Hello, everyone, and welcome to Life After Blindness. This is the podcast where we are dedicated to the exploration of an enabled life with blindness. My name is Tim Schwartz, and I'd like to thank you so very much for tuning in to the podcast. On today's show, we're going to be discussing audiobooks and more specifically a skill for the Amazon Echo called RNIB Talking Books.
But first, if you have any questions or comments for me about the show or anything else, please send your emails to Tim@lifeafterblindness.com. Again, that's Tim@lifeafterblindness.com. Joining me now to discuss the RNIB talking book skill is the host of The Echo Show and the Dot to Dot podcast, as well as a plethora of other podcasts that he is a co host on. From AbilityNet, Robin Kristofferson. Robin, welcome to Life After Blindness. Tim, thank you so much for having me on. Real pleasure.
So I wanted to have you on because you are, of course, the, you know, all around aficionado when it comes to the Amazon Echo and its, devices and skills. Of course, having the Echo Show and the dot dot podcast, which I do highly recommend people go check out. And so having you on to discuss this, I think, is beneficial because, of course, you are in The UK and you do use a skill like this.
And so I wanted to start off this conversation by asking you about the importance of a skill like this being on a device like the Amazon Echo. This is this is pretty, good news for people in the blind and visually impaired community, isn't it? Absolutely. So if people don't already have echoes scattered all over the house, why not? It's just so brilliant. Yeah. So, the doctor.dot podcast, we're into nearly 1,800 episodes. It's a daily show and we haven't even begun to scratch the surface.
So, these devices are useful. And if you've got a vision impairment like we have, I can't see at all, then, you know, they are a gift, aren't they? Because you can just talk to the air and all kinds of amazing things can happen, the vast majority of which are free. And when it comes to talking books, I mean, you know, blind people love their books or at least I do. Live in books and podcasts and family and work, those are my kind of main things I do. In that order or not always necessarily in
that order? I was just clutching at straws there. No. Yes. Don't ask me to prioritize them. But, I probably got about four or maybe five books on the go at the moment. Yeah. So do I? You know, yeah. Just, you know, which one do I fancy carrying on? My latest Ken Follett or this murder mystery over here or a free book from Audible this month. Guys did you know that there are at least two or three free titles each month that you can get the A Lady to read to you?
You just ask her what are your free audiobooks this month. So yeah, we can get books out of the echo. I call her the A lady because I don't want to trigger anyone's. And so having a skill, skills are like apps for your mobile phone. They're called skills on on the echo devices. Having a skill that can give you all of the free audiobooks that's a service like the RNIB's, reading services
service. God, that sounds terrible. The talking book service here in The UK, it's called RNIB Reading Services, gives you is is absolutely brilliant. Historically, they've been available on specialist devices, originally tape decks, and then digital talking books machines and that sort of thing. But to have them streamed directly to a really affordable device like your Echo is a game changer really. And you don't
have to lug anything around the house. You can just go into whichever room you want, and hopefully, it will pick up exactly where you left off. And that is really the the key point here. I always say that the Echo devices are accessibility by accident in a way because it is just all powered by your voice. And having a skill on a device like that, yes, there are some Echo devices that
are, you know, more much more expensive. But to get into an Amazon Echo device, you can get them for, you know, 20 to $30 slash pounds and have an accessible device right out of the box where you can access things like this. Absolutely. Now accessibility to me, because my day job with AbilityNet that you mentioned, we're a pan disability technology organization. So, accessibility in my mind and in the eight hours a day that I talk about it with with people is much broader than just vision
impairment. So, kind of part of me wants to say, yes, you know, when it comes to to, being blind, you know, these are absolutely brilliant and probably are kind of we're the accidental beneficiaries of such a brilliantly relevant device for us. You talk and it speaks back to you. But, you know, disability is so much broader than that, and there are, they have put a lot of effort into making all of the devices work for people with a range of disabilities.
And even vision impairment, you know, doesn't we don't necessarily have our full disability quotient just because we've got a vision impairment. Sure. You know, my hearing's going. Dexterity will kinda go as well. And, you know, so the devices with screens have loads of accessibility features built in. Like, you know, what is spoken comes up on the screen for people with a hearing impairment.
If you can't speak then you can tap to a l e x a or have an on screen keyboard or, you know, pick from commonly used phrases on screen. There's just so much stuff built in. So regardless of what impairment you've got, I think it's safe to say there will be an echo device for you. But, yeah, you're absolutely right. Just the very, very simple, inexpensive ones, the dots, for example, are perfect for us. What I like, just as an aside, is I can speed that voice up too. Yeah.
