Thank you. That's really nice. Maybe someone will think about doing something
down-to-earth and real, for a change instead of some of the pie-in-the-sky
stuff that I keep getting announce messages about. I did my bit today and
because I quietly forwarded some messages between the lists, at least one
person, maybe two, is getting on track with Audible.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, August 4, 2020 6:04 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Something for a national ACB list
Miriam,
I'm sending your message to the ACB Chat list, but I'm removing your name, and
just saying that a friend sent me the following.
Carl
On 8/4/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Today on the VR Stream list and the Jaws for Windows list, there are
dozens of messages from people who are having problems downloading
books from Audible to their Streams. They are all very skilled
computer users and they spend $14 or more each month for commercially
produced audio books and other audio productions. From about 2012 and
onward, until recently, I thought that doing so was unnecessary, given
the fact that so many of the same commercially produced books began
appearing on BARD in a very timely manner.
But now that the stream of books has been so radically reduced and we
have no idea what the real reason is, regardless of everyone's
assumptions, I'm not so sure. Anyway, that isn't the point. The point
is that a very large number of blind people are having this issue and
each one of them is desperately attempting to solve the problem on his
or her own. I forwarded two messages from the Victor Stream list to
the Jaws list which seemed like they might be helpful to the people who were
not on the Victor Stream list.
One of the most skilled members of the Jaws list then subscribed to
the Victor Stream list as a result of that message and wrote about his
numerous unsuccessful attempts to solve his problems with many phone
calls to the Audible tech people. The problems are a result of the
change to Windows 10 from Windows 7 and a simultaneous change in the
Audible software for downloading books. People called Humanware which
was unhelpful. The Audible tech people, if things haven't changed from
when I last used Audible, are not in the US and are not accustomed to
working with blind people. If I were still a member of the ACB list, I would
write the following.
As an national advocacy organization, the accessibility of Audible
books to blind people who use devices that are manufactured for the
use of blind people like the Victor Reader Stream, should be an
important concern. For large numbers of blind people, including those
who use I phones, devices like the VR Stream are easier to use in many
situations and their use should be supported. The manufacturers of
these devices should be encouraged to make every effort to cooperate
with the suppliers of content for their devices to facilitate their
use for blind people. But it is also most important that when a
company like Audible makes changes in their software, representatives
of the blind community and the manufacturers of blindness devices be
involved so that people will not be left on their own to deal with
complicated technical changes. Audio material is just about the most
important entertainment and educational material that blind people have.
Organizations that represent them should be concerned with ensuring
that all such resources remain easily accessible to them.
Miriam