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MP3 players open up the world of the web for blind and visually impaired
A groundbreaking project at Portsea Library to help blind and visually impaired people access information from the internet is being hailed as an outstanding success.
Six year nine pupils from St Luke's Secondary School have been working with the group of 10 adults over six weeks to show them how to use a specially adapted MP3 player called the Navigator - developed by Australian company Audio-Read - to download material from the internet. Members of the group have benefited from downloading newspapers and magazines from the Talking Newspapers website and some spoken word short stories from Project Gutenberg, as well as getting to grips with new technology for the first time.
Information about library services for blind and vision impaired people in Portsmouth is available on the Navigator by taking Microsoft Word files and converting them to MP3 audio files, as well as the ability to download podcasts and health information.
David Percival, librarian at Portsea, said:" This project has really opened up the world of the internet to the group. With the help of students from St Luke's, they have all said how much easier it is to download material from the internet than they expected. Some have even decided to buy their own MP3 players as a result of the project, despite not having used this technology before.
"The rest of the group are relishing the opportunity to try out something new - one blind lady in her seventies is going to show a friend how to use the MP3 player. After the technical part of the session, the young people and adults get to know each other better over lunch, so it has been a great way for young and old to bond."
The six-week project has been made possible by the Quality Leaders Project - Youth, an initiative funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and delivered in partnership with London Metropolitan University.
www.tnauk.org.uk
www.gutenberg.org
