A Progress Report.
Some good things have happened to Screenreader.net of late and I thought you might like to be briefly updated.
We now have an excellent range of Thunder downloads on this website and we are far from finished yet.
Version 3.43 is the latest Thunder and its worth you getting this on your computer or laptop. WebbIE too continues to grow and improve and, of course, you will update to the latest version as part of the thunder download. But its always worth a look at www.webbie.org.uk to keep abreast of things and make your suggestions and comments.
If you have been following the Thunder story over the past two years, you will know about our European connections and we are proud to say that Thunder is now up and running and available free of charge in French, German, Italian, Estonian and Slovak as well as our own English version. To enjoy all this, you need to go to www.screenreader4free.eu. We have high hopes of other languages coming along in the not too distant future and we thoroughly enjoyed working with our European partners over the past eighteen months. Speak as you find and the EU does good things for people with little or no sight, especially those of us who are not so wealthy.
Electronic Magnifiers or Closed Circuit TV Systems have occupied our thoughts for several years. There are excellent products on the market but few are affordable. We have joined forces with another UK Company, Bierley Ltd, who manufacture a range of electronic magnifiers for use with ordinary TV sets or the PC or Laptop. They also sell an excellent stand-alone model for around £650. Very soon you will see details of the Bierley products on our products website.
And this leads me to the final paragraph of this blog. We have always been thrilled that Thunder is free but we, as a business, have our modest bills to pay to make it all possible and if we go bust – well we cease being useful. So we must generate some covering income to balance the books.
We have set up another website: www.screenreader.co.uk as an online shop. At www.screenreader.co.uk you can purchase online or by telephone a range of reasonably priced products and accessories to use with your Thunder. There are superior sounding computer voices, advanced speech and or print enlargement software packages and, soon as just mentioned, the Bierley range of electronic magnifiers requiring no computer involvements. There is also some useful software for Braillists and those of you wanting to scan books or your post and listening to what comes to you in print. We even have software for people who can see well but struggle with reading and writing because of Dyslexic challenges.
And last of all: We do encourage you please, to make a donation towards the cost of implementing and updating the free software we provide. You don’t have to, of course; but every little helps and we are so proud of the fact that blind and visually impaired people all over the world can now enjoy the PC and all the benefits this can bring.
Monday, 16 June 2008
Sunday, 18 May 2008
The Times Newspaper and Thunder
On Thursday last, Screenreader.net had a minute of fame with a brief article about us appearing in the London Times Newspaper in the careers section. The story as told below is substantially true and its remarkable how a journalist can put together an uncomplicated summary of our last eight years of work in 300 words. But what I liked most was that it presented a picture of blind people doing well, achieving something good and not the more usual helpless image as often portrayed by some fund-raising charities’ campaigns. When you read this piece, you will also realise that no mention was made, sadly, of Sensory Software Ltd, who created the Thunder software.
Roger Wilson-Hinds achieved academic success despite his
blindness and rose to senior jobs in education. But he was
uncomfortable as an employee and, when 50, he and his wife,
Margaret Wilson-Hinds, started a successful business to supply
ICT equipment and teach other blind people how to use it. Illness
struck. While recovering, Roger resolved to create and give away
screen reader software to any blind person. Now with 100,000
users, ‘Thunder’ is gaining large fees for developing variants.
Our big idea
GIVING your product away to anyone who wants it is certainly an atypical business model, but for Roger and Margaret Wilson-Hinds, it was the pivotal decision that turned their screenreader idea into a commercial reality.
Blind since birth themselves, the Wilson-Hinds were busily running a disability training company, having won a government contract to teach blind people to use computers. Then, in 1998, Roger was diagnosed with cancer, forcing the couple to quit the business and gift it to a close friend - who has continued its success and now employs nine people.
During the ensuing treatment the Wilson-Hinds realised that, although programmes that could scan text on a computer screen and read it back to the user were available, the typical £700-£800 software packages were beyond the pocket of the majority of the world's blind community and they became determined to produce a low-cost alternative.
