For over twenty-five years, people have been listening to music or spoken word material on portable audio players. Over the years, we have seen the technology evolve from cassette-based portable players through to CD and minidisc devices.
The modern-day equivalent of such players can store hundreds or even thousands of audio music tracks and many hours of spoken word books. The term "iPod" is often used to describe players of this nature, however they are referred to here as portable media players, because many of them are not traditional iPod products as manufactured by Apple.
Given that I have a large music and audio book collection which I like to take with me while travelling, I have always been very interested