I hope everyone's having a good day or night. It's after 2:00 AM here, but I have no sleep schedule because #sleepDisorders. I'm sitting at my desk munching on apple slices and fruit dip, listening to music, and studying and playing #incremental #games on my computer. I'm working on lesson 9 of the Literary #Braille #Proofreading course from #NLS and #NFB and studying object oriented #programming with #JavaScript on #freeCodeCamp. What's everyone else up to?
#BrailleProofreading #technology #tech #coding #learnToCode #learningToCode #objectOrientedProgramming #incrementalGames #idleGames #gaming
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I know its especially old school nowadays, but I'm so excited about the ability to play books using #NLS #BARD Express on Windows. I have my iPhone, and I can't really imagine playing these on my computer, but, believe it or not, many still don't use smart phones, so this is a long-time needed feature. #accessibility #blind
BARD Express Release
NLS is pleased to announce the release of BARD Express, version 3.0.0.7. This release includes the long-awaited BARD Express Player, which allows patrons to choose an audio book or magazine from their BARD Express bookshelf and listen to it directly on their PC.
Much like BARD Mobile, the BARD Express Player allows users to adjust the narration speed; jump to navigation points such as part, chapter, and article; create bookmarks; and much more. Users can also create global settings for narration speed, auto-play, auto-rewind, and more.
Patrons using JAWS and NVDA can either use the tab key to move to each of the player's functions or tap a single letter assigned to that function. For example, they can type F for fast forward, R for rewind, and B for bookmarks. A complete list of commands can be found under the BARD Express Help menu.
Scripts are built into the 2024 version of JAWS to optimize the BARD Express Player. Patrons using JAWS 2022 or 2023 can download the same scripts from the BARD Express page on the NLS website and import them into their screen readers.
We recommend reading Section 7 of the BARD Express user guide, which is dedicated to the BARD Express Player to familiarize yourself with the new player. The user guide can be found on the BARD Express page on the NLS website:
https://www.loc.gov/nls/how-to-enroll/sign-up-for-bard-and-bard-mobile/welcome-to-bard-express/
For more information, please contact your network library.
The BARD Support Team. #BARD #BARDExpress #NLS #Windows #blind
Continued thread
NLS BARD Express. You can now listen to NLS Audio Books and Magazine's right on your Windows computer using the BARD Express software. So now you can do everything right from BARD Express; search and find the books you want, add them to your wish list or download them, and now play and listen to them! The Tek Talk podcast had two gentlemen from NLS to talk about and demostrate the new BARD Express software. You can check it out and give it a listen here... https://accessibleworld.org/podcast/tek-talk-welcomes-zhi-huang-and-don-olson-of-nls-bard-to-discuss-playing-audio-books-with-bard-express-for-windows-03-04-2024/ #TekTalk #NLS #BARD #BardExpress #Windows #AudioBooks #Blind
accessibleworld.orgTek Talk welcomes Zhi Huang and Don Olson of NLS BARD to discuss Playing audio books with BARD Express for Windows. 03/04/2024 – Accessible World
Shin sibh, a charaidean! Thigibh còmhla rium gu Drochaid Dheòrsa IV is Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba!
#NLS #eReader users, has this happened to you? You recently downloaded a book, and have read a significant portion of it. Suddenly, your eReader starts randomly shutting down, even with plenty of power. And/or, it will suddenly freeze up, and then shut down. What to do? *DELETE* *THAT* *BOOK!* This happened to me, and I got the idea to delete the book, remembering that it did seem like there was some funkiness with the download. I am sitting here typing this after deleting a book that, apparently, was somehow causing problems with the device. I was afraid I was going to have to send this thing back to the library, but nope, it's working fine now. #Braille #BrailleDisplay #AssistiveTech
Browsing the old Irish 1st series 6-inch maps around Lough Foyle came across "Corn Kiln" in the middle of Greencastle (Donegal). Looked interesting: turns out they were universal in Ireland and much of Scotland. Not sure how many are left but County Meath document 5 examples: http://www.meathheritage.com/index.php/archives/cat/kiln-corn-drying.
MeathHeritage.comKiln - corn-drying Archives - MeathHeritage.comA structure used for drying corn before it is ground. These are also known as cereal-drying kilns. These date from the medieval period (5th-16th centuries AD) onwards.
Exciting to see that #NationalLibrariesScotland have added 1st edition 6 inch maps of #Ireland to their digital map collection
https://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-ireland/index.html
And a view of Meelick Martello Tower (mentioned in earlier toot: https://en.osm.town/@SK53/111120685353881325)
maps.nls.ukOrdnance Survey Maps Six-inch Ireland, 1829-1842 - National Library of Scotland
Just because this is an issue I have been running into, due to #google deciding to name their large language model the same as an existing and popular service for #blind people, #braille users, etc, the #bard tag is now almost all content related to that, as such the #nls and #NLSBard tags are much better choices to share and find content related to that service.
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@lori I'm mostly just paraphrasing what the I recall being described as results from user group studies at SRI were on pointing devices.
The mouse wasn't the only thing they tried. Light pens predated the mouse (e.g. in Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=495nCzxM9PI )
My understanding is that Bill English/ARC/The Augment group at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) under Doug(las) Engelbart experimented with various pointing devices, before settling on a 3 button mouse.
Some iterations had fewer (perhaps even no? I don't recall) buttons, some had as many as five buttons I seem to recall?
They even purportedly experimented with a pointing that was driven by knee movements (presumably to allow the hands to be free for other things, though perhaps this may have also been useful for accessibility much in the way there are some alternative pointing devices based upon eye tracking or breathing in more recent decades)
In SRI's studies apparently 3 buttons was considered ideal by most users?
Admittedly, they experimented with a lot of other things when it came to user input too.
For example, instead of relying solely on a QWERTY keyboard layout, NLS used a "chorded" keyboard (image attached).
Similar to playing notes on piano keys, or stenographer keyboards, multiple keys could be held simultaneously, to produce different characters.
Some years ago, an app was made available for mobile touch screen devices, by Adam Kumpf from Teague Labs but that app did not keep up & isn't in app stores anymore. (remnant: https://www.fastcompany.com/1669042/a-famous-inventors-forgotten-idea-a-one-handed-touch-screen-keyboard).
Others made an interface for the original hardware to an iPad (e.g: https://valerielandau.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/engelbart-typing-on-the-ipad-with-the-chorded-keyset/ ).
Presumably due to the versatility of the chorded keyset (typically used by the left hand) excessive buttons on the mouse (typically used by the right hand) made it such that 3 buttons seemed sufficient?
