Thanks to a Minnesota minister and a California computer company, the Bible is now more accessible for those with visual handicaps.The invention is but one example of technological advances -- many of them relying on a computer's ability to turn printed text into electronic Braille or even into a synthetically spoken word -- that are helping the blind with the day-to-day tasks that make up modern life.
Such changes are coming at a rate similar to other tech innovations, in other fields, said Jim Carey, orientation and mobility specialist at the Aurora branch of the state's Office of Rehabilitation Services.
"They are really helping the visually impaired get good, competitive jobs," said Carey.
As for how the talking Bible came to be, the Rev. Dennis Hawkinson of White Bear Lake, Minn. lost his sight over 20 years ago as the result of a retina disorder.
He was looking for a way to make the Good Book easier for the blind to read, because existing audio tapes and computer programs seemed unwieldy.
To read the Word of God in Braille requires sorting through more than a dozen books to find the right passage.
So Hawkinson researched and found out about a company in Danville, Calif. called Ostrich Software, which makes the Road Runner Portable Text Player.
To use that device, text files are downloaded from the Internet to a personal computer.
The next step involves the Road Runner Download Software, which copies the files to the player.
Files are played back in a synthetic voice.
Retailing for $299, the device also can be used to listen to e-mail, Web pages, personal documents, electronic books, or specially scanned pages.
It is sold with a library of over 1,700 books.
Hawkinson bought a player.
Thinking it could be adapted to what he was looking for to read a Bible, he contacted the company.
With Hawkinson's input and over the course of about a year, Ostrich created the Road Runner Talking Bible, a hand-held, text-to-speech player, smaller than a cassette tape player, that is heard through headphones.
The device holds all 66 books of the Bible and uses a speech synthesizer system called DoubleTalk to read the text.
It can read continuously for up to 40 hours, powered by just two AA batteries.
The text is available the American Standard, King James, New American, New American Standard and New International versions of the Bible.
The Book of Mormon also is available.
The Road Runner Talking Bible retails for $199 to $219 and is specifically designed to help you jump quickly to any book, chapter or verse.
To access the text, the user manipulates a telephone-style keypad arranged in four rows of three keys.
Each key can have up to three functions.
One function is performed by pressing and releasing the key, and two other functions by holding the key down until one or two beeps are heard.
Every key provides talking help about itself.
The Talking Bible has been on the market since June 2000. Hawkinson has sold 100 of the devices in that time at a discount to qualifying blind people through the Minnesota-based Lutheran Braille Evangelism Association.
`The blind person's Palm Pilot'
Though he had not heard of the Talking Bible, Northern Illinois University professor Gaylen Kapperman explained a slightly similar device that has been a big help for the blind.
Just about every day, Kapperman -- who teaches and oversees the teaching of those who will be teaching the blind -- uses an item called a Braille Lite.
The Braille Lite is manufactured and sold by Freedom Scientificof Stuart, Fla. It is the latest version of the Braille-N-Speak, a lightweight portable note taker invented in 1896 which talks.
The Braille Light talks too, but also shows Braille.
It is equipped with six keys and a spacebar.
Braille is composed ofcombinations of six dots.
All of the symbols in a written language can beshown in Braille by using the 63 different combinations of the six dots.
The Braille Lite can be used to write documents, print them in Braille or print, do calculations, keep a calendar, keep a phone book and many other things.
"It really is a blind person's Palm Pilot, as it were," said Kapperman.
The cost is about $5,000 for the most expensive version, with a less expensive version going for $3,500.
"Everything is expensive for blind persons," said Kapperman.
Enlarging words and reading aloud
Amy Salmon manages the Catholic Guild's Robert Stone Center for Adaptive Technologies computer training program, 180 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1700, Chicago.
She said that from a technological standpoint, major advances she has seen in recent years fall into two categories.
Affecting the large group of people who are legally blind but have limited sight are products which magnify text coming from various computer programs.
Most of these have limited synthetic speech as well, she said.
There are also devices that can magnify hard copies of text to sizes more readable for those with poor vision.