It's so nice. I mean, you can slow it down, of course, and make it really, really, you know, slag along, but speeding it up and just, it's just it's just so nice. So then that being said, Robin, this particular skill, if if people want to access it, they just really need to have a login and password to the RNIB, talking book library. Correct? Yeah. Absolutely. So here in The UK, if you contact the RNIB, then, they'll need some evidence of your vision impairment.
And then you can access this free talking book service. I guess a bit like Bard. I'm not too familiar with Bard. I don't know if you have a skill over there for the echo. But that's your equivalent talking book service, isn't it, for visually impaired people? It is. Yes. Yeah. So, yeah. Once you've got once you've been signed up, they you know, you will then get your login details. When you ask the ALAD here in The UK, I think it's available in The States as
well for It is actually. Yeah. And and I I installed the skill, and it asked for a name and a password. Of course, I don't have one, but I haven't contacted RNIB to see if if I also can provide, you know, some sort of proof of my visual impairment even from The States. No. I'm
not sure about that one. So we'll we'll kind of bookmark that, earmark that for for later question because maybe I'll get somebody there to to answer that because they did make it available in The United States skill stores. So I would have to hope allowed to access your BARD. So I guess that's the problem. The same the other way around. It's very possible, but the fact that it's there is
intriguing. But Yeah. Either way so, you know, give a give a shout out to to or a call to RNIB, and maybe maybe we can get access. But for the listeners, specifically in UK, that we know for a fact that can access this, once you contact the RNIB, you get your name, you get your password or username, I should say, and password. You you sync it up, for anybody who's not familiar with that. So you download the skill or enable the skill, and then you have to go into the actual,
Lady a app to connect the account. Correct? Yeah. So you would just say to your echo, a lady. Enable RNIB talking books. That's the name of the skill. Then she'll tell you you have to go to the app on your phone to log in. So, yeah, you just do that with a couple of taps. Put in your details and that's a one time thing. Then go back to the echo and say,
open talking open RNIB talking books. And then you get different options about finding books, resuming the book that you're currently listening to, etcetera. And we can have a listen to what that sounds like if you like. Absolutely. Go ahead and, yeah, show us how it works, Robin. Okay. Alexa, open RNIB talking books. Hello again. Would you like to continue playing Dirk Gendly's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams? No. To search for a book, say find followed by the title.
Find So Long and Thanks for All the Fish. I found So Long and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams. To read from the beginning, say start or choose one of the following, Table of contents, or description. Table of contents. To pick so long, and thanks for all the fish, say one. To pick introduction, say two. To pick prologue, say three. To pick chapter o one, say four. To pick chapter o two, say five. To hear the next chapters, say next. Four. Great. Enjoy your book.
When you are done reading, say cancel. Usually takes a second to start. Track one. So long, and thanks for all the fish by Douglas Adams. Prologue. Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy Alexa. Lie Cancel. You are back to so long, and thanks for all the fish. To continue reading from the last moment, say continue. To read from the beginning Alexa. Say start. List books by h g Wells. I got 13 books matching HG Wells.
You can interrupt me at any time by saying Alexa. Say the number matching the book on the list. To pick The Invisible Man by HG Wells, say one. To pick The Shape of Things to Come by HG Wells, say two. Alexa. To pick the I Stop. See you next time. So hopefully, that gave you an idea of, you know, how you can find authors, find titles, etcetera. As I mentioned before, you can jump forwards and backwards through a book. And crucially, with any book reading service, it remembers
where you were most of the time. A couple of times, it's gone way back. And I've got absolutely no idea why. But at least with the commands I mentioned, you can readily get back to the place that you were. But that's always a pain, isn't it? When you forget where you are. But Audible does that as well from time to time too. So maybe syncing is hard. I presume that it is because I used to not have much of a problem with
that. But, yeah, recently with Audible device to device, it, it doesn't seem to want to keep where I was before. But, but that's so, you know, that's okay. I can I can maybe deal with that? But otherwise, I mean, the it it does seem like it it lets you navigate pretty well. I like the fact that you can skip with the table of contents, and it doesn't just rattle off every single chapter.
