[access-uk] Re: I-Pods and I-Tunes
- From: "Brian Hartgen" <brian@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 10:51:07 +0100
Hi
In addition to what other people on this list have already said, please see a
slightly amended message below which I wrote to the BCAB mailing list recently.
The iPod Shuffle is by far the easiest player to navigate around and use from a
hardware point of view. The controls and navigation are as simple as it gets!
I have to say that now the iTunes transfer and music management system software
is almost totally accessible with JAWS, this is really a nice player to have.
It's extremely small, and could be used for taking around with you all kinds of
audio including music, books or scanned material. Just imagine taking several
high quality audio books with you on a device which is not much bigger than a
memory stick!
Access to the iTunes music store is now available with jaws, but iPods are not
compatible with Napster to go which is unfortunate. iPods will play books from
Audible.
If you do not have JAWS, iTunes can be used in my experience with a very
limited degree of success with Window-Eyes set files which are freely
downloadable.
http://www.holmesgrown.com/window-eyes/itunes.zip
Alternatively, both the Window-Eyes mouse pointer feature or JAWS cursor can be
used to navigate the iTunes screens, although depending upon what you want to
do this will require some patience, but it's doable. Obviously the JAWS
scripts make everything more intuitive and easy. I believe that the music store
and/or other aspects of iTunes could be made more accessible with window-eyes,
and I am thinking about making that another project.
An audio demo of iTunes and the scripts can be found at
http://www.tandt-consultancy.com/sounds/iTunes.mp3
The demo does go through using Podcasts, including updating them, however it
does not demonstrate the mmusic store. I must do something about that.
To be objective, Another avenue you may want to pursue is purchasing Annapod
from www.redchairsoftware.com Which allows you to treat your iPod a little like
windows explorer, in the sense that you can copy files to and from your iPod
using explorer as an interface for doing so. The JAWS scripts for iTunes do
have this feature as well, but Annapod is less expensive. As Steve Nutt has
already pointed out, Annapod can be operated irrespective of the screen-reader
being used.
The disadvantage with Annapod is that obviously you do not have full access to
everything iTunes can do, and there are some difficulties with the position in
Audible books not being retained. Updating and interacting with Podcasts is
not possible currently with Annapod but I understand it is being worked on.
There is another program called All-Tunes, developed by a group of students
from a University in the United States I think. This seems like just a project
to see if iTunes could be made accessible to screen-reader users, and I have
not personally had a lot of success using it. However, you can read about it at
http://wwwx.cs.unc.edu/~gb/cgi-bin/sliki/AllTunes
one disadvantage of an iPod Shuffle would be the storage capacity. iPod Shuffle
512 MB is typically 60 pounds, with 1 GB versions being 90 pounds. Despite 1 GB
being the maximum storage capacity however, this will hold about 9 or 10 books
in high quality audio, more if the sampling rate was lower.
JAWS scripts for iTunes are 30 pounds from T&T Consultancy.
http://www.tandt-consultancy.com/itunesscripts.html
Annapod is 12 pounds from Redchair Software, the URL again is
http://www.redchairsoftware.com
Other resources worth reading could be "The iPod Experience" book, written by
Anna Dresner and published by National Braille Press in the US:
www.nbp.org
In addition, Access World from the American Foundation of the Blind in their
March issue published an article entitled "Do the iPods have it!", which you
can read at
http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw060203
Brian Hartgen
E-MAIL: brian@xxxxxxxxxxx
MSN: brian@xxxxxxxxxxx
SKYPE: brianhartgen
----- Original Message -----
From: G. McFarlane
To: Jaws UK
Cc: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2005 5:08 PM
Subject: [access-uk] I-Pods and I-Tunes
Sorry to double post.
Hi
Sorry to ask but I was away when much of this topic was covered.
Could someone please outline the current possibilities of getting Audible
files and music mp3s onto an I-pod shuffle 512mb? Do I need to use I-Tunes,
if so which version is best for the visually impaired and where can I get
it? Will any other programs do the same?
I did hear that scripts are being developed - are they available, where and
at what cost?
Thanks. Any other useful information would be gratefully received.
Gordon McFarlane
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