Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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iPad audio player for visually impaired (self.Blind)
submitted by delaminater
Hey all, I hope this post is appropriate for the sub. My partner’s dad is in hospital with terminal cancer and is rapidly losing his sight, no one can really visit him regularly so he’s lonely and it’s impacting mental health. He’s not great with technology but we want to load up an iPad with audio books etc so that he can have something to listen to and occupy his mind.
Can anyone recommend an easy to use audio player app for an iPad? Maybe with voice commands or a very large interface? This isn’t an area I’m familiar with, I’ve tried to do some research but finding it overwhelming. Any other ideas would be gratefully received.
Can anyone recommend an easy to use audio player app for an iPad? Maybe with voice commands or a very large interface? This isn’t an area I’m familiar with, I’ve tried to do some research but finding it overwhelming. Any other ideas would be gratefully received.
retrolental_morose 2 points 2y ago
iPads are very good closed systems, so getting content into them can be tricky.
Dolphin Easy Reader, Voice Dream Reader and (in the US) BARD Mobile are the blind-specific apps of choice.
Audible is very mainstream of course, and a lot of VI people use that as well. Not quite sure how they can afford it (if I read in audio I'd have to remortgage)
Dolphin Easy Reader, Voice Dream Reader and (in the US) BARD Mobile are the blind-specific apps of choice.
Audible is very mainstream of course, and a lot of VI people use that as well. Not quite sure how they can afford it (if I read in audio I'd have to remortgage)
delaminater [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Thanks for your reply, yeah iPads can be a bit of a challenge files wise. I’ll have a look at those apps, I’ve seen Dolphin come up a lot. I’m in the U.K. and we have some free audiobook libraries here so I’m hoping I can find a way to access those. Yeah if you pay full price on Audible it’s ridiculously expensive, I’ve managed to pay about £3.99 for each book using subscription discounts. I cancel before I pay full price and eventually I always get sent new offers for £3.99 for a few months which is enough for me to stick up.
retrolental_morose 2 points 2y ago
Ah, I'm in the UK too!
Sign your dad up with RNIB Reading services (https://readingservices.rnib.org.uk ) and then sign that into Easy reader, and you have one of the simplest interfaces to get at audiobooks. I think Calibre may be in there as well; but I'm not sure how much content they have.
Sign your dad up with RNIB Reading services (https://readingservices.rnib.org.uk ) and then sign that into Easy reader, and you have one of the simplest interfaces to get at audiobooks. I think Calibre may be in there as well; but I'm not sure how much content they have.
delaminater [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Funnily enough I just signed up for that and it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. I downloaded Dolphin and it was advertised in the app. All I’ve gotta do now is figure out the text size as it’s unreadable at the moment as all the text is on top of each other. Hopefully this will make his remaining weeks more comfortable, thanks so much for your replies.
retrolental_morose 1 points 2y ago
if there are specific books he's after you can't get hit me up. :)
LyingSlider7 1 points 2y ago
I know this is pretty late but I personally use an app called read2go you can change the colors of pretty much everything on the app and it’s pretty easy to navigate with zoom but I also do recommend that you should try to teach him how to use voiceover it is a huge help and it will help him be a lot more independent especially if his vision is getting worse
delaminater [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Thank you, I’ll have a look at that. We will try with voiceover, we can’t visit him and he has dementia so it makes teaching him anything really difficult. He only has a few weeks left too unfortunately. If he can’t use it hopefully the nurses will press play for him.
Wooden_Suit5580 1 points 2y ago
Hi there, I am totally blind and I understand how rough this can be.
I am not sure if your partners father would enjoy movies with audio description?
I have posted a link to a website that just has the audio files. You can load these up on an MP3 player or an iPhone or iPad.
http://audiovault.net/
I am not sure if your partners father would enjoy movies with audio description?
I have posted a link to a website that just has the audio files. You can load these up on an MP3 player or an iPhone or iPad.
http://audiovault.net/
delaminater [OP] 2 points 2y ago
Thanks so much for this, I think he would love films with audio description. So obvious but would never have thought of it. This looks like a great site.
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 2y ago
What about learning voice over? Load up ibooks or kindle.
delaminater [OP] 1 points 2y ago
I’ve been watching some YouTube videos to figure it out, he’s not great with technology though so I don’t know how he will get on with it. We are hoping the nurses will be able to press play for him, visiting is seriously restricted which makes the whole thing much harder.
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 2y ago
Why can’t he press play on his own if he learns the system. It’s not incredibly hard to learn and if he’s struggling with the touch screen then get him a bluetooth keyboard and encourage him to learn the keystrokes required to operate the device.
delaminater [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Learning the system may be a challenge as we can’t visit him and he has dementia. We are going to give Dolphin Easy Reader a go and if he can’t operate it hopefully the nurses can help.
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 2y ago
Ah, I see. Well best of luck.
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