You know, it does say, you know, to listen to the next number of chapters, you know, you know, go you could do this and do that. So I do like that. When you skip, does it allow you to skip a certain amount of specific seconds, or does it have a preset or predetermined amount? You can say what you like. Oh, very nice. One thing to be aware of though is the chapter, you know, chapter one, chapter two, etcetera, is often not chapter one. So I think we said chapter four to go to the beginning
of the book. Right. That's, you know, the nature of Daisy books, isn't it? So, you know, chapter one, prologue. Chapter two, table of con that sort of thing. So, yeah. But, apart from that, it's all pretty intuitive. Yeah. Really good and just so such a brilliant use of echo's the echo's ability to serve up content. What you heard there is, the kind of RNIB's reader of So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, for example. That won't be the narrator that Audible would have if you
bought that title. So, sometimes they're different. I don't know if that's the same with Bard as well. But increasingly these days with newer titles it's exactly the same recording. Exactly the same person just, you know, given over to the RNIB in this case for use free of charge from Audible, which is brilliant. Yeah. That does work out on Bard as well as, yeah, like you said, on RNIB talking books because they do have their own
in house narrators. But you're right. More and more, it seems like they are both working with, the the book companies to get the commercial version of the audiobook, which nothing against the people who volunteer to come in, or even paid to come in to to narrate the books. God love them for doing that for all these years for us and providing that service. But to be able to, you know, streamline that a little bit better and get a commercial audio version of the book
is is so fantastic. And so, yeah, you're you're right. You will see that more and more. Yeah. I love books. Really, really love them. Absolutely. I love books too. Like you said earlier, you know, I've I think I've got at least three or four books going right now between Bard and Audible. And, yeah, it just depends on what I
fancy in the moment. You know, do I wanna pick up on my fantasy adventure book that I'm reading, or do I wanna pick up on a murder mystery or, you know, some other sort of sci fi, whatever it is? And and, yes, I have all three of those and more going right now. So, so yeah. No. I I I absolutely understand. And having a skill like this where you've got that access to, you know, thousands and thousands of books, and and being able to to play them at will is is so fantastic.
So because of that, Robin, before I let you go, we we heard there, Douglas Adams, HG Wells. I think we're getting a peek into the the book mind of Robin Kristofferson. Any other books or authors that you want to go ahead and recommend to the listeners? My two favorite books, almost of all time, but certainly of recent time, are by Richard Osmond who is a British, not chat show host, quiz show host here in The UK, Pointless. I don't know if you have it over there.
But just out of nowhere, he produced this book which became an instant bestseller called The Thursday Murder Club. So it's absolute it's a gem. It's an absolute gem. It's a murder mystery. And then he's published another one a year later, so quite recently because these are both quite recent books, called The Man Who Died Twice, I think it's called. So yeah, The Thursday Murder Club is the first one. They are so good. Absolutely love them. So yeah, Murder features large as well in what I read.
And on that note as well there's Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders. Another pair of brilliant whodunit books that I read recently as well. Anthony Horowitz of Alex Ryder and various other books that he's written. But Anthony Horowitz has done these two brilliant murder mysteries. Both of those are actually a murder mystery within a murder mystery, which I'm not going to explain here.
So yeah, my four top top top book tips are Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders and The Thursday Murder Club and A Man Who Died Twice. Fantastic. I will definitely check those out. I actually Thursday Murder Club I've heard of because, well, you you recommended it to me a while back, and I haven't gotten a chance to get into them yet. So I'm I'm gonna go and get those and download those and take a take a listen because I
I do like good murder mysteries. So, if that's a a big recommendation, then I think we should check it out. Well, Robin, I wanna thank you so much for coming on the Life of Your Blindness podcast and talking us through the talking book skill from RNIB and, discussing the accessibility of Amazon Echo, of course.
If anybody wants to find out more about what you do, where you are, all these wonderful various places that you pop up all around the world on the internets, how can they how can they find you? How can they get in touch with you if they want to? Cool. Well, if you want to know about disability and technology, we have a website crammed with resources. That's abilitynet.org.uk. I am on Twitter, USA number two day, USA today. Don't ask. And I am on those podcasts that you
mentioned, the .to. Podcast, three words without a number two in the middle, which is the daily A Lady skill demo show, The Echo Show. That's a weekly show about The Echo with Sean Preece, the brilliant Sean. Yes. And I'm on the fortnightly maxcessibility podcast with the guys, the round table nights. Love doing that one as well. And various other places too. But, yeah, I think that's the kind of that'll do for now. That'll do for for now. Listen to you.
No. I I totally understand. Popping up on on all kinds of different shows here and there. So, absolutely wonderful. Everybody, please go check out everything that Robin is doing. And, again, Robin, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thanks, Tim. Keep up the good work. And thank you so much for joining us on today's episode of Life After Blindness. If you'd like to support the show, you can visit our Patreon page by going to patreon.com/labcast. Again, that's patreon.com/labcast, labcast.
And as always, if you would like to offer up any suggestions for future episodes or have any questions, you can send your emails to Tim@lifeTimlifeafterblindness.com. Please join me again next time as together we continue our journey to find that there truly can be a life after blindness. Take care everybody.