🚀 go-pugleaf

                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 988

                            Friday, July 23, 1993

Today's Topics:


                                ******


            (1 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners
            (2 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners
            (3 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners
            (4 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners
            (5 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners


                                ******


To subscribe to the Blind News Digest mailing list or have your
thoughts in the next issue, please send electronic mail to
Bill McGarry at any of the following addresses:


UUCP:       uunet!bunker!wtm
INTERNET:   wtm@bunker.shel.isc-br.com
BITNET:     blindnws@ndsuvm1.bitnet
Fidonet:    The Handicap News BBS (141/420)   1-203-337-1607
            (300/1200/2400 baud, 24 hours)
Compuserve: 73170,1064

                              Bill McGarry (Moderator)
                              (203) 337-1518



------



Subject: (1 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners
From: jason@rnib.demon.co.uk (Jason Arthurs)
Organization: R.N.I.B.

I'm posting this text which was compiled by the National Council for Education
Technology (NCET) in the UK as a result of a project to give visually impaired
users access to CD-ROM.

The text is split into five pieces for the benefit of people whose host
systems can't handle excessively long messages. I'll also be uploading it
to the shel.isc-br.com disabilities site with the name OLVI.TXT



------

------

Opening the Library to Visually Impaired Learners

Access to Books

Many tasks set for pupils of all ages assume the ability to read
information from books. This is a problem for visually impaired
pupils who require material in accessible media such as braille,
large print or audiotape. These media are expensive to prepare
and are in short supply.

The benefits of using CD-ROM in mainstream schools have been
widely recognised and many school libraries and resource rooms
now have at least one workstation with a CD-ROM drive. By the
addition of programs which provide speech output and screen
magnification on a desktop computer (such as an IBM PC) with a
CD-ROM drive, it is possible for visually impaired pupils to
have independent access to large amounts of material, ideal for
topic work and with relevance in many curriculum subjects.

During 1992 a collaborative project by the Open University and
The Royal National Institute for the Blind explored the benefits
of a CD-ROM workstation with speech output and screen
magnification for pupils with a wide range of age and degree of
visual impairment.

The teachers and lecturers at the schools and college taking
part in the project were very positive that the technology could
improve access to books, particularly reference material such as
encyclopedias, for most of their pupils. They found it
stimulating and a challenge, both to themselves and to their
pupils. Giving pupils independent access to books means that
more targets in the National Curriculum are attainable.

For blind pupils it is a new experience to have control over
searching and reading reference material. There are gains for
partially sighted pupils too, electronic searching is very fast,
and magnification of the text on the screen allows pupils to
read text in their preferred size and colour combination.

At Tapton School for example, where pupils are integrated into a
mainstream secondary school, it used to be the case that for
some activities such as library research, visually impaired
pupils were not expected to be able to contribute much. Although
they have a braille encyclopedia, its content is limited and
even experienced adult braille users find searching a
multi-volume publication a daunting task. This no longer
happens, they can go to the Resource Unit and search two
comprehensive modern encyclopedias on CD-ROM and make copies of
information in braille or large print. In some lessons they are
able to contribute more information than the sighted pupils, who
do not yet have access to a CD-ROM workstation. The head of the
Resource Unit commented: "It makes the kids feel good - they are
ahead for the first time.

Visually impaired children like using computers as much as
sighted children do. They have been using them since they first
became available, sometimes without any adaptations. One 8 year
old partially sighted boy was overheard suggesting to his
friend: "Let's go and do it [write a story] on the computer, we
won't have to do any work then."

Staff reported that the encyclopedias on CD-ROM with pictures
and sounds have encouraged partially sighted children to
practise using their remaining sight.

It has also been found to be a very valuable tool for
stimulating discussions over a wide range of subjects. A
question raised during discussion can be quickly followed up by
starting a new search.

