Ms 14 tried books on tape and didn’t like them because it was hard to regulate the speed, the speech patterns of the speaker were sometimes difficult to follow and she had trouble tracking the words in the book to follow along with the tape. Oh, and it was BORING. lol

With an E-reader she was able to find a “voice” she liked - Mike from AT&T Voices is her favorite - she can change the rate of speed, the e-reader highlights the words on the computer so she can visually track what is being read, she can change the font size and background colors (she has Irlen Syndrome), and it is easy to “bookmark” where she is at.

For school she is using Kurzweil 3000. This allows her to take notes on the computer while having the text read to her. She can also highlight information in the textbook on the computer. Its been a HUGE help in getting her work done more independenty and our local community college has it set up so we know that when she gets there, she will have the support in place.

Sometimes my ds would love to have that option, even though he isn’t disabled. LOL

Sci,
You said, “Sometimes my ds would love to have that option, even though he isn’t disabled. LOL”

And that’s called universal design for learning! What benefits kids with disabilities, can benefit all kids. We are moving toward that as a teaching tool.

(So why doesn’t your son use that option also?)

Mostly because he hasn’t figured out that he can do it. :) That, and the time it would take to get his text books scanned, etc., he’d be finished with the college class. I have offered. :)

He did use a book on tape when he had to read To Kill A Mockingbird in 10th grade. LOL

He is like me, though, when it comes to reading for fun - give me a paper book that I can touch, see and feel. (He has a bunch to read as he loves going to the bookstore.)

Angela,

>So, an MP3 is like a digital tape player?
>Books that my son has been listening to on tape or cd can be >downloaded via the computer/internet?

MP3 is a digital format. CDs (whether music or audio book) are in digital format. If your computer has the necessary software, you can easily convert CDs into MP3 format and store them as a file on your computer. You then can download that file into an MP3 player for playback.

From what I have heard, the iPod uses a better encoding strategy than other MP3 players, so their sound quality is better.

A book on tape is not in digital format, so you would first have to convert it into digital format. There are probably tape-to-CD converters available, but usually you don’t want to do that because there is a loss in sound quality. We have a CD-to-tape converter (because my older car does not have a CD player), but I found the playback quality of the tapes after the conversion was unacceptable for audiobooks. Maybe the loss of sound quality isn’t so bad going the other direction, though.

>Is the MP3 voice a computer voice? which is OK, but different than >having a recording by a professional actor or are some books on the >MP3 a real human voice? People listen to music and it is certainly >not “Mr. Roboto.”

MP3 is a digital format for any type of sound. This includes the spoken voice, as in professionally-read books-on-CD.

>I have seen offers for e-books. Are those visual text only, but then a >screen reader could make them audio and then they could be >downloaded to an MP3 player?

My guess is that the voice quality for this would be poor, but I haven’t tried it so can’t say for sure.

>My son says his main concern is the quality of the recording. The screen >reader is tolerable. Professional recording are preferred.

He would probably be most satisfied going the iPod route and downloading professionally-read books from a site such as Audible.com and/or purchasing books-on-CD and converting them into MP3 format. Audible eliminates the need for physical CDs. Also, Audible offers different download formats. Better sound quality means a bigger file. Some people prefer more books and songs at lower quality to carry around on their iPod, while others prefer fewer books at higher quality.

One good thing about Audible is that they keep track of which books you have purchased. If you ever lose a book (computer crash, or whatever), you can download it from their website again because they know you paid for it before

Nancy