The purpose of the MIDTB (Mid-Illinois Digital Talking Book) Project,
which was conducted from August 2004 through July 2005, was to offer access to
unpaid volunteers to experience and test current hardware, software, systems
and a collection of digital books in various formats in order to improve and
accelerate access to digital information materials by print-impaired
individuals.
The project team wanted to gain real-world experience with the
technological, human factors, economic, organizational, and political
challenges of providing digital audio books to print-impaired end-users. Both
digitally recorded narrated books and text-to-speech technologies were tested,
using a variety of distribution media (e.g., CDs, content preloaded on devices,
and direct delivery of files over the Internet), as well as a variety of
playback devices. The study also attempted to explore the costs and challenges
associated with converting more e-content to DAISY format, which greatly
improves non-linear navigation through digital content.
Over one hundred individuals responded to the call for print-impaired
volunteer testers. By the conclusion of
the 12 months of field testing, sixty different individuals had tried at least
one device or system. Many of them tried
several.
A website was created for the MIDTB Project (http://www.midtb.org) containing information
about the project, the evaluation form, and information and instructions for
using the various hardware, software, and systems being field-tested in the
project. .
These field tests focused on both digital content services and portable
playback devices. Four services were
field tested:
·
BookShare
·
OverDrive (both ebooks and digital audio books)
·
netLibrary (only
their digital audio book service)
·
TumbleTalkingBooks
The portable playback devices tested during the year are listed
below. The numbers in parentheses
indicate the number of devices available for testing. A total of 26 devices were available for
testing. In addition, some volunteer
testers tried other devices that were not officially circulated as part of this
series of field tests.
·
Audio
Navigator (3)
·
Book
Courier (3)
·
·
Digisette Duo-64
(1)
·
MuVo (3)
·
PlexTalk
·
Soul
Player DMP-206b (2)
·
Telex
Scholar (4)
·
Victor
Classic Plus (1)
·
Victor
Reader Vibe (5)
Data were collected via a 16-question satisfaction survey (see Appendix
A). Also, there was much email
communication throughout the year-long field testing, from which many valuable
experiences, comments, and suggestions were gleaned.
Several key issues and opportunities surfaced repeatedly throughout this
year of field tests. They include:
·
Total
experience of finding, selecting, downloading, transferring, and reading
content: In most instances, the volunteer testers were
supplied with preloaded devices. In the
real world of accessible digital audio books, however, the accessibility issues
related to finding, selecting, downloading, and transferring content are as
important as the accessibility issues during playback. The distinction made between services and
devices in the body of this report should not be interpreted as hard and
absolute. In most instances an ongoing
user of any portable playback device also must interact with one or more
content services. Ongoing users must
download the content and perhaps transfer it to the portable playback device of
their choice.
·
DAISY:
Marking up digital audio books in the DAISY format is one way to achieve
accessible nonlinear navigation through digital books. Accessible nonlinear navigation clearly is a
highly valued functionality among this group of volunteer testers. Unfortunately, throughout the year the
project team was not able to make much progress in understanding the costs and
benefits of DAISY content.
·
Nonlinear
Navigation: Highly valued by all of the volunteer testers
when using nonfiction works, including reference works. The value of nonlinear navigation for fiction
(other than poetry and short stories), however, varied widely among the
volunteers. Some saw little or no value
in nonlinear navigation while reading a novel for pleasure, but others saw some
potential value.
·
Variable
Speed Playback: Highly valued by this group of volunteer
testers. An essential functionality for
a useful digital audio book playback system.
·
Audio
Output: Most volunteers preferred either internal
speakers or external speakers to either headphones or ear buds. Issues of comfort, sound quality, and overall
portability are involved.
·
Button
Design: Perhaps the most important aspect of
accessibility of the overall design of these playback devices.
·
Portability: Very
important to the volunteers.
·
Sound
Quality: notable as a non-issue during these
field tests.
·
Audible
Clues: Most of the volunteer testers
expressed an interest in receiving audible clues, with options to set personal
preferences, when a button is pressed or a function is invoked in some
way.
·
Keystroke
Alternative: Another essential aspect of making an entire
digital audio book system, including website, download software, transfer
software, and playback hardware and software, accessible.
·
Text-to-Speech:
Much TTS software appears to be at least minimally acceptable and
accessible, and is highly dependent on personal preferences. Generally, male TTS voices tended to be
preferred to female TTS voices.
·
Tip
Sheets: There seemed to be demand for and
value in developing shorter tip sheets, based on real use,
that explained how to become oriented toward the device or system. Offering audiorecordings
of these tips sheets proved to be useful, too.
·
General
Consumer Systems versus Specially Designed Systems: As
expected the devices and systems specifically designed to be accessible to the
print-impaired were more accessible in general than systems designed for the
general consumer market, but one has to wonder if the cost-benefit ratio of
these specially designed systems makes them the compelling choice. They tend to be much more expensive than
similar general consumer devices. Both
categories of devices would benefit from further design work in certain
essential areas, such as buttons and audible clues.
·
From
Testing to Purchasing: Many of the volunteers in this study
indicated that one motivation for participating was so that they could engage
in extended testing of a variety of devices before making a purchase decision,
which they already were contemplating before volunteering for this study. The purchasing potential of this large and
growing segment of the general population should not be underestimated.