At 60 most people contemplate turning the wick down a little, but fuelled by the idea of "opening up information literacy to blind people anywhere", in 2000, Roger enrolled himself and his wife on a course for social entrepreneurs instead.
Having self-funded the product's development, the screenreader, called Thunder, was finally ready for market, but, after a few years of trying to sell it at low-cost, the take-up was slow.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time, but low-cost is often seen as inferior and it wasn't until we studied the Google model and embraced the notion of 'free to the end user' that things really got moving," Roger says.
Immediately the product became free a German company with links to European Blind Union got in touch and, two months later, the Wilson-Hinds were in receipt of an EU grant of ¤240,000 to fund French, Italian, German, Slovak and Estonian versions of Thunder.
Since then, more funding has been forthcoming, a version specifically for people with learning difficulties is in development and, with almost 100,000 users, the company now advises businesses on how to make their websites available to this untapped market.
http://www.blogger.com/www.screenreader.net
By MARK BARBER
We do look forward to a great future for the Thunder screenreader software and what it can do to empower blind and visually impaired people throughout the world.
Roger Wilson-Hinds achieved academic success despite his
blindness and rose to senior jobs in education. But he was
uncomfortable as an employee and, when 50, he and his wife,
Margaret Wilson-Hinds, started a successful business to supply
ICT equipment and teach other blind people how to use it. Illness
struck. While recovering, Roger resolved to create and give away
screen reader software to any blind person. Now with 100,000
users, ‘Thunder’ is gaining large fees for developing variants.
Our big idea
GIVING your product away to anyone who wants it is certainly an atypical business model, but for Roger and Margaret Wilson-Hinds, it was the pivotal decision that turned their screenreader idea into a commercial reality.
Blind since birth themselves, the Wilson-Hinds were busily running a disability training company, having won a government contract to teach blind people to use computers. Then, in 1998, Roger was diagnosed with cancer, forcing the couple to quit the business and gift it to a close friend - who has continued its success and now employs nine people.
During the ensuing treatment the Wilson-Hinds realised that, although programmes that could scan text on a computer screen and read it back to the user were available, the typical £700-£800 software packages were beyond the pocket of the majority of the world's blind community and they became determined to produce a low-cost alternative.
At 60 most people contemplate turning the wick down a little, but fuelled by the idea of "opening up information literacy to blind people anywhere", in 2000, Roger enrolled himself and his wife on a course for social entrepreneurs instead.
Having self-funded the product's development, the screenreader, called Thunder, was finally ready for market, but, after a few years of trying to sell it at low-cost, the take-up was slow.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time, but low-cost is often seen as inferior and it wasn't until we studied the Google model and embraced the notion of 'free to the end user' that things really got moving," Roger says.
Immediately the product became free a German company with links to European Blind Union got in touch and, two months later, the Wilson-Hinds were in receipt of an EU grant of ¤240,000 to fund French, Italian, German, Slovak and Estonian versions of Thunder.
Since then, more funding has been forthcoming, a version specifically for people with learning difficulties is in development and, with almost 100,000 users, the company now advises businesses on how to make their websites available to this untapped market.
http://www.blogger.com/www.screenreader.net
By MARK BARBER
We do look forward to a great future for the Thunder screenreader software and what it can do to empower blind and visually impaired people throughout the world.
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Well, I feel ashamed that it has been so long since my last blog. Put it down to old age, being too busy and…whatever; but there is good news to report.
Screenreader.net has received a grant from UK Children In Need to make the software available to families where there is a child with little or no sight. We have funding for three years and can employ someone to run our Telephone helpline. So we will be setting all this in motion, hopefully starting in June.
