Blog: Podcasts
As part of the rapid move towards listening to radio broadcasts when you want to instead of the old-fashioned way, the Thunder download includes some software called Podcatcher. You will find it in All Programs under Accessibles; but you can always have it put into your Start Menu for convenience.
When you run Podcatcher, you will find some podcast options already there but the chances are they are not what you really want. So here is how to grab at a podcast and make it available. Sorry to be UK-boring, but that’s where I live and you can always adapt the instructions to your own situation.
So if we want to hear the weekly podcast of the BBC program for blind listeners we open up WebbIE, press Control + W and type in “bbc in touch podcast” without the quotes. Press Enter and Cursor Down until you hear those words. Press Enter again and, at the time of writing, you will be taken to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/intouch/.Press. Press Control + F and type in “feed url” Without the quotes. Press Enter.
Highlight the URL which in this case is http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/intouch/rss.xml, copy it with Control + C and then open up Podcatcher in readiness to paste it in the appropriate place and add it to the podcast list. There are more than one hundred BBC podcasts as well as the In Touch one.
With Podcatcher on the screen, press the Alt Key and Right Cursor once to hear the menu item Podcasts and Cursor Down to Add Podcatcher and press Enter.
You will be asked to enter the name of the podcast, which you could call BBC In Touch, in this case. Press Enter. You will then be asked to enter the web address or URL so press control + V to paste it in and press Enter.
Be patient while the connections are made and next time you go into Podcatcher you will have your new podcast waiting for you and it will be updated each week.
When you further explore Podcatcher, you will find the menu option to remove those podcasts you don’t like. Using the Control + W routine you can type in podcast and almost any subject and you will get to what you might want. I even typed in podcast talking microwave and got several audio descriptions. The days are long gone when we are restricted to formal broadcasts. Each of us can spread our word and our ideas. Its great.
Of course, as well as listening to such podcasts on your computer or laptop, you can download them and listen at your leisure in the garden or on the train via some kind of iPod. Podcatcher is free with free Thunder and so I want to tell you about a low cost tiny device called Zen Stone. I went into the local computer chain store and asked for an iPod with no screen. I was offered the Zen Stone, just 1 GB, for the princely sum of £27.50 pence. I got it home, plugged it into the USB computer port and left it to charge for the suggested four hours.
Within My Computer, Thunder found it and I was able to download my chosen podcasts, carry the Zen Stone and headphones in my jacket pocket and listen on the train. The Zen Stone is made by Creative Labs and it feels just like a large bean with tiny switches. Its totally accessible, being made for joggers who don’t want to look at a screen. The instructions are brief and scanned perfectly for me to listen to but, honestly, there is little to learn. There seem to be lots of iPods out there and the challenge is to find the one that you can use and afford.
Well, enjoy podcasting the easy way. It just takes a little time and trouble to get into the routine.
Showing posts with label Blind People in Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blind People in Business. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 November 2007
Thursday, 1 March 2007
This week has been very busy for us.
On Tuesday I went up to York to meet with someone from Access to Work UK. This is the Government body that finances equipment that disabled people need to get to work and hold down a job. Its mostly computer equipment and the services of a paid seeing helper these days. In the meeting, I took the first steps towards getting the Access to Work staff to begin thinking about Thunder in the employment situation. There is a long way to go.
Today, some good people from the British Computer Society came to make with us a short video of how Thunder works. The aim is to introduce seeing volunteers to how they get started when helping a blind person at home. Seeing people just look, get the mouse pointer in the right place on the screen and click. We have to recall lots of keystrokes and rely greatly on our imagination and memory. The lass who came is doing a PhD around the topic of how and if a disabled person at home can manage their own computer learning and how much support is essential. Hopefully, we will put up the video on this website when its edited.
I am a trustee of a charity called The blind Business Association and we have just commissioned a report on what we should be doing and where we should go next. So I have been reading this report so that I am ready to chair the crucial meeting next week. Only a fifth of blind people of working age have a job and working for yourself is sometimes the only way forward. Margaret and I have worked from home here since 1992 and we love it. Being able to make your own decisions and mistakes is great and we have not gone bust yet. Its uplifting to be independent and not beholden to others. But we are not millionaires.
On Tuesday I went up to York to meet with someone from Access to Work UK. This is the Government body that finances equipment that disabled people need to get to work and hold down a job. Its mostly computer equipment and the services of a paid seeing helper these days. In the meeting, I took the first steps towards getting the Access to Work staff to begin thinking about Thunder in the employment situation. There is a long way to go.
Today, some good people from the British Computer Society came to make with us a short video of how Thunder works. The aim is to introduce seeing volunteers to how they get started when helping a blind person at home. Seeing people just look, get the mouse pointer in the right place on the screen and click. We have to recall lots of keystrokes and rely greatly on our imagination and memory. The lass who came is doing a PhD around the topic of how and if a disabled person at home can manage their own computer learning and how much support is essential. Hopefully, we will put up the video on this website when its edited.
I am a trustee of a charity called The blind Business Association and we have just commissioned a report on what we should be doing and where we should go next. So I have been reading this report so that I am ready to chair the crucial meeting next week. Only a fifth of blind people of working age have a job and working for yourself is sometimes the only way forward. Margaret and I have worked from home here since 1992 and we love it. Being able to make your own decisions and mistakes is great and we have not gone bust yet. Its uplifting to be independent and not beholden to others. But we are not millionaires.
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