VICTOR READER SOFT VERSION 2
FROM HUMANWARE
Presenter #1
Ivan Lagace
HumanWare Canada
447 Parc-Industriel Street
Longueuil
Quebec
04H 3V6
Country: Canada
Day Phone: 819-471—4818
Fax: 819—471—4828 I/L
Email: christine.fortier@humanware.com
This presentation will give a brief overview of the DAISY talking book format
and demonstrate how the new version 2.0 of Victor Reader Soft provides a much
improved DAISY reading experience for both low vision and learning disabled
readers.
Complete Paper: Although the DAISY digital talking book standard for navigable
digital talking books was conceived and first implemented by libraries for the
blind, its usefulness to the learning disabled community quickly became
evident. The presentation will offer a brief introduction to the DAISY standard
for digital talking books and comment on its advantages to blind, low vision,
and learning disabled readers. This will be followed by a demonstration of
reading a DAISY CD talking book using Victor Reader Soft on a PC.
The demonstration will show how both recorded audio and the equivalent
electronic text of the book content can be listened to and read in parallel. It
will demonstrate the advantages of DAISY navigation which allows the user to
move freely between chapters, sections, and pages of the book. These are
significant benefits to both low vision and learning
disabled people who previously relied on slow sequential navigation of cassette
talking books.
Earlier versions of Victor Reader Soft provided a keyboard only user interface.
This is optimal for blind people who benefit from a simple menu structure and
keyboard shortcuts to read their DAISY books. However, the interest in Victor
Reader Soft by learning disabled people underscored the importance of also
providing a graphical user interface. Learning disabled people are impeded by
the keyboard interface which requires reading menus and memorizing keyboard
sequences. Learning disabled readers are better served by a graphical user
interface that allows simple point and click activation of navigation and
command functions.
The new graphical interface will have a media player look and feel with
clickable buttons for DAISY navigation arrows, Play/Stop, and Fast Forward/Rewind.
There will be slidebars for setting volume and speed.
A status bar will give a graphical representation of book position. For
learning disabled readers, these graphical representation
of book position and navigation are easier to comprehend than audio messages
and keyboard commands. However, the latter are still available for blind and
low vision readers.
The presentation will demonstrate the new interface and highlight other
features of this release including an improved open book dialog, improved
global navigation window, a new export feature for text notes, and support of
the NISO book format. NISO is an extension to the DAISY format and is being
introduced by some libraries. DAISY NISO will also be the format of the new
digital talking books from NLS (National Library Service for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress)
Victor Reader Soft 2.0 will maximize the reading flexibility of advanced DAISY
NISO books that include both text and recorded audio. The user will be able to
toggle quickly between three reading modes: access the recorded audio with
DAISY navigation, access the book text through text—to--speech and DAISY
navigation, or access to the book text through text-to-speech with Windows
style navigation.
The new Victor Reader Soft is also available for MAC OSX computers. All of the
new functionality is now available for either Windows PC or MAC users.
The session will be interactive and offer an opportunity for the audience to
learn about the new Victor Reader Soft features and offer their input for
future upgrades.
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