On Wednesday, I am going for an interview in the hope of getting some funding from Unltd to lay the foundations for a better organised admin process here. We began this business many years ago and just kept working and never set up a proper database and management system etc. Better late than never. Its only in the last two years that we have moved over from thinking of ourselves as a helping charity to what we are now – a business which delivers software on a large scale and needs to up-scale its presentation etc.
We have updated our manuals, yet again. There is no standing still in this game. I now use a Windows Vista machine and its great; but not easy for a blind person in the early days. Nothing is where you expect it to be but once the new habits and key strokes are in the auto-pilot of the mind and fingers, its plain sailing again. So I have written up a brief manual which teaches others with little or no sight how to migrate from Windows XP to Windows Vista.
Thunder continues to gather still more users. Nearly 80,000 have visited the download page and we will soon be up to 30,000 registered users. We could do with more feedback from happy or even unhappy Thunder users. We learn most when people tell us what needs to be improved.
Margaret and I actually had a short holiday last week and enjoyed a wonderful long weekend by the sea. The weather was fine and warm and we walked a lot and listened to a talking book in the sunshine. Its great to be able to listen to a book and share together. We have worked hard on the Thunder project over the past three years and now its all coming together. On Wednesday evening, I shall be in Frankfurt at the last EU partners meeting and very soon Thunder will be up on the web in five European languages as well as English. The EU website is www.screenreader4free.eu. So its onwards and upwards for Screenreader.net.
Screenreader.net has received a grant from UK Children In Need to make the software available to families where there is a child with little or no sight. We have funding for three years and can employ someone to run our Telephone helpline. So we will be setting all this in motion, hopefully starting in June.
On Wednesday, I am going for an interview in the hope of getting some funding from Unltd to lay the foundations for a better organised admin process here. We began this business many years ago and just kept working and never set up a proper database and management system etc. Better late than never. Its only in the last two years that we have moved over from thinking of ourselves as a helping charity to what we are now – a business which delivers software on a large scale and needs to up-scale its presentation etc.
We have updated our manuals, yet again. There is no standing still in this game. I now use a Windows Vista machine and its great; but not easy for a blind person in the early days. Nothing is where you expect it to be but once the new habits and key strokes are in the auto-pilot of the mind and fingers, its plain sailing again. So I have written up a brief manual which teaches others with little or no sight how to migrate from Windows XP to Windows Vista.
Thunder continues to gather still more users. Nearly 80,000 have visited the download page and we will soon be up to 30,000 registered users. We could do with more feedback from happy or even unhappy Thunder users. We learn most when people tell us what needs to be improved.
Margaret and I actually had a short holiday last week and enjoyed a wonderful long weekend by the sea. The weather was fine and warm and we walked a lot and listened to a talking book in the sunshine. Its great to be able to listen to a book and share together. We have worked hard on the Thunder project over the past three years and now its all coming together. On Wednesday evening, I shall be in Frankfurt at the last EU partners meeting and very soon Thunder will be up on the web in five European languages as well as English. The EU website is www.screenreader4free.eu. So its onwards and upwards for Screenreader.net.
Monday, 17 March 2008
Thunder Wins E-Democracy International Award
Thunder Wins E-Democracy International Award
Quite unexpectedly, we were delighted to receive a phone call saying that we had won a prestigious international award and we were hurrying down to London by train to enjoy nibbles, wine and good company. There is nothing like the feeling of winning. We know we are doing the right thing by blind people as we deliver a free option; but its great to be recognised officially.
So what is all this E-Democracy and E-Participation business all about?
Its far more than voting machines. When I was a Head Teacher, I could not even fill in forms or tick the school register. Going into a normal library has never been a thrill for me because I needed help to find the inquiry counter, let alone the frustration of all those unreadable printed books.
But now blind people everywhere can get to a computer, have the Thunder software installed and learn to use it. This means we can read about our rulers, councillors, officials, and fill in forms, know what is going on and write up our views, complaints or solutions.