There are advantages in using CD-ROM for any pupils who have
problems with handling printed books. Priestly Smith School
shares a site with schools for physically impaired and hearing
impaired children and many of their pupils have used the
workstation. They find a CD-ROM disc and a keyboard easier to
manipulate than a print book, which may be too heavy or have
pages which are difficult to turn. Any pupils who have
difficulty interpreting written text may find speech output a
valuable reinforcement.

The schools and college and individual staff members had
different ways of integrating the workstation into the resources
available. The most common model was that it was used as a tool
by the pupils, they were encouraged to use speech output and
braille and large print labels were put on the disc holders to
give them control over the whole process of research from a
'library'. Accessible facilities for printing and braille
embossing completed the process. At one school it was mainly
used by staff for production of braille and large print
information.

All of the school sites have said that one workstation is not
enough, some have made bids for funds for more equipment.
Putting the Learner in Control

Conventional methods of providing reference material for
visually impaired pupils rely on someone selecting material from
available printed books and deciding which are the essential
sections. As this is time-consuming and costly, the amount of
material is often kept to a minimum. It is then either brailled
(or braille copy is ordered), enlarged or read aloud, directly
or taped. This bypasses two stages of the search process,
selecting a book from a shelf and choosing an extract from the
book. The person who decides which material and how much of it,
may be a teacher, a classroom assistant, a library assistant or
a volunteer personal reader.

The CD-ROM workstation gives the control back to the pupil by
giving access to all of the original material. The pupil can
decide which disc to use and what to search for. The workstation
will read out only what is there, as many times as necessary,
leaving the pupil to interpret it. Having found (or not found)
relevant material, they can decide what to do with it, make
notes, save all or part for editing later, print it or braille
it. This process quickly becomes routine, as an 11 year old
blind girl put it: "You just get the disc, put it in, switch on
the buttons. I don't need to listen to the menu any more, just
press 1, 1 and 1 for the information disc."

An interesting development is the use of the CD-ROM to browse
the encyclopedias for subjects of personal interest. One child's
family had recently bought a pet garter snake, the pet shop was
unable to supply much information, but both encyclopedias had
articles about them and the Grolier Encyclopedia had a picture.
Other 'hobby' topics found were radio wave bands, wind power,
science fiction films and musical instrument sounds. Several
pupils commented that they could not do this kind of browsing
with the conventional resources available to them.

Another exciting feature of searching books on CD-ROM is finding
information which is unexpected. Sighted pupils are surrounded
by printed information which they can choose to ignore,
advertising hoardings, book covers, food labels, posters,
magazine racks, all make them aware of information which is
available if it is needed. Blind pupils have to seek out
information and may not know how much material exists on a
particular subject. As a teacher pointed out: "It's no use
asking a blind child if she would like access to a newspaper if
she doesn't know what's in one."

Computer searches often give a list of article titles containing
a search word, only one may be strictly relevant, but listening
to the list alerts the pupil to possibilities for exploring.
Sophisticated search techniques allow the information to be kept
to a manageable level. Although there may not be time to read
all the articles relating to a search, the pupil is made aware
of the amount of material which is on the CD disc for future
use. Teachers reported several children exploring information in
this way, something which they cannot do with any other tool.
"He sometimes just loads it [extracts from The Times and Sunday
Times] into his laptop and listens to it with LetterPerfect."

--
+

------

-------+
I Regards,       This message represents personal views and are not the views I
I Jason Arthurs, necessarily endorsed by the R.N.I.B.                         I
+

------

-------+




------



Subject: (2 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners
From: jason@rnib.demon.co.uk (Jason Arthurs)
Organization: R.N.I.B.

Providing Access to Books

Books and other printed material is accessible if it is in a
medium which can be used by a visually impaired person. It may
be braille, large or enhanced print, audiotape, tactile diagram
or output from a computer with access technology. The most
effective medium for a particular task depends on the functional
skills of the pupil and the reason for needing access to the
material.

Provision of new material depends on a person being available to
key it in, enlarge it on a photocopier, braille it or make a
tactile copy. It may be several months before a newly published
title is ready in braille.

