{"id":5374,"date":"2019-09-08T11:24:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T16:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?page_id=5374"},"modified":"2019-09-08T11:27:31","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T16:27:31","slug":"bard-braille-and-audio-reading-download-from-the-national-library-services-nls-free-downloadable-books-and-magazines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?page_id=5374","title":{"rendered":"BARD \u2013 Braille and Audio Reading Download from the National Library Services (NLS): Free Downloadable Books and Magazines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Full Transcript<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Full Transcript<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. Here’s our teen correspondent, Simon Bonenfant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
Hello everyone. On Blind Abilities. This is Simon Bonenfant reporting from Las Vegas, Nevada. I’m here with Tamara from NLS, a National Library Service. How you doing, Tamara?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
I’m good. How are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
I’m very well. Tamara, can you describe to the listeners who maybe have never heard what NLS does and never heard of the program?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
Yeah. It’s for people who are blind or visually impaired or have print related disability. Our Braille books are proofed. We provide those books to libraries across the country. We have a network of libraries that send those books out to our patrons and Free Matter for the Blind. Then when they’re finished with the books, they send them back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
We also have a download service where people who have access to the ability to download can download their own books and listen to them, much like you would an audible book. They can download the Braille and read it on a Braille display. We have a mobile app where they can download it and listen to the books on their smart phone or read the Braille books using their Braille display in their smart phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
I myself use the BARD app a lot. I’m very grateful to the work that you do. Back in the day, I don’t hear much of this anymore, but back in the day they had the cassettes of these to use for the books, the cassette cartridges and all that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
Right. Now for the people who are still using physical matter, we have the digital cartridges. It’s like a USB cartridge that you put into the machine and you can read the books that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
And you also have the NLS book player. But I’m sure that now most people are using it on the other devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
We have people using other devices, but a lot of people are still using the player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
Exactly. There’s also the BARD function on the stream from anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
A lot of third party apps have the ability to download BARD books and play the BARD books. So, there’s probably 20 different devices listed if you look under acceptable players, if you go to BARD. There’s probably about 20 different ones. Many of the note takers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
Yup. Exactly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
Note takers will also play BARD books. The Victor stream, the HIMS products plays easy. All of those play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
Absolutely. BARD is for people with disability. that is correct?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
Yeah. It’s people who are blind or visually impaired or have print related disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
There is no cost to the users, correct?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
Yes, it’s free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
If someone wanted to contact you, is there a phone number or a web address that the customers can contact you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
Couple ways. If they know how to contact their state library, they can call that library directly and then they can get signed up or get more information that way. Or they can call 1-888-NLS-READ. That’s 1-888-657-7323. They will be able to find out which library serves them. From that point, they can then sign up through that local library. If they needed to speak with me directly, they would be welcome to call my direct line at (202) 707-3001, and I could assist them as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
Very good. I would say I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking about it. They have a large collection of books and books are being added and recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
Daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Bonenfant:
On a daily basis, and the catalogs are being updated. They have a Braille. They have audio. Well Tamara, nice to talk with you and thank you for coming on to Blind Abilities for the listeners and telling them all about your NLS BARD. I commend you have a very good service and I’d say keep it up. You really serve the blind and visually impaired population very well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara:
Thank you very much and thank you for talking to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff Thompson:
Thank you Tamara, and thank you, Simon Bonenfant. Be sure to check out all of our 2019 convention coverage right here on Blind Abilities. Enable the Blind Abilities skill on your Amazon device just by saying, “Enable Blind Abilities.” You can download the Blind Abilities podcast onto your Victor Stream, onto any of your pod catchers of choice, Downcast, Overcast, the Apple podcast app in your iDevice. Tune in radio. IHeartRadio. If you’ve got Siri, you got Google, you got Amazon, then you got Blind Abilities. Most importantly, I want to thank you, the listener. I want to thank you for listening. Hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye bye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Music]  [Transition noise]  -When we share<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-What we see<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Through each other’s eyes…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff Thompson:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com On Twitter @BlindAbilities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download our app from the App store:
 ‘Blind Abilities’; that’s two words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or send us an e-mail at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

info@blindabilities.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*****<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact Your State Services<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email<\/a> or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
To find your State Services in your State you can go to www.AFB.org<\/a> and search the directory for your agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for listening!
You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities<\/a>
On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com<\/a>
Send us an email<\/a>
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store<\/a>and Google Play Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the Blind Abilities Community<\/a>on Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page<\/a>, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired<\/a>and the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full Transcript Full Transcript Jeff Thompson:Welcome to Blind Abilities. Here’s our teen correspondent, Simon Bonenfant. Simon Bonenfant:Hello everyone. On Blind Abilities. This is Simon Bonenfant reporting from Las Vegas, Nevada. I’m here with Tamara from NLS, a National Library Service. How you doing, Tamara? Tamara:I’m good. How are you? Simon Bonenfant:I’m very well. Tamara, can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5374","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6rcRg-1oG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5255,"url":"https:\/\/blindabilities.com\/?page_id=5255","url_meta":{"origin":5374,"position":0},"title":"While Popping Popcorn with Alexa, Peter Korn and Simon Bonenfant Talk Echo Show 5, Amazon Fire TV Addition Toshiba TVs and the Affordable Fire Tablets with Braille Support. #NFB19","author":"Blind Abilities Team","date":"July 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Transcript Jeff Thompson:Welcome to Blind Abilities. Here's our teen correspondent, Simon Bonenfant. Simon Bonenfant:Hello, everyone on Blind Abilities. 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