The building blocks of society are the individuals, the communities, the representatives and the leaders. Amongst many other benefits, the talking computer enables those of us with little or no sight to join in, have our say, and very much extend our ability to participate. We got our award for services to E-Democracy and E-Participation for making this possible for the world blind community. The technology is not new but our Thunder technology is easier to use than most and its free to everyone.
The award was given by Parmjit Dhandra, UK Minister for Communities. The commendation says:
Ministerial Award for e-local participation 2008.
. Dear Mr Hinds
ICELE (International Centre of Excellence for Local E-democracy) Ministerial Award
May I offer you my congratulations on Screenreader.net winning the ICELE Ministerial Award for making a difference to local communities.
The Thunder tool is clearly an invaluable product which enables the previously excluded to take a fuller role in their communities using technology. By empowering over 100,000 people you have made a difference and no doubt touched the lives of many. With the free tool Screenreader.net is providing, you are enhancing Society by matching opportunities for engagement with the opportunities for democracy that technology can potentially offer.
I would like to thank you for entering the awards and wishing Screenreader.net every success on taking forward this innovative and life-changing tool to the rest of Europe.
Yours sincerely
Parmjit Dhanda MP
So what is ICELE (International Centre of Excellence for Local E-democracy) all about? Probably most of us spend our days taking democracy and inclusion in society for granted and grumbling when petty things go wrong for us. But there are innovators with big visions who work behind the scenes on our behalf and such an organisation is ICELE. The ICELE brings people together who are concerned with empowering and engaging communities. The website is http://www.icele.org and their work goes far beyond the UK.
We are proud to have been chosen for this award.
Quite unexpectedly, we were delighted to receive a phone call saying that we had won a prestigious international award and we were hurrying down to London by train to enjoy nibbles, wine and good company. There is nothing like the feeling of winning. We know we are doing the right thing by blind people as we deliver a free option; but its great to be recognised officially.
So what is all this E-Democracy and E-Participation business all about?
Its far more than voting machines. When I was a Head Teacher, I could not even fill in forms or tick the school register. Going into a normal library has never been a thrill for me because I needed help to find the inquiry counter, let alone the frustration of all those unreadable printed books.
But now blind people everywhere can get to a computer, have the Thunder software installed and learn to use it. This means we can read about our rulers, councillors, officials, and fill in forms, know what is going on and write up our views, complaints or solutions.
The building blocks of society are the individuals, the communities, the representatives and the leaders. Amongst many other benefits, the talking computer enables those of us with little or no sight to join in, have our say, and very much extend our ability to participate. We got our award for services to E-Democracy and E-Participation for making this possible for the world blind community. The technology is not new but our Thunder technology is easier to use than most and its free to everyone.
The award was given by Parmjit Dhandra, UK Minister for Communities. The commendation says:
Ministerial Award for e-local participation 2008.
. Dear Mr Hinds
ICELE (International Centre of Excellence for Local E-democracy) Ministerial Award
May I offer you my congratulations on Screenreader.net winning the ICELE Ministerial Award for making a difference to local communities.
The Thunder tool is clearly an invaluable product which enables the previously excluded to take a fuller role in their communities using technology. By empowering over 100,000 people you have made a difference and no doubt touched the lives of many. With the free tool Screenreader.net is providing, you are enhancing Society by matching opportunities for engagement with the opportunities for democracy that technology can potentially offer.
I would like to thank you for entering the awards and wishing Screenreader.net every success on taking forward this innovative and life-changing tool to the rest of Europe.
Yours sincerely
Parmjit Dhanda MP
So what is ICELE (International Centre of Excellence for Local E-democracy) all about? Probably most of us spend our days taking democracy and inclusion in society for granted and grumbling when petty things go wrong for us. But there are innovators with big visions who work behind the scenes on our behalf and such an organisation is ICELE. The ICELE brings people together who are concerned with empowering and engaging communities. The website is http://www.icele.org and their work goes far beyond the UK.