·
Tangible
Outcomes: The field tests undertaken as part of
this study already have produced several tangible outcomes and encouraging new
directions in the digital audio book marketplace.
o The
Unabridged downloadable digital audio book service (http://www.unabridged.info/) chose OverDrive for its platform and content. Unabridged currently is available to
print-impaired individuals in five states:
o More
mainstream services and devices for the general consumer market, such as the
new Playaway self-contained device, are offering
variable speed playback as a functionality. This functionality was first appreciated and
used heavily by print-impaired users.
o Some
talking book centers and libraries for the blind and visually impaired have
begun subscribing to one or more of the services tested. For example, the talking book centers in
o Other
vendors, software development teams, and device manufacturers have contacted to
project team, expressing their interest in making their digital audio book
systems more accessible to, and generally usable by, everyone.
o The
project team plans to continue field testing additional devices and
services. In particular, field tests of
the forthcoming Playaway self-contained portable
digital audio book playback device will begin in mid-November and run through
March 2006. Also, more extending testing
of the BookShare service will begin later in 2005 and
continue for several months. Final
reports on these field tests will be released later in 2006.
Major support for the MIDTB Project was provided through a Leader in
Library Technology Grant from Sirsi,
administered by the American Library Association. Partners on this year-long project were the
Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center (MITBC), the Alliance Library System, the
Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service, OverDrive,
and TAP Information Services. The core
project team included Lori Bell from the
The main body of this report is
divided into four parts:
1. In
the first part a short introduction provides basic information concerning why
and how this series of field tests was conducted.
2. The second part provides information about the four digital audio book services involved in these field tests.
3. The
third part contains sections on each portable playback device tested. Each individual section begins with a basic
description of how the device worked.
Then a “praise and positive feedback” section follows for each device,
succeeded by a “problems and suggestions” section. Most of the content in these two sections
consists either of direct quotations or paraphrases from the reported
experiences made by the volunteer testers.
Because the project team received so many satisfaction survey forms and
other types of feedback from the volunteer testers, the quotations and synopses
of responses are only a representative sample of a large data set. Please note, too, that sometimes the feedback
from one volunteer contradicts that from another. The needs, expectations, and experiences of
individual volunteer testers often varied. Sometimes a volunteer tester may have
misunderstood how a particular feature worked.
In only a few instances the direct quotations have been enhanced by
adding in brackets the complete spelling of an acronym used in the quoted
feedback.
The final section for each device and system tested attempts to provide an
overall assessment of the collective experience of the testers.
4. The
fourth and final part of the report summarizes the key issues and challenges
that emerged from this year-long series of field tests.
An appendix to this report contains
a copy of the satisfaction survey available to the MIDTB volunteers throughout
the period of field testing. It was
modified several times throughout the year as new services and devices became
available for testing.
The purpose of the
MIDTB (Mid-Illinois Digital Talking Book) Project, which was conducted from
August 2004 through July 2005, was to offer access to unpaid volunteers to
experience and test current hardware, software, systems and a collection of
digital books in various formats in order to improve and accelerate access to
digital information materials by print-impaired individuals.
The project team
wanted to gain real-world experience with the technological, human factors,
economic, organizational, and political challenges of providing digital audio
books to print-impaired end-users. Both digitally recorded narrated books and
text-to-speech technologies were tested, using a variety of distribution media
(e.g., CDs, content preloaded on devices, and direct delivery of files over the
Internet), as well as a variety of playback devices. The study also attempted
to explore the costs and challenges associated with converting more e-content
to DAISY format, which greatly improves non-linear navigation through digital
content.
During the summer
of 2004 various calls and invitations were sent out—primarily to pertinent
email discussion groups—for print-impaired volunteers to test the various
devices and systems available for field-testing. Over one hundred individuals responded. By the conclusion of the 12 months of field
testing, sixty different individuals had tried at least one device or system. Many of them tried several.
Partners on this year-long project were the Mid-Illinois Talking Book
Center (MITBC), the Alliance Library System, the Illinois State Library Talking
Book and Braille Service, OverDrive, and TAP
Information Services. The core project
team included Lori Bell from the
A website was
created for the MIDTB Project (http://www.midtb.org)
containing information about the project, the evaluation form, and information
and instructions for using the various hardware, software, and systems being
field-tested in the project. .
A Yahoo Group (MIDTBvolunteers) also was created for this project. This allowed project staff members to inform
the volunteers about new options, develops in the project, training
opportunities, etc.
These field tests
focused on both digital content services and portable playback devices. Four services were field tested:
·
BookShare
·
OverDrive (both ebooks and digital audio books)
·
netLibrary (only
their digital audio book service)
·
TumbleTalkingBooks
The portable
playback devices tested during the year are listed below. The numbers in parentheses indicate the
number of devices available for testing.
A total of 26 devices were available for testing. A few of the vendors loaned or donated
devices for these field tests, but most of the devices were purchased with
support provided by the Sirsi grant, the Illinois
State Library Talking Book and Braille Service, and other sources. In addition, some volunteer testers tried
other devices that were not officially circulated as part of this series of
field tests.
·
Audio
Navigator (3)
·
Book
Courier (3)
·
·
Digisette Duo-64
(1)
·
MuVo (3)
·
PlexTalk
·
Soul
Player DMP-206b (2)
·
Telex
Scholar (4)
·
Victor
Classic Plus (1)
·
Victor
Reader Vibe (5)
Data were collected
via a 16-question satisfaction survey (see Appendix A). Also, there was much email communication throughout
the year-long field testing, from which many valuable experiences, comments,
and suggestions were gleaned.
The MIDTB Project was a field test of a wide variety of
devices and systems for playing digital audio books. Testing occurred in the homes and offices of
the volunteer testers. No attempts were
made to control or alter those testing environments, including the ambient
computing environments in which these devices and systems were tested.
Major support for
the MIDTB Project was provided through a Leader in Library Technology Grant
from Sirsi. Sirsi has long been a trusted technology
partner with libraries and librarians, providing a complete library management
system. The Sirsi Leader in Library Technology Grant
is administered by the American Library Association.