It is summertime and holiday are still on for some of us. Why not then taking something to read with you. But when is about reading as a visually impaired person, things become a bit ambiguous, because we talk about accessibility and here are few things which comes in discussion. For me, one of the greatest challenge when I lost my sight was reading and accessibility of desired titles . I will mention here few things like: accessible books formats available where to get accessible books from devices able to play accessible content Apps and other way to consume text and audio books A list of previous podcast episodes about reading accessible. Formats Few formats are accessible for visually impaired, but probably the list will be more focused on the totally blind people, because unfortunately, for partially sighted, large print list of titles is not generous at all. Most of them will read regular books probably using magnification in some way, but they can enjoy listening to audio books along completely blind people, as example. Formats available are as follow: audio books e-books or textbooks Braille format, physical and digital daisy books tactile books large print Audio books When is about audio books they can be available online for streaming or they can be downloaded in various formats and devices for offline consumption. If we are online, we can listen books from websites, smart speakers and through apps on mobile devices as smart phones or tablets. Some of the books are available only online. They can't be downloaded as mp3, as example, in order to be listened in portable media players, and that because DRM restrictions. Some of the audio books are without any copyright protection in place, some are unlocked for short time for some groups like reading clubs for blind. This unprotected books can be manipulated like any other mp3 or audio files in your computer. You can copy files from a device to other, as example from your PC to a memory card or USB dongle in order to listen in a portable media player after. The offer is large, and more and more titles are converted in audio format, this format being very popular these days because even sighted people are enjoying listening to audio books, during driving, commute time or at the gym, for example. e-books or textbooks When is about this format, which is my preferable one, we can talk about regular text files as docx, PDF, or e-pub or other exotic formats, but not last, Kindle books which is an Amazon proprietary format. Talking about Kindle books we have to understand the way of consuming this book because they are delivered also in a kind of DRM protected way. Kindle books like formats mentioned above are accessible on the right devices and excepting Kindle and other protected books formats they are easy to use, navigate, and comparing with audio books does not require so much storage in portable device and band width, when is about to download them. Of course, along formats above we can't ignore other two major players in this industry, iBooks from Apple and Google Play store which also offer e-books for sale or sample of them. Textbooks can be opened in computers, smart phones, tablets but in dedicated devices able to play this book which speech like Victor Stream Reader or some models of Olympus voice recorders. Also, when we talk about Kindle format, they can be played with Alexa smart speaker as long that title is whisper enabled. When we talk about e-books in smart phones or tablets, we can't add in discussion some great apps which makes life easier for screen reader users at list. Apps like Voice Dream Reader in iPhone, Books, All Reader, Kindle app and many others helps us to organize our library and keep tracking what we read. Another aspect what is important when we talk about e-books is the match format for the right device, because just in an ideal world all devices will play all formats. Isn't it?