CD-ROM discs are a huge source of up-to-date information for
translation into accessible media. Electronic text is machine
readable, once it has been created, computer based tools can be
used to translate it into braille or large print or to transfer
to an accessible device such as a braille computer. This was
recognised by some schools before the possibility of access to
the text directly. "We wanted a class of braille and large print
users to read a scene from Romeo and Juliet, it would have taken
several months to get new copies of the complete play from the
RNIB service. We just dumped the scene from the CD-ROM and had 5
braille copies and 3 large print copies in time for the lesson
the next day."

CD-ROM discs are not specific products for visually impaired
people, there is no added cost because it is a special version
for one or two people. The cost of an encyclopedia on disc is
often less than that of the publishers print version.
Compilations of books which are 'out of copyright' are
available, either as hundreds of 'plain text' files or as
collections of one author incorporated into a database with
searching tools, for 30 to 50.

Once material has been prepared for computer braille embossing
and stored on disk, any number of copies can be made for the
cost of the paper, these can be treated as consumable. A head
teacher commented: "We can let them take it home now, and tell
them they can throw it away when they've finished with it. You
couldn't do that before."

Unlike braille which is very bulky, CD-ROM discs are small and
light. They can be stored in caddies which can have a large
print or braille label. A single disc can hold many volumes of a
print encyclopedia or the complete works of an author, William
Shakespeare or Jane Austen for example.

Saving Time

Reading and Writing For some pupils the physical act of reading
is so slow and difficult that very little of what is read is
absorbed. A 14 year old girl commented:

"You have to remember the  [braille code] signs and then
remember the words."

A teacher pointed out: "Some of our partially sighted pupils
have a reading speed of about 40 words per minute which affects
their concentration."

Although some additional skills are needed to use a computer
with enabling technology, young pupils or those with less
ability can use the equipment at a simple level, and still get
useful information. For example, to hear a page of information
about 'cats', from the first menu screen you need only press the
'1' key 3 times, press any single key, then type the word 'cat'
and press the 'Return' key.

The CD-ROM books often allow extracts to be transferred to a
floppy disk, this can be used with another electronic writing
device for editing, perhaps another computer or a portable
computer with a braille keyboard. These can be used with
conventional printers to provide copy for marking or sharing
with sighted peers.

By using the CD-ROM with appropriate enabling methods, the
skills of reading and writing, can be detached from the skills
of understanding information presented as text.

Searching Visually impaired pupils can use the powerful
searching features of CD-ROMs to access information as fast as,
and often faster than, sighted peers using a standard print
library. The speed of the computer is used to narrow down
information to a manageable amount, freeing the time for reading
the content.

Integrating CD-ROM into the Classroom

The CD-ROM workstation is one more tool which can be used to
help to give visually impaired pupils the same opportunities as
sighted peers. The project system was designed to give simple
and fast access to information and pupils are already using it
to carry out tasks which they could not do without the
technology.

A computer is very good at information processing, a task which
can be very tedious using more traditional methods. The
teacher's skill and experience must be used to decide which tool
is most appropriate for each pupil at each stage of development
and for each particular task.

Topic work can be used to reinforce conventional communication
methods, such as reading and handwriting using low vision aids
or braille. However, for those who are so slow that they cannot
yet process useful amounts of information, the CD-ROM
workstation frees them from the need to read or write and
enables them to concentrate on the content of the topic
material.

In some specialist schools for visually impaired children, time
and resource constraints have lead to teaching styles which rely
heavily on 'pre-digested' material. The CD-ROM workstation
offers an opportunity for teachers to develop methods which are
closer to those used to teach the National Curriculum in
mainstream schools.

As they progress, pupils need to be able to use more screen
reading techniques to enhance their basic use and to develop
strategies for dealing with reference material. Schools which
are using access technology need to consider where in their
school is the most appropriate setting for teaching the use of
speech output and screen magnification, in the same way as they
take responsibility for teaching braille and mobility training.

The availability of accessible material for topic work can free
teachers from repetitive tasks such as reading material onto
tape and manual brailling, leaving more time for teaching. It
leaves more time for  skilled tasks which a computer cannot yet
do. A science teacher commented: "If I have text from a CD-ROM
disc, I can use the computer to braille it, leaving more time
for me to do diagrams to go with it."