In another effort, the Library of Congress has put 10 million books on tape.
The library is now working to put books into a downloadable "e- book" format, which can be played back in synthetic speech.
Likewise, about six years ago, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign started up Project Gutenberg.
Through it, thousands of texts have been put in a format that can be read by equipment such as the Road Runner.
Controlling the PC
These projects blend over into what Salmon sees as the other area where enabling technologies have made vast improvements -- namely in computer-screen reading, through both synthetic speech and Braille.
Speech systems read text from various software programs back to a person, and voice output comes from keyboard commands.
Salmon says that the way software is written today, a sight-impaired person can do just about everything a sighted person can do with a PC. However, the Internet is posing a challenge.
NIU's Kapperman agreed.
Ironically, he said, "improvements to the Internet for the seeing have made things more difficult for the blind."
To address the problem, Salmon mentioned that Federal Internet Technologies Accessibility Initiative's Section 508 Standards recently went into effect.
The section requires that federal agencies' electronic and information technology must be made accessible to people with disabilities.
According to Salmon, the government currently maintains 30 million pages of information on the Web. By 2003, businesses providing tech services to the government must have products in accessible formats.
Such efforts will not only help the blind, Salmon said.
Changes should also make it easier for those using wireless connects to the Web through devices such as Palm Pilots or cell phones.
Those efforts are part of a broader computer industry efforts, led by a group called the World Wide Web Consortium, to address accessibility of information available on the Internet.
Playing baseball and hearing colors
However, the aforementioned Road Runner is relatively inexpensive compared to what more sophisticated equipment for the blind can cost.
Salmon said computers that translate computer functions into synthetic speech can run between $1,700 and $2,5000. There are machines that also can provide a way to translate what is on a computer screen into Braille, to be read 40 cells at a time.
Terry McCabe, assistant manager at the consumer product center of Catholic Guild for the Blind, explained that innovations are taking place beyond the computer terminal.
He mentioned talking clocks from $10 to $70, talking calculators, writing guides, even a device that helps the blind play basketball, though the center doesn't carry it, McCabe has heard of a talking color identifier that sells for $1,500.
With all the innovations, there are still areas where a good deal more is needed.
Mobility specialist Carey is looking forward to devices that will aid the mobility of the visually impaired.
There is also a desperate need for those who teach life skills to the blind, said NIU's Kapperman -- and plenty of financial support available for those who choose to go into that field.
Kapperman added that NIU's program for teachers of the blind and blind rehabilitation specialists is the only one in the state that incorporates assisted technologies at an intensive level.
Access to training and equipment allows the blind and those going blind to gain independence, Kapperman said.
For those diagnosed as losing their sight, this means that "after the doctors are done, there is still hope."
* www.acb.org -- The American Council of the Blind home page
* www.aisquared.com -- site of AI Squared, which makes ZoomText, VisAbility, and BigShot, products which enable magnification of text so that people with poor vision may read programs being run on a computer off the monitor.
* www.freedomscientific.com -- Site of the Florida-based maker of Braille Lite.
* www.guildfortheblind.org -- Chicago-based Catholic Guild for the Blind
* www.gwmicro.com -- site of GW Micro, a Fort Wayne, Indiana-based firm which makes the popular Window-Eyes screen reader
* www.hj.com -- site of Henter-Joyce, a company which makes JAWS (Job Access With Speech) and other speech technology which works with operating systems to proved access to software and the Internet
* www.nfb.org -- The National Federation of the Blind site
* www.ostrichsoftware.com -- Web site of company which makes the Road Runner Reader and the Road Runner Talking Bible. Provides links to the Library of Congress and Project Gutenberg, which offer texts that can be downloaded into readers
* www.section508.gov -- the federal government's IT initiative site
* www.w3.org -- the World Wide Web Consortium, an organization promoting accessibility on the Web
* Elgin office of Illinois Department of Human Services, Office of Rehabilitative Services -- (847) 931-2360.
* Gaylen Kapperman, coordinator, programs in vision, Department of Teaching and Learning, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb -- (815) 753-8453
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