
How I built an audio book reader for my nearly blind grandfather - wkjagt
https://gist.github.com/wkjagt/814b3f62ea03c7b1a765
======
lesterbuck
My father is age 92, and in 2001 he lost his central vision to macular
degeneration. He wrote long documents on his PC before, but afterward he never
had much dedication to figuring out how to use a computer with assistive
software for the blind (or more lately, smart phones in assistive mode). Thus
we entered a years long search for usable CD and MP3 players. Most devices
have tiny uniform buttons and depend on LCD indicators. The best we could find
for a long time was a Sony S2 sport CD player that had a hand strap that kept
the thumb positioned to work buttons without needing to look at the device.

But years ago he got the free (from the US government) digital talking book
player[1][2]. This device is an excellent engineering and user interface
solution for delivering audio material to blind users. The buttons are all
large and report their functions by audio. There are all sorts of built in
modes, including an extensive set of self-tests and diagnostics. Around the
US, there is a service infrastructure so if there is any problem with the
devices, the user just drops them off at a local library and takes a
replacement.

These devices can play prerecorded DRMed audio books or MP3s delivered on USB
cartridges or thumb drives. The Library of Congress maintains a large
collection of downloadable books called BARD[3].

[1][http://www.loc.gov/nls/digitalbooktraining/LOC_01/LOC_01.htm...](http://www.loc.gov/nls/digitalbooktraining/LOC_01/LOC_01.html)

[2][http://www.loc.gov/nls/transition/Digital%20Talking%20Book%2...](http://www.loc.gov/nls/transition/Digital%20Talking%20Book%20Library%20Manual%20-%2007oct08.pdf)

[3][http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/talking_books/bard/](http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/talking_books/bard/)

~~~
smeggy
My grandmother was diagnosed with macular degeneration in the mid 90's. As
time went on it became impossible for her to read books, which had previously
been one of her favorite hobbies. Fortunately the National Library Service for
the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) was there to fill that gap. So for
the past 15 years or so she's had a selection of books mailed to her on a
regular basis. It's a fantastic program.

I was excited to see the new digital book player when it came out. Now that
she has essentially lost her vision completely and also suffers from hearing
loss she's found the new player to be easier to use and have better audio
clarity. The fact that you can also download the books through the BARD
service was great too since I could sit with her and read her descriptions of
the books rather than just depending on the random selection that the NLS
sends you.

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smkelly
Hello. I just want to say that you should reconsider iOS-based devices. I am
very low vision and can use iOS perfectly well. It has both built in zooming
and text-to-speech (VoiceOver). Many apps, including Audible.com, are very
accessible and work well with VoiceOver. If you have an iOS device on hand,
check out the Settings->General->Accessibility offering or look at this:
[https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ios/](https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ios/).
You should also take a look at applevis.com.

You should also check with his local government to see what services are
available for the blind and visually impaired. Even with no vision, one can
live a happy life and still be an active member of society. All it takes is
some help learning how to navigate the world.

~~~
jareds
I am totally blind and am a Voiceover user. From my experiences with talking
to sited iOS users while Voiceover is a great feature and makes an iPhone
completely accessible it is still not as intuitive as using an iPhone with
site. I was motivated to learn Voiceover because I had been using computers
for my entire life. Even with being motivated it took me several weeks to get
proficient. If someone has limited to no computer experience and doesn't feel
like they need to learn Voiceover then the learning curve is going to most
likely be to hard for them to become proficient.

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artpi
Whooooa, I have identical situation with my grandparents!

And I solved it by buying them CD - Boombox and modifying the buttons. That
way they can switch CD's themselves and they can also buy them. But your
project is awesome with the remote uploading.

Burning all those CD's is soooo timeconsuming, but it's worth it - my grandpa
has a lot of fun with those books!

~~~
lucb1e
Similar situation here too, but my grandmother sees enough and is able to use
a laptop when I prepare a playlist. Inspiring project though, maybe I should
take things up a notch (instead of resorting to a hard-to-use laptop) and make
something similar.

One issue is that almost all Dutch audio books are abbreviated versions and
even of those there are very few available. My grandfather is picky and my
grandmother read nearly everything available at the library. The Internet has
a bit more than the local library, but still not a lot. I myself just listen
to audio books in English, but that's not an option for them.

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jnardiello
Simply a great project with an astonishing outcome. The thing you did great is
"UX" \- or, to be more precise, lack of ux. You made a device which is
perfectly accessible by your grandfather, asking him to deal with "modern"
devices like smartphones would have probably resulted in an epic fail. Great
work.

~~~
yeukhon
I think the main reason for the success is that it's simple to use. All the
hard technical work getting books and getting things fixed and updated are
done by the grandsons. This is good because now the grandsons really have a
reason to visit (OP doesn't even need to come up with a reason and I respect
that, but in some other people's cases they simply need A REASON to do so).

It is a win-win situation.

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justboxing
Amazing story, great Product! You grandfather is giving you realtime feedback
(ex: his request for a music player).

Most projects on Kickstarter and Indiegogo don't even have a fully functioning
product, whereas, you already have your product and your 1st customer, so why
don't you take this product to the next level, and sell it to the wider
audience of blind people?

You will have a tremendous impact on society doing good, and make a decent
side-income at the same time.

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jankins
I see it's already been mentioned here, but the best commercial version of
this is called the Victor Reader Stream, made by Humanware. It has few buttons
and simple enough navigation for non-technical people to use. Also relevant is
NLS[0] and Bookshare[1]

[0] [http://www.loc.gov/nls/](http://www.loc.gov/nls/) [1]
[https://www.bookshare.org/](https://www.bookshare.org/)

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j_s
In the US, the Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped provides a great deal of information explaining the
services they provide for free as well as various commercial offerings
available on their website:
[http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/factsheets/readingdisabilit...](http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/factsheets/readingdisabilities.html)

------
jawns
I'm curious why a simple CD player boombox wouldn't have been sufficient in
this situation.