IT skills and the National Curriculum

The CD-ROM workstation provides a wide range of material on many
subjects, relevant in all areas of the curriculum, from Science
to Sport. Teachers can ask visually impaired children to do
their own research, and allow them to explore a much richer
'text' source than is available in braille and large print.

The National Curriculum also expects pupils at all levels to
have opportunities to use a computer to process information.
Most of the CD-ROM encyclopedias are very large databases, some
have very powerful searching features. Teachers can use them to
cover all aspects of the search process, as well as to retrieve
and process information. The wordprocessor can be used to amend
information, organise it, prepare it for presentation and store
it in an appropriate format.

The workstation could also be used for other aspects of IT, the
same enabling programs can be used effectively with
communication, database creation and spreadsheet applications.

< continued >
--
+

------

-------+
I Regards,       This message represents personal views and are not the views I
I Jason Arthurs, necessarily endorsed by the R.N.I.B.                         I
+

------

-------+




------



Subject: (3 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners
From: jason@rnib.demon.co.uk (Jason Arthurs)
Organization: R.N.I.B.


The Project

CD-ROM for Visually Impaired Learners: Accessing the Curriculum

Information in this booklet is based on findings from a project
to investigate the use of CD-ROM technology to enhance access to
the curriculum for visually impaired pupils, which was carried
out between January 1992 and March 1993, following the
mainstream CD-ROM in Schools initiative. The project was carried
out by the Open University and the Royal National Institute for
the Blind, it was funded by the Department for Education and
managed by the National Council for Educational Technology.

The aim of the project was to bring together existing CD-ROM
technology and enabling programs (providing speech output and
magnification) in a system suitable for use in an educational
resource area, which could be used independently by visually
impaired pupils to improve access to the National Curriculum.

Four schools and one college were chosen as sites for the
project, covering pupils with a range of ages, degrees of visual
impairment and amounts of integration into mainstream schools.

Each site was provided with CD-ROM discs and speech output and
screen magnification programs. A simple to use menu system was
devised so that the systems could be used by pupils with
different functional needs, in libraries or resource rooms.

Two formal training days were provided for staff and pupils at
each site backed up with information booklets and informal
telephone support.

During the project, the speech output and screen magnification
programs were configured to give optimum presentation of
information to a visually impaired person. Booklets for each
CD-ROM disc which worked with the enabling programs were
prepared, containing a quick reference guide to the main
features of the program and a section detailing its use with
speech output or magnification, for example, Information Finder
and HAL Screen Reader. Technical information was documented in
booklets describing the features of the workstation, Using the
Project Equipment and The Menu System.

The system developed was straightforward enough for young
children and less able pupils to use at a simple level. Complex
features were available so that more able pupils and older
pupils could explore further and use the workstation
independently.

Project Sites

Exhall Grange School, Coventry A School for visually impaired
pupils from 4 to 19 years.

Priestly Smith School, Birmingham A School for visually impaired
pupils from 2 to 18 years.

Tapton School, Sheffield A Unit for visually impaired pupils in
a mainstream Secondary School.

RNIB New College, Worcester A residential Secondary School for
visually impaired pupils.

RNIB Vocational College, Loughborough A Further Education
College for visually impaired adults.

What is CD-ROM?

CD-ROM is a new medium for permanent storage of large amounts of
computer data. A CD-ROM disc looks the same as an audio CD disc
and is used in a special computer disk drive, a CD-ROM drive.
Although it appears to be quite different, the computer sees it
as a very large floppy disk which cannot be overwritten (the
name stands for Compact Disc - Read Only Memory).

A single CD-ROM disc can hold as much as 600 of the 3.5 inch
floppy disks, the equivalent of 250,000 printed pages or 2,000
average size books. This makes it ideal for publishing
encyclopedias, books and multimedia educational material.

