Re: Accessible MP3 players

RAWest <rawest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> · Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:42:38 -0400

www.magnifiers.org
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Rockbox Open Source Replacement For MP3 Firmware Give Visually Impaired
Access to Ipods by Speech Support
By Peter Verhoeven
Rockbox Open Source Replacement For MP3 Firmware Give Visually Impaired
Access to Ipods
Rockbox is open source firmware for a range of MP3 players. Started with MP3
players from Archos, now there are beta versions for iRiver and most Ipods.
While most MP3 players are difficult to access by visually impaired, Rockbox
Firmware alternative, made by users for users, make MP3 players fully
accessible

for the visually impaired, because of the build-in speech support.

With Rockbox installed, all menus, directories and files are voiced.
Last week I bought an Ipod Nano. The salesman told me there was just a new
one with increased battery life. I told him to give me the old Ipod Nano
first

generation, because I could not install Rockbox at this moment on that 2nd
generation Nano.
I bought an Ipod Nano. Not because I like the Apple firmware, or because the
Ipod Nano is so accessible for me as visually impaired. no, because I would

an accessible device. A MP3 player on which I could install Rockbox. With
most MP3 players I only can play folder by folder, file by file. As visually

impaired I can not change any setting, without the help of a sighted person.
The only thing a visually ipaired can do is turning on the MP3 player,
skipping

between audio files by pressing next and previous buttons and press play,
pause and stop.
If you are sighted and are reading this, specially if you are working for
Apple, close your eyes and try to find that special song on your Ipod MP3
player?

Did you find it? Is Apple's firmware realy so good, or do you agree with me
that it is inaccessbile for millions in this world? Not only the Ipod
itself,

is difficult to access, also the Itunes software - needed to put

files on the Ipod - has serious accessibility problems.
Another point is the lack of functionality in Apple's Ipod firmware. It
includes a resume feature. But everytime I plug the Ipod into the USB port
of my

computer to charge battery, there is no resume anymore.
I use my MP3 player for listening to music and audio books in Mp3 format.
For listening audio books a resume feature, that also works after charging
the

battery, is essential. Rockbox does not only give me a good working resume
feature, it also stores bookmarks after stopping listening.
Installation of Rockbox is very easy. There are excelent manuals how to
install rockbox on the different MP3 players supported. It is important to
first

check if Rockbox runs on your MP3 player, before starting the installation.
If your MP3 player can run the Rockbox firmware carefully follow the
installation
instructions step by step. If you are visually impaired don't forget to add
a voice file to your MP3 player, before rebooting your MP3 player.
I did the installation of Rockbox on my Ipod Nano, after reading the manual
and FAQ, in 10 minutes. After the installation my first thought was, that
something

was going wrong. I didn't hear the promised audio voicing. That was because
after turning on the Ipod with the Rcokbox firmware, you get the File Browse

screen. To get speech in that screen you first have to enable Voicing files
and categories. You can do this by first pressing the Menu button. If the

installation was successful and you didn't forget to put a voice file in the
langs sub-directory of your .rockbox directory, your MP3 player starts
voicing

to you.
In the main menu select General Settings and in the General Settings menu
select Voice. After enabling all voice options, everything will be voiced to

you. After installing Rockbox and enabling all voice options I realy was
impressed by Rockbox. Now I have random access to all my audio files. Via de
excelent

bookmarking features I can get back to audio files at the point I stopped
listening them. Now I can switch fast between audio books and music. Time
and

date are voiced to me now. I can change Playback settings I couldn't do
before. I can check the battery level, I couldn't do before. I can now
start playing

just that song by browsing through the folders and files, while

Rockbox is spelling them to me.
The open source Rockbox MP3 Player firmware community did what companies
with high profits don't do. The Rockbox community made MP3 players
accessible

for visually impaired. The Rockbox project shows, that it is possible to
make mainstream devices accessible to everybody. The Rockbox community
shows,

that there is no reason for companies like Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Sony,
iRiver, Archos, creative etc. to make products, that are hard to access by
visually

impaired.
I hope the above mentioned companies will donate to the Rockbox project and
give them information about porting Rockbox to new MP3 palyer models,
instead

of protecting their inaccessibility!
Visit Rockbox at
http://www.rockbox.org

http://magnifiers.org/news.php?action=fullnews&id=204

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Linda Yacks" <lyacks@xxxxxxxxx>

To: "JFW Mailing List" <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 4:44 PM

Subject: Accessible MP3 players
Hi Listers,
I have just joined and have a very important question. Important to me
that

is (grin). I just downloaded audible.com and would like to use an

accessible MP3 player. Have any ideas? Thank you. I hope this isn't off

topic since I use Jaws to download and would use it to upload books.
Linda

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