[Athen] NLS eReader

[Deborah Armstrong]

If you have students who read Braille, but do not have a Braille display you might like to know that if the student is a U.S. citizen and a patron of the National library service, they can borrow a Braille display for free.
It's called the NLS eReader, and it has twenty Braille cells. This YouTube video
(16) Physical Description - NLS eReader HumanWare How-To Series - YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o1ZXxvQ7l4>
Describes one of the two models. There's a whole YouTube series on the two models NLS offers.
The devices can read data from USB thumb drives or SD card and can be connected to a Mac or PC to transfer files. They automatically convert material to UEB or ebae (old-school grade 2) or uncontracted Braille. They cannot take notes, but can be a Braille display for an iDevice, PC or Mac.
The formats they can read include text, word, BRF and my favorite, Daisy. They can access NLS BARD, bookshare and NFB Newsline to automatically download materials. Though they cannot browse the web, they can connect to wi-fi to download books from those services.
Students need to be connected with their regional library which is part of NLS and they may be on a waiting list as these eReaders are not yet available from every regional library in the country. The last count I heard was that thirty-five libraries have them, but NLS intends that all Braille-reading active patrons will be able to borrow one.
Being able to navigate Daisy files is especially nice with textbooks that contain good markup.
If you are transcribing material in to Braille that is literary (history, English, humanities for example)  you can save yourself a lot of effort if your student already has a device that will do it automatically. If, for example you mark up a word document with headings and save it as Daisy, the NLS eReader will automatically convert it to Braille and give the user the ability to quickly navigate the book, much more efficient than navigating hardcopy Braille. The devices have a concept integrated in their firmware called "Braille Reflow" which makes reading on only twenty cells actually pleasurable! With previous Braille displays, the user wasted time trying to deal with hardcopy formatting, blank lines and lines that wrapped inconveniently for twenty cells. This problem has been fixed with the new eReader firmware.
Students will still need hardcopy Braille for technical STEM-oriented subjects.
Blind students who depend only on audio are at a disadvantage, so I really encourage you to look in to this for any students you know who can read Braille.
--Debee

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20230602/0ad7d463/attachment.html>