The CD-ROM Workstation

The core workstation at each site was based on: An IBM
compatible PC with 386 processor A VGA colour monitor A CD-ROM
drive A Printer capable of producing large clear print HAL
Screen Reader and Apollo speech synthesizer Lunar screen text
enlarger A wordprocessing program, usually LetterPerfect A menu
system and other software utilities

At current prices (May 1993) it is estimated that a complete
workstation and a reasonable number of CD-ROM discs would cost
about 2500. Schools may already have some of the items and at
some sites it may be desirable to add a braille embosser to the
same computer.

< continued >
--
+

------

-------+
I Regards,       This message represents personal views and are not the views I
I Jason Arthurs, necessarily endorsed by the R.N.I.B.                         I
+

------

-------+




------



Subject: (4 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners
From: jason@rnib.demon.co.uk (Jason Arthurs)
Organization: R.N.I.B.


Skills for Further Education and Employment

The same or similar enabling technology is becoming standard in
further education and employment. Visually impaired people can
use industry standard computer applications, enhancing
integration and equality. A person being considered for
employment or a place on a training course is in a better
position to discuss their needs if they are already familiar
with tools which enable them to use the same computer
applications as colleagues.

Independence

All the findings from the project point to an increase in
independence of access to information which is a major
enhancement for visually impaired pupils. Teachers are
enthusiastic, they see it as the beginning of a revolution in
access to information and independent learning for visually
impaired pupils. "It has opened up a whole new world to me. It's
pushed back the boundaries of what is possible." [adult blind
student] "She has just lost what remaining sight she had for
reading print and described the new CD-ROM system as 'brilliant
- really good', spending many a lunch hour browsing through the
Grolier as well as working for her A-levels." [teacher] "To do
things yourself is a bonus, I'm glad we've got it." [year 8
pupil]

Learners' Experiences

Ann

Ann is partially sighted, she can read text more comfortably
from a computer screen set to white on black, than from printed
text. She is studying A-level English and found the Collected
Works of Jane Austen CD-ROM disc very helpful. She could use the
search tools and index menus to check cross-references, it was
much more convenient than manipulating six printed books using a
magnifier.

Catherine

Catherine is blind and integrated into a mainstream class, year
8, for most lessons. Her class were beginning a project on
Brazil. She came to the resource room for a session to look up
information for herself. She switched on the system and her
portable PC and found the Information Finder disc from the stack
of braille labelled discs.

She found the article on Brazil, making no mistakes in the
keypresses needed, and was able to begin listening within a few
minutes of sitting down at the computer.

She spent some time listening to the first page of the article
before starting to make notes. She listened to a few lines then
made notes on her portable, in a similar way to a sighted child
reading a textbook and making notes on paper.

Rob

Rob is blind and integrated into a mainstream class, year 11,
for all lessons. He needs to improve his vocabulary, so whenever
he hears a word he doesn't understand, he makes a note of it on
his Eureka (a portable computer with a braille keyboard and
speech output). When he has a free period he goes to the
resource room and looks up the words using the Information
Finder disc. He needed help for the first two sessions, but can
now do it himself. So far he has found information about all the
words he has looked up.

Children like Ann, Catherine and Rob are getting significantly
better grades for their work since they have had regular use of
a CD-ROM workstation.

Speech Output and Screen Magnification

HAL Screen Reader

This program monitors keyboard and screen activity and sends
output to a speech synthesizer which is connected to the
computer by a cable. It is loaded then remains active even when
other applications are running (a memory resident program). The
program and the Apollo speech synthesizer are supplied by
Dolphin Systems (Tel 0905 754577).

When HAL Screen Reader is used in its simplest form, it reads
out all text as it appears on the screen, from left to right in
lines down the screen. This can be confusing if an application
displays information in windows, as parts of each window are
read out and mixed together. It is similar to the effect which
would be produced if a newspaper with several columns were read
through a single line slit across the width of a page.

