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Materials for the Blind

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure if I have posted this yet or not, apologies if so. HOwever, I wanted to get some feedback on an idea I'll be working on in the near future.

Thanks to yet antoher bout of eye problems I'm temporarily blind with a detached retina. Due to this it's gotten me thinking quite abit of pagan materials for the blind and elderly pagans of our community.

Right now all of my printed books are useless to me, which makes me rather sad until this problem is fixed. I thought abotu this the last time, but never got far with it. I haven't worked to contact the Division of BLind services in my state, however, I'mfairly sure that Pagan materials aren't on the top of their list. I know tehre is also the listening library, but agian, pretty sure there aren't any pagan books listed among them.

So, with this said once I get my sight back I want to possibly start a side project to provide large print editions of popular pagan books, with permission of publisher and all, for the pagans of our community like myself with vision issues or for the elderly who need the extra size. I"d liek toe ventually provide braille once I learn how to use it and type it myself and perhaps even audio books in the end.

I'd love to have it be non-profit, but for now it's jsut a rough idea and I'm goign to go to places like Llewellyn and see how, or if, this is possible at all.

I'm sure there are other services out there that iwll take abok and make it large print and possibly braille, but I haven't found tem yet [not that i"v elooked hard yet], hwoever, this owuld be exclusive to the pagan community.

The idea is that I would have people request a book and fi they have a copy in their posession, send it and I"d transfer it to large print or braille and send back their bok along with the finished product. Or if I alreayd have it on hand I"d find out what font would be easiest to read and then adjust it and send it off.

DOing this non-profit would be wonderful, but difficult, it may be something to do down the road once my career as a massage therapist is established, but this is something I feel I want to do.

I know there are some books available in audio, but not many. Also, thanks to Amazon Kindle, at least hte new generation, you can get some books on it and have text-to-speech functionality. HOwever, for some this isn't really feasible and some of us already have the older kindle. Though, I do want to update to the newer version for text to speech eventually.

So, anyway, that is that and apologies for the bad spelling. I'm using Jaws for WIndows and haven't figured out how to do spell check yet. So please forgive the misspellings that I am sure are here due to my quick typing.

Tags: blind, braille, elderly, large, materials, print

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Permalink Reply by MaryAnn on September 2, 2010 at 10:09am

Adaria,
At some point in the past one of our students looked into the possibility of braille books. I don't remember who it was. I will try to find out and see what became of the project. I can also check with our publisher Llewellyn about this as well.

I can understand what you are going through with the detached retina. I had surgery in December on mine. They tell me that my brain will eventually make the floaters "disappear", but so far my brain refuses to do that. Sending you energy and good wishes.

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Permalink Reply by Adaria Tigermoon on September 2, 2010 at 12:19pm

Cool to know. I can't read braille myself, but it's an diea. I haven't noticed hte floaters for a few days ebfore my eye went all worse, but hopefully they wont' be around. I hope yours went allr ight. I'm hoping they can reattach it adn not have it come undone agian evne alittle bit. NOt sure if htey're going to put oil or gas back there yt, I'll know tomrorow night I guess, lol.

Can't wait to see how it goes, I'm managing well enough but I'd liek very much to see the world agian. It's my only eye so... kind of important. Should go smoothly, they are fairly certain they can fix it up good and it's a good hospital, one fo the best eye clinics in teh country from what I've heard. [University of Iowa in Iowa CIty].

Here's to hoping for something good to come of this project idea. It's relaly just a rough idea but it woudl be so beneficial to so many people, evne in our small niche community.

THanks a lot for any help. :D

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin on September 2, 2010 at 12:40pm

Adaria, brilliant idea, and good luck with it... have you checked who publish your books and maybe you can write to them and ask to reprint a few copies in large print, as they will have the book already on computer and much easier to print. They might even "buy" your old book back in exchange for the larger print??

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Permalink Reply by THE ETERNAL WYTCH on September 2, 2010 at 1:58pm

WE SUGGEST THAT YOU CONJURE FOR NEW SIGHT IN THAT WE MEAN HIGHER ENERGY IS AVAILABLE FOR CURING YOU OF THIS SITUATION. PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT YOUR OWN CIRCUMSTANCES RE NOTWITHSTANDING IMPROVEMENT DRAMATICALLY.. BB OF LOVE AND LIGHT.

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Permalink Reply by teddy13ljc on September 2, 2010 at 9:31pm

I suggest contacting the lighthouse in NYC they are a great source for the blind and the blind needs. They can direct you to groups who do this type thing for little or no profit/cost as well as groups who make the audio books. I do know audio books are way more beneficial due to storage size where as braille books take up huge amounts of space and the average book breaks down to 2-3 braille books of the 11 x 14 size. with audio books you can put on cassette, cd or into computer files.

As to help you immediately while this is being looked into. talk to the lighthouse as well as your state blind association about getting a reader. this is a machine in which paper/books, letters ect are placed on a scanner and it scans the book then reads what was scanned outloud..

I wish you the best and am urged to encourage you to embrace this new segment of your life as a learning process that can show you much that the rest of the world can not see due to their visual abilities.

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Permalink Reply by MaryAnn on September 3, 2010 at 8:22am

Adaria, I did forget to mention yesterday that many of our students on the website are blind and they use various reader programs that are designed to read web pages, pdfs, etc. There are many to choose from but you can find some of them here: http://www.afb.org/prodbrowsecatresults.asp?catid=49
PS.. thinking about you and hope your surgery goes well

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Permalink Reply by Megan L Herrod on September 3, 2010 at 3:45pm

I hope that your sight improves...

I have terrible eyesight, but fortunately glasses are able to fix it... problems like yours are extra hard.
Have you tried the PC kindle software? Maybe it can help...

