The year has flown past and the brink of a new year is a good time to look back. We hope everyone has a great holiday, whatever you celebrate, and a wonderful new year. Here are the things that caught our attention this fall:

Stuck on the holds list for one of our digital bibles? Audio Bibles for the Blind is now offering a free digital version of the Bible for your digital talking book machine. It works like this: you send them a blank digital cartridge, they load it up with the Bible and mail it back to you. More details are available on the Audio Bibles for the Blind website >>

Seido Karate Program for the Blind and Visually Impaired >>

Google's Self-Driving Car, from IEEE Spectrum.

American Museum of Natural History Science Sense Tours >>

BARD Overview, by the BARD Support Team.

"Brailling Signs is Cool to Do" is a song with a message on the Hadley School for the Blind website.

A Ballet School for Blind Students in São Paulo, Brazil, trains visually impaired and blind dancers, some of whom have become professionals.

AccessText Network is a national membership exchange for alternative electronic higher-education textbooks. Check the website for eligibility and to see if a specific school participates.

Deafblind Artists Give Unique Vision of the World >>

Accessible Multiplication/Division Table Kit, in large print and braille, from APH. The guide book is not sold in braille, but it can be downloaded.

Announcements

Library Ebook Accessibility Program

NYPL is pleased to offer the Library Ebook Accessibility Program (LEAP) to readers with print disabilities. Patrons with visual impairments, physical disabilities that affect their ability to read print, and reading disabilities with a physical basis are eligible for LEAP.

LEAP is made possible through the partnership of Overdrive and Bookshare, a nonprofit agency which provides ebook access to individuals with print disabilities. Participation in LEAP provides one year of access to Bookshare’s 70,000 digital books, textbooks, newspapers and magazines. While Bookshare’s collection is not identical to the ebook collection that Overdrive supplies to the Library, visually impaired readers will have full access to Bookshare’s extensive catalog on a variety of subjects. Other LEAP benefits include:

• On demand access to 20 downloads per month for 12 months, with no holds list or wait time
• Books in DAISY and Braille Ready Formats compatible with computers, assistive reading devices, braille printers and MP3 players
• Two free computer software applications that convert text to speech: Victor Reader Soft Bookshare Edition (PC Only) R Read: OutLoud Version 6 Bookshare Edition (PC and Mac)

To register, eligible patrons can follow the links on the ebooks.nypl.org page to create a Bookshare account. Patrons are provided information on how to enter their library card number and enroll in the program. Note: All eligible students (K-12, college, and graduate) are entitled to free Bookshare memberships and can register directly at Bookshare.org

Upgrade Available for National Library Service Digital Players

The National Library Service has issued a software upgrade for the NLS digital players. Version 2.1.7 includes the following enhancements: 

• A new user guide and key describer message discusses the use of the “bookshelf feature.”
• USB flash drives connected to the side AT port are no longer suspended between uses by default. This will mean that all conventional USB flash drives can be used to play books, albeit with a 30 percent reduction in available battery play time.
• Books on a multi-book cartridge are now ordered by alpha-numeric folder and filename.

You may upgrade your player by going to the NLS Firmware site.

BARD with Internet Explorer 9

If you're having trouble using BARD with IE 9, here's advice from the National Library Service:

When you download a book with Internet Explorer 9, the prompt to download or save appears in the Information bar. You have two options for handling this. One is to press Alt-N, which leads you to the Information bar, where you can choose whether to open or save the file. The other is to press Alt-S, which bypasses the Information bar and saves the file.