HAL Screen Reader can be configured so that automatic speech
output is restricted to a defined area of the screen, for
example, the area which a CD-ROM encyclopedia uses to display
the text of an article, allowing the text to be read a page at a
time. A particular colour combination can be defined as the
highlight colours and this is then linked to the up and down
cursor movement, useful for reading out the currently
highlighted menu option. The complete screen is still accessible
using combinations of keys to give HAL Screen Reader commands.
This results in only the most important information on each
screen being read out automatically, with a dramatic increase in
usability.

This configuration has to be done for each screen layout, but
configurations can be saved and then called up automatically as
the CD-ROM application is running.. Configuration files, also
called environment files, have been created for the accessible
discs used in the project.

It is still not possible for pupils who are dependent on speech
output to scan text in the same way as a print reader does, but
there are options to increase the rate of the speech output or
ignore words such as 'and' and 'the'. Experienced users take
advantage of automatic muting, moving on to the next action as
soon as they recognize the first syllable of a menu item. The
program also has tools for reading words, lines or highlighted
text, spelling words out and other useful features.

Lunar

Lunar is another memory resident program, it re-displays the
text on the screen in a choice of magnified sizes. It can also
be used to alter any colour combination to any other combination.

When the text is magnified, only a portion of the screen can be
displayed at a time. Lunar tries to centre the area displayed on
the active cursor. This is ideal for wordprocessing or data
entry, but the CD-ROM encyclopedias do not usually have a moving
cursor as the text is not intended to be changed. A mouse can be
used to move the displayed area, this is not very useful for
reading across lines. Lunar has the ability to define windows on
the screen for which text can be displayed in a different
'mode'. This can be either filling only the visible area with
the text temporarily reformatted to fit, or it can be displayed
as a single line scrolling across the screen. Stopping and
starting scrolling are controlled by pressing a key and the
speed can be changed to suit individual reading speeds.

Lunar can be configured to follow a highlight colour instead of
the real cursor and windows can be defined and fixed so that
they are displayed as soon as they appear.

As with HAL Screen Reader, configurations can be saved and
loaded automatically.

< continued >

--
+

------

-------+
I Regards,       This message represents personal views and are not the views I
I Jason Arthurs, necessarily endorsed by the R.N.I.B.                         I
+

------

-------+




------



Subject: (5 of 5) CD-ROM access for visually impaired learners
From: jason@rnib.demon.co.uk (Jason Arthurs)
Organization: R.N.I.B.


Access Problems

1   Learners may have little control over the choice of
reference material.

2   Library books in braille, large print or on audiotape are
expensive and restricted in range.

3   Visually impaired pupils need more time than sighted pupils
to carry out many study related tasks.

With CD-ROM Technology

1   Learners can have independent control of the search and
retrieval of huge amounts of reference material.

2   Information can be extracted and output as large print or
braille very quickly.

3   The computer speeds up the search time, freeing time to
concentrate on the information found.

The CD-ROM  Discs

Information Finder

This is an electronic version of the World Book encyclopedia
(USA), with 17,000 articles and 1,700 tables. The CD-ROM version
uses a text-retrieval program to locate and display the articles
and tables. It has 2 modes for searching, Topic or Keyword. The
default Topic Mode is suitable for novice users, the Keyword
Mode offers opportunities for complex searches. Articles or
parts of articles can be printed directly or saved to a text
file.

The information on a topic is usually organised so that the
first paragraph displayed is a description of the topic in
simple language, accessible by children aged about 9 years, with
detailed information following which is appropriate for older
pupils and adults. It has an outline feature, allowing the user
to navigate using sub-headings. It also has a simple dictionary
feature (139,000 main entries).

The output is text only, displayed in windows on the screen. It
is compatible with the speech output and magnification programs
used in the project, although the window arrangements and the
key combinations require some configuration of the enabling
programs to make them more useable.

Over all the school sites, this is the most popular CD-ROM,
particularly for blind children.

Software Toolworks Illustrated Encyclopedia (Grolier)

This is an electronic version of the Grolier College
Encyclopedia (USA), with 30,000 articles, thousands of pictures,
sound clips and maps. (The project used version 2.1 of the
Grolier Encyclopedia, a version which has sound and picture
features, not most recent version which has video clips.) It
uses a series of sections from menus to search for articles
through different routes, by title or keyword or from an index.
It allows for complex as well as simple searching. Articles or
parts of articles can be printed directly or saved to a text
file.

