Audiobook Options for the Blind
Listening to Books is a Vital Learning Tool for Low-Vision Students
Dec 3, 2008
Since the development of Talking Books in the 1930s, recordings have enabled the blind to develop a world of reading and, in recent decades, have become an effective method for teaching students with learning disabilities.
For sight-impaired students who do not read braille, audiobooks often provide the only means for keeping up with assigned reading, whether it’s a chapter in a history book or a 500-page novel.
Advantages of Auditory Reading
- Increased comprehension through proper enunciation of text
- Increased knowledge retention through ease of repeated readings
- Increased enjoyment through listening to stories
- Increased time and energy to invest in other areas of schoolwork
- Increased confidence to meet future learning challenges.
Main Sources of Audiobooks
Institutions
The two top sources of audiobooks for sight-impaired students are Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D) and the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) of the Library of Congress.
RFB&D’s CV Starr Learning Through Listening Library has the world's largest collection (over 37,000 titles) of digitally recorded textbooks (available on CD or download) for all education levels and will record requested books that meet its guidelines.
The NLS offers over 60,000 professionally narrated cassette audiobooks, specializing in popular fiction and nonfiction, classic literature, and children’s books. The NLS is the superior choice for assigned novels.
Both institutions welcome applicants with documented print disabilities and provide access to playback equipment via permanent loan (NLS cassette players), or purchase (software and CD players from RBD&D).
Commercial Audiobook Publishers
Most public libraries have growing collections of audiobooks (cassette and CD) from commercial publishers such as Random House and specialty companies (e.g. Blackstone Audio Books) that produce unabridged recordings. Many college libraries have Caedmon recordings of Shakespeare’s plays and other classics often assigned to students.
Online Audiobooks
Readers can buy, rent, or download audiobooks from many commercial websites (e.g. Audiobooksonline) and growing number of free sites, including the nonprofit LibriVox, which posts audio files (MP3 and Windows Media) of over 1,800 volunteer-recorded works in the public domain, including classic fiction and poetry.
Readers can listen to downloaded files on their computer or store them on players such as the iPod Nano (Apple’s iTunes 8 is screen-reader friendly for both the Mac and the PC).
Another portable format is the Playaway, a two-ounce, pocket-sized player that contains an entire audiobook (up to 80 hours) one listens to with earbuds (included, along with battery) or through any listening device, such as portable speakers or FM transmitter. Playaways are expensive, e.g. Great Expectations (running time: 14.5 hours) costs $104.99, though some NLS network libraries have collections members can borrow from.
Listening to Electronic Texts
Another audio option is using a screen reader (e.g. Jaws, Window Eyes) to play electronic texts available for free at Project Guttenberg and other online repositories of public domain content. Though computer-generated voices can be monotonous, but also provide a solution for last-minute assignments or research.
Audiobooks’ ubiquity and far-ranging formats make them an indispensable component ob blind education.
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