The PC kindle download link is HERE: http://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/pc/download/ref=kcp_pc_dnld_ar

Microsoft has a new add-in "daisy" that makes word docs into accessible docs for the site impaired... i bet you could copy-paste docs into word format and use it there too... and then it can read them back out loud...

Here is the link for the Download : http://sourceforge.net/projects/openxml-daisy/

By the way I have not tried it myself... It is jhust a suggestion!

Anyways Good Luck to you!
Blessed Be!
-Megan

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Permalink Reply by Adaria Tigermoon on September 11, 2010 at 1:16pm

Ok, finally up to replying to this fully now.

First off, surgery update.

It was five hours or so, longer than they expected, but apparently a lot worse than they thought, most of my retina was dead but good portion of it sitll alive and well which they successfully reattached. Been playing the head-down game since Friday and now can lift my head up for breaks up to half hte time, but to be sure I'm doing it less than that. Sleeping on mys tomach is a pain in th ebutt but gotta be done. Today I'm starting to see light thorugh my eye patch which means more light perception. No details yet, but little by little I seem to be seeing more and more light which is better htan nothing.

Go back MOnday morning for update agian and should get better news. Healing up fine, no infection no problems as he can see and as far as day after surgery last week said it looked good for bing first day after. No longer bruised or swollen but now it's occasionally itching, darn stitch.

Will hav emore news MOnday, time on PC sitll sparse as shoudlers and neck can't handle it with my head down.

Ok, nwo to reply at least vaguely to everything you've all said. I just 'read' over them, hee hee, read... heh anyway. I've never heard of the scanner that will scan and read back pages in abook, that owuld be WONDERFUL for all my print pagan books. As far as screen reader, I got jaws and it works for everything except PDF files which I may need to find another program for those just becuase I have, exmaple, Big Blue [bucklands book] that i wanna go through but can't since it's in PD [paperback too but PDF easier to use if I can find a reader that iwll take it].

Kindle for PC won't work with Jaws, doesn'ts eem to be compatible. It seems to not recognize there is text, or something, but thast' OK. I bought Wicked and Eragon on audio CD before surgery t keep me busy. But also got ahold of the first three SOokie Stackhouse books frommy library on CD. So, going to work thorugh those for hte time being.

Hoping to get abck to some form of normality after MOnday, hoping my ban on head position will be lifted where i can t lesat sleep on my side at the very elast. Gah, can't type I feel like i"M looking at my fingers which always messes me up.

Want to say thanks to all the great ideas and I'm going tobe persuing this big time once I do get mys igh tback or back to normality agian. RIgh tnow it's alot of sleep, being slightly bored and just relaxing to heal.

Thanks to all for all the energy and support too. I've been trying not to make a pest of myself on Pagans OTnight, lol, love listening to it too much, been keeping me busy and happy listening to it anyway.
Anywho, still can't figure out how ot spell ehceck using Jaws so apologies. I"ll be back with an update abit sooner than this last time hopefully, first few days are still ablur to me I guess discombobulated. Kinda funny recalling them since I was so out of it from longe surgery and just wahtever. No pain meds, just surgeyr aftermath.

Well anywho this is long enough so thanks agian and i"ll keep checking in for yoru great ideas. The reader thing I am going to look into most definitely.

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Permalink Reply by Rev.Theresa Helton (Moonraven) on September 11, 2010 at 2:43pm

My niece is working with the idea of putting my self-published books into audio book format. She is a trained e-book reader with a recording studio. This type of format might just be a good idea for the blind. Something to look into.

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Permalink Reply by teddy13ljc on September 11, 2010 at 3:46pm

Glad to hear you are doing so well.. Hopefully all will work out good for you.. I could also put you in touch with my sister who has been using Jaws for years as does her husband. They might could help you with things like spell check and such. they also have been very active in the blind community and pushing for things for the blind so may have some contacts for you to use. If you want me to do this PM me and i'll do so.

If there is anything else I can help with please let me know and i'll do my best.. best wishes to your continued recovery .

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Permalink Reply by Adaria Tigermoon on September 13, 2010 at 3:11pm

Quick update on my eye. Just got back a bit ago from the doc, still healing up fine. A small amount of the oil has made it to the front of the eye somehow, but doesn'ts eem tobe doing any harm. There is a blood clot hanging out up there too that wille itehr break apart or just slowly leech out of mye ye, it just means it might make my sight go crummier, but at this point that isn't saying much. I'm seeing abit more light but they relaly have no idea when I will start to 'see' agian, it is really more up to my optic nerve healing, a very very slo process. I expect it iwll get better clsoer to the month marker since surgery. Right now is just healing and keeping an eye on the retina which is sitll attached. There is some cloudiness looking in but no biggie. I am patient as this is out of my hands and just a game of waiting.

I can sleep on my side now, not always, but tnoight I am becuase I slept terribly last night on my stomach, lwoer back issues....

Can keep up my head half the time now, they've done what htey can and just ogng to be a time of watching and waiting. I have no doubts in my mind it is just a waiting game which I am faring well at, better than the last time I was lal blind like this or wlel, just temp blind due to a different issue. [yes, my eye has turned evil on me, but i forgive it :p]

Other than that, just listening to Sookie Stackhouse series on audio cd and flying through those and now that I can keep my head up more, on the PC abit more. May pick up my stagnant WS classes for something to do, I have some other classes at anitoher site but can't figure out where I left off, lol.

Will definitley PM at some point soon on those contacts. I am sitll learning jaws and keyboard commands as a whole so having someone with experience with it would help since I don't have a manual for this [though I am sure I could get one, not big on manual reading... lol]

Thanks agian and I'll keep posted, kind of a dual thread at this point, but it keeps it living and well either way.

Love, LIght and BLessings.