We are proud to have been chosen for this award.
Monday, 4 February 2008
Blog: 4Free4All comes a bit nearer.
This last week has been pretty good for us and our free software cause. From Florida came a grand announcement that the Serotek Corporation too have launched one of their internet products as a freeby, SA2GO. There is a good deal of detailed information at http://blog.serotek.com/ which is the Serotek blog site. The AIR Foundation boldly states that “accessibility is a fundamental human right, regardless of financial or geographic constraints”. So now blind and partially sighted computer users worldwide have more free software at their fingertips as well as our Thunder and WebbIE.
But I was much more excited on Thursday to have access to an Apple notebook with Leopard installed. If that means nothing to you then read on and share my excitement.
Leopard is the latest Apple operating system and it comes with good quality and usable speech built in. I was able to listen to iTunes without special scripts or fuss. And then I discovered the magnification potential which is stunning. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, hold down the Control Key and move the mousewheel to control the level of magnification. With my old level of seeing I would have killed for that facility. But the greatest Apple gift this time round for me was that, when I plugged in my Alva Braille Display, Oh yes, it just worked and that is the tops.
So let’s look forward to this free access thing booming and its wonderful to know that we are not the only ones in the business. Our Thunder software is stable, efficient and innovative but we don’t mind at all being pushed to greater achievements by others with a similar mission and we are delighted that our users have a growing choice of free software.
Thunder already has five languages under its belt and well over 70,000 people have downloaded it. On Friday, out of the blue, came an offer to begin translation into Turkish…and so it goes on. Slowly but surely, there is a realisation that the costly traditional screenreader solutions have made a marvellous contribution to computer access for blind people but…and this takes nothing away from their achievement…its now getting time for 4Free4All and not just the elitist few receiving Government or charitable support to enjoy the computer age.
This last week has been pretty good for us and our free software cause. From Florida came a grand announcement that the Serotek Corporation too have launched one of their internet products as a freeby, SA2GO. There is a good deal of detailed information at http://blog.serotek.com/ which is the Serotek blog site. The AIR Foundation boldly states that “accessibility is a fundamental human right, regardless of financial or geographic constraints”. So now blind and partially sighted computer users worldwide have more free software at their fingertips as well as our Thunder and WebbIE.
But I was much more excited on Thursday to have access to an Apple notebook with Leopard installed. If that means nothing to you then read on and share my excitement.
Leopard is the latest Apple operating system and it comes with good quality and usable speech built in. I was able to listen to iTunes without special scripts or fuss. And then I discovered the magnification potential which is stunning. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, hold down the Control Key and move the mousewheel to control the level of magnification. With my old level of seeing I would have killed for that facility. But the greatest Apple gift this time round for me was that, when I plugged in my Alva Braille Display, Oh yes, it just worked and that is the tops.
So let’s look forward to this free access thing booming and its wonderful to know that we are not the only ones in the business. Our Thunder software is stable, efficient and innovative but we don’t mind at all being pushed to greater achievements by others with a similar mission and we are delighted that our users have a growing choice of free software.
Thunder already has five languages under its belt and well over 70,000 people have downloaded it. On Friday, out of the blue, came an offer to begin translation into Turkish…and so it goes on. Slowly but surely, there is a realisation that the costly traditional screenreader solutions have made a marvellous contribution to computer access for blind people but…and this takes nothing away from their achievement…its now getting time for 4Free4All and not just the elitist few receiving Government or charitable support to enjoy the computer age.
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Blog: Christmas And All That
Blog: Christmas And All That.
Its that time in the year here in the UK when Christmas dinner and Boxing Day left-overs are eaten to excess and you are off out for a walk if sensible or sat down to your computer if you are well…in this case, thinking of friends and colleagues. 2007 has been a great year for us at Screenreader.net in many ways and it has been fantastic to be in touch with so many people round the world. There have been the odd problem or two, but in the main, most people have successfully downloaded our Thunder software and are hopefully enjoying their computers as a result. Certainly, the feedback has been tremendous and we love to hear of newcomers reading, writing, exploring the web, listening to masses of music and reading books, being entertained or even educated by podcasts on all sorts of subjects, as well as having access to radio stations on from all over the world.
The Thunder software has not only changed many of your lives but ours also. As a computer trainer, I used to have to spend hours on trains and it took two or three days to teach just one individual some of the tricks of the trade. Now I only teach here in my own home and the tutorial material goes round the world by magic and lands in many homes and schools where there is seeing help and a great wish to learn. In a strange way too, its absolutely marvellous that no money is involved. Its wonderful to give instead of having to sell and giving does mean that those with less or no money can come into the party too.
But its no good just smugly looking back on a good year unless we make time to plan for 2008. Friends tease me by saying I have no idea how to plan and I admit to being better reacting than setting out and sticking to a To-Do list. But we already have things in mind for the coming year: We need to finalise the European project which puts Thunder into five EU languages; We are committed to producing the first learning difficulties version of our talking software for those who struggle with words and learning and we very much want to get our software accepted into schools and colleges where budgets are restricted. And we must, of course, attend to the thorny issue of fund-raising and income generation because, if we fail to bring in money, we just collapse and are no use to any one.
I don’t actually know how many people take time to read The Blind Blogger; there is so much on the web, so much to look at or listen to and I know from my own experience that its only possible to do so much. But whoever you are, man woman, child, and whatever your country, religion, size and shape, be happy, do well, strive to achieve, and don’t harm any one else. If you want to write to us and tell us about yourself, that would be just terrific and have a fulfilling new year, 2008. Thank you too, for supporting us and telling other people about us.
Its that time in the year here in the UK when Christmas dinner and Boxing Day left-overs are eaten to excess and you are off out for a walk if sensible or sat down to your computer if you are well…in this case, thinking of friends and colleagues. 2007 has been a great year for us at Screenreader.net in many ways and it has been fantastic to be in touch with so many people round the world. There have been the odd problem or two, but in the main, most people have successfully downloaded our Thunder software and are hopefully enjoying their computers as a result. Certainly, the feedback has been tremendous and we love to hear of newcomers reading, writing, exploring the web, listening to masses of music and reading books, being entertained or even educated by podcasts on all sorts of subjects, as well as having access to radio stations on from all over the world.
The Thunder software has not only changed many of your lives but ours also. As a computer trainer, I used to have to spend hours on trains and it took two or three days to teach just one individual some of the tricks of the trade. Now I only teach here in my own home and the tutorial material goes round the world by magic and lands in many homes and schools where there is seeing help and a great wish to learn. In a strange way too, its absolutely marvellous that no money is involved. Its wonderful to give instead of having to sell and giving does mean that those with less or no money can come into the party too.
But its no good just smugly looking back on a good year unless we make time to plan for 2008. Friends tease me by saying I have no idea how to plan and I admit to being better reacting than setting out and sticking to a To-Do list. But we already have things in mind for the coming year: We need to finalise the European project which puts Thunder into five EU languages; We are committed to producing the first learning difficulties version of our talking software for those who struggle with words and learning and we very much want to get our software accepted into schools and colleges where budgets are restricted. And we must, of course, attend to the thorny issue of fund-raising and income generation because, if we fail to bring in money, we just collapse and are no use to any one.
I don’t actually know how many people take time to read The Blind Blogger; there is so much on the web, so much to look at or listen to and I know from my own experience that its only possible to do so much. But whoever you are, man woman, child, and whatever your country, religion, size and shape, be happy, do well, strive to achieve, and don’t harm any one else. If you want to write to us and tell us about yourself, that would be just terrific and have a fulfilling new year, 2008. Thank you too, for supporting us and telling other people about us.
Sunday, 25 November 2007
Podcast Made Easy
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.
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.
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