The following is part 4 of a multi-part series highlighting some of the services offered at The Iris Network.

Reading with the Stream

Click the link below for a video showing some adaptive workplace tips
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Sssshhhh….There’s really no need to tell your print-reading friends about the Victor Reader Stream!

Should they see you listening to a novel, the local newspaper, tapping your foot while you listen to some music, or recording a note to yourself on the Victor, they might ask about some of its features. Keep a steady poker-face when you tell them, “Sure it plays audio files, like an iPod, and you can put in hours of voice notes, like a digital recorder.”

“Yes, it will play an audio book, a book downloaded from the National Library Service, Bookshare.org, or Project Gutenburg.”

“Yep, the Victor will read a text file from the computer or even saved Web pages.”

Remind them firmly, “This is an assistive technology device designed for users with low vision or blindness.” Your friends may scoff, “Assistive technology?…But it looks small, portable, and sounds practical.” Keep your voice steady, and refrain from enthusiasm, “You’re right, it is small, about the size of a pack of playing cards, and does play a wide range of book formats.”

Under no circumstances do you mention that the Victor will play 12-14 hours on a 4 hour charge!

Put the Victor Reader Stream into their hands so they can inspect the control panel. “See, no mini, squinty, LED screen, no flat, inaccessible touch panel—all the buttons are recognizable by touch, organized around a 12 button touchpad, like a phone, plenty of space between the buttons… definitely an AT device.”

Some of your utilitarian friends will be harder to convince, “Just because it’s well-designed,” they may protest, “and I don’t have to strain my eyes to see it, doesn’t mean it’s assistive technology, it’s just human-friendly!”

For these skeptics, turn the Victor on, and scroll through the Book Shelf by pressing the #1 key. The Victor reads the titles of books, periodicals, podcasts and music stored on the SD card (removable memory). Press and hold the #1 key, to start the user guide. See, you may tell them, “The menu’s are all speech output, the user guide is audible…this is definitely an AT device.”

“How much does it cost?” your friend might ask. If you’ve convinced them at this point that the Victor Reader Stream really is assistive technology, you’re going to have to pretend you didn’t hear the question or rush off to an appointment you’ve ‘just remembered’. Who’s going to believe that an assistive technology device that reads text files, digital books, audio books, the new Talking Book DAISY format, plays MP3 music files, records hours of voice memos, and is simple to operate, costs $359? That’s about what you might expect to pay for any high quality digital audio player! Let’s just keep this our little secret for now, ok? If word spreads, the Victor Reader Stream may become harder to find or the cost may go up.

The Victor Reader Stream, made by Humanware (www.humanware.com) is a well-designed, versatile, digital media player for users with low vision/blindness. The Victor is not just a great digital audio player for the general public… really, this is assistive technology!

If you’d like a hand’s on demonstration of the Victor Reader Stream or wish to purchased one, please call the Iris Network. You may also wish to read more about the Victor in Access World magazine, on the Web at http://www.afb.org/AFBPress/pub.asp?DocID=aw090105.

*Victor Reader Update

Little more than a day or two after recording our video on the Victor Reader Stream, Humanware announced on March 17, 2009, at CSUN, a new software upgrade, version 3.0. According to their press release: Click here to read the Press Release this is both a “major release,” and a free upgrade for current owners of the Stream.

Some of the new features include:

· A new synthesized male voice, “Tom;”
· Greater flexibility in creating bookshelf folders;
· Temporary playlists that can be played randomly;
· A text search function.

Although the press release indicated that version 3 of both the Stream, and Companion software would be available by the end of March, it was not available at the time of this writing.

Click here for past Feature Stories