We have one with just four buttons (play/pause, stop, forward/next-track,
rewind/prev-track) plus a volume knob. You can tell which button is which
pretty easily based on their position.

It would be fairly easy to switch CDs and control the boombox without the use
of sight.

I guess you could argue that by digitizing the CDs, it saves the person from
having to change them out themselves ... but it also limits selection. (For
instance, my local library has a wide assortment of CDs, but it would be a
hassle if I had to rip each of them before I could listen to them.)

\---

By the way, anybody who's interested in building stuff that's accessible to
the blind, you might be interested in the work of T.V. Raman
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._V._Raman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._V._Raman)),
a Google engineer who himself is blind.

Check out this NYTimes article from a few years ago that tells a bit about his
amazing story:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/business/04blind.html?_r=0](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/business/04blind.html?_r=0)

~~~
wkjagt
The main reason for not using CDs was that it would have been very likely for
him to lose the position where he stopped listening.

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micampe
It's a wonderful project. I'm sure you building it makes him a lot happier
than if you had found something ready to buy.

~~~
ksikka
Agreed. His happiness must be going through the roof. Bravo.

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mwcampbell
Using RFID-tagged physical objects to represent the audiobooks is an
interesting twist. Why did you decide to do that rather than add "next book"
and "previous book" buttons, and use text-to-speech (or even pre-recorded
audio files) to tell him which book is currently selected? After all, your
approach increases the amount of maintenance your brother has to do, and makes
the whole assembly a lot bigger.

EDIT: I'm also curious about which products you looked at and why you rejected
them. For example, did you look at any dedicated talking book players, such as
the Victor Reader Stream or the BookSense?

~~~
wkjagt
That's a valid question. I wanted him to have physical, tangible books. A
reader like the Victor Reader is, for someone who doesn't use technology, a
mysterious box where the books are hidden behind buttons. I was afraid that
this type of solution would discourage him. I may be wrong, but the impression
I got from the existing products was they had a learning curve that my
grandfather, at his age, wasn't willing to take. With his current reader, his
books are actually book sized. He can have a pile of books he finished
reading. There's something more "real" about it.

It doesn't actually require a lot more maintenance, except putting the titles
on the "books". Other than that, we keep reusing the same cards.

------
peter303
I sat near a blind girl testing on the bus. She way playing that touch-
keyboard like a violin and knew where every letter was touch. The phone was on
low-volume audio and she knew what she typed.

~~~
girvo
One of the things I love about modern technology is how some of it can
increase the life quality someone who has handicap. I really wish I knew how
to hack hardware, I'd love to help myself. At least I'm the resident
accessibility nazi at work!

------
utopkara
OSX (and iOS) has great text to speech functionality with some quality voices.
It is probably not of everybody, but for people who can use a laptop (or iPad)
there is a lot of accessibility potential. I use the Ava speaker for reading
long articles in the background while I do other things, and the voice is
almost as good as a radio host.

[https://www.apple.com/accessibility/osx/](https://www.apple.com/accessibility/osx/)

~~~
atanasb
I do the same thing! Pity it doesn't work exceptionally well with PDF files.
It reads the headers/footers of each page sometimes making it very confusing.
I hope it gets fixed at some point.

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comrh
Awesome! The fact that he is requesting music is very interesting because you
have made a device much more accessible than an iPod.

Listening to the music from their youth is shown anecdotally to have a HUGE
impact on people with dementia and Alzheimer’s[1]. But often iPods are too
much for these people to manage, maybe a simpler device (such as yours) could
be used in this space?

[1][http://musicandmemory.org/](http://musicandmemory.org/)

------
jason_slack
Kudos to you for spending your time striving to help others in need. This
project is amazing and also inspiring!

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daviis01
Great story and project, however one typo.

> I spoke to my grandmother today because it's here birthday,

her _

~~~
wkjagt
Thanks, fixed it :-)

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dainasoj
Hi all, there is also an open source solution available with Daisy-standards
support. Check it out here
[http://www.kolibre.org/en/demo](http://www.kolibre.org/en/demo)

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peter303
A low-end ereader is $50 these days. They all have audio options.

~~~
gambiting
Kindle is rather high end and doesn't have any audio options - or am I missing
something here? The last kindle that did was the Kindle Keyboard(Kindle 3) but
even then it couldn't read all books.

~~~
jareds
I know the Kindle Fire has accessibility support and I hear it's actually
quite good. I haven't personally used it though since the Kindle app on an
iPhone is quite accessible.

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milliams
A lovely story about making something truly useful.

    
    
      ...running Debian Wheezy
    

That's a strange choice given the existence of Raspbian.

~~~
wkjagt
I used Raspbian actually, which is a port of Wheezy.

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DanBC
Fascinating!

Have you seen the Kibano DigiPlayer devices?

[http://www.kibano.com/digiplayer.html](http://www.kibano.com/digiplayer.html)

~~~
wkjagt
Wow, I hadn't seen them. I like that it uses a card per book. It makes each
book a separate "entity". Plus they look really nice and easy to use. The FM
transmitter is a great idea.

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jsgrahamus
Wonderful idea. I had a similar thought for a particular set of books using a
browser (in large mode) for controlling.

Congratulations!!!

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bdevani
This is a great project. Love that you did this for your grandfather.

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namDa
This story made me tear up. Awesome project for your grandfather!

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SoCool
Great job and great product.

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donnut
Wonderful project!

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filmgirlcw
Great project!