The language and content are generally less accessible for
younger children but it contains information which is suitable
for A-level and FE college students. The more difficult content
is balanced by the sound and picture features, for example,
pictures of animals can be displayed, with the sounds they make
played simultaneously. This has been a valuable tool for
encouraging children to use any remaining vision and for
reinforcing listening skills.

The textual elements are displayed as text, not graphics as in
some 'multimedia' encyclopedias. This means that it is
compatible with the speech output and magnification programs,
although the window arrangements and the key combinations
require some configuration of the enabling programs to make them
more useable. The pictures can still be displayed, but the
'graphics' captions associated with them are not read by the
speech output program.

This CD-ROM is popular with both partially sighted and blind
children.

The Times and Sunday Times

This CD-ROM is a collection of articles from the Times and
Sunday Times newspapers. There are versions covering different
periods. Beginning in 1990, each year is available as 3, 6 or 9
months or the complete year. The stories can be searched by
Section of Paper, Date Range, Byline, or Text. More recent
editions allow complex as well as simple searching. Recent
editions also contain pictures.

It is compatible with the speech output and magnification
programs, although the screen layout requires some configuration
of the enabling programs to make them more useable.

Use of this disc has been intermittent. It has been used mainly
by more able pupils and adult pupils, for study and personal
interest.

Shakespeare on Disc (DiscPassage version)

This CD-ROM disc contains the text of the complete works of
William Shakespeare. It uses a text retrieval program for
searching and displaying any required scene. Searching can be
done either by stepping through menu options by title, act and
scene, or by simple or complex word searches. For example, this
allows the user to identify all the scenes relevant to a
literary theme.

The menus are displayed in overlapping windows on the screen. It
is compatible with the speech output and magnification programs,
although the screen layout require some configuration of the
enabling programs to make them more useable.

The disc has been used at one school to produce cheap accessible
copies of a scene from Romeo and Juliet. It has been used at
another by an A-level English student. The need for this type of
material varies with the number of pupils who are studying
Shakespeare, there were too few individuals at the project sites
who needed it, to be able to make any judgement of its
usefulness.

Mammals

This is one of the first 'multimedia' discs published
specifically for the education market. It has textual
information about mammals, photos, film clips and sound. It has
a very visual interface and depends on use of a mouse to make
selections from menus and click on icons. Information can be
printed out directly, but this CD-ROM does not allow saving to
floppy disk. (At 2 schools a utility was added to divert text
from the printer to a text file so that information could be
brailled.)

It is a very useful disc for stimulating discussion and
encouraging engagement. It is not compatible with speech output
or the screen magnification used in the project (it is
compatible with new access programs which enlarge graphics
programs).

It was included as part of the project because most of the sites
already had it and it was popular with partially sighted
children. Blind children also seemed to enjoy using it for the
sounds if they were working with sighted help.

World Atlas

This CD-ROM disc contains an interactive atlas. Starting from a
map of the world, the user can display more detailed continent
and country maps by moving the mouse pointer to a name and
clicking a mouse button.  In addition to the maps, the atlas
displays statistical data and textual information. Graphs of the
data can be created. Maps and data can be printed and data can
be saved to a floppy disk.

As with Mammals, it is not compatible with speech output or the
screen magnification used in the project.

It has been used by the project sites occasionally, for copies
of maps which can be enlarged on a photocopier and used to
produce tactile maps. The colours used for the map display give
very poor contrast and only a few partially sighted pupils can
use it directly.

The full text is available from the shel.isc-br.com FTP site as OLVI.TXT

--
+

------

-------+
I Regards,       This message represents personal views and are not the views I
I Jason Arthurs, necessarily endorsed by the R.N.I.B.                         I
+

------

-------+




------






                                ******

                 End of Issue # 988 of the Blind News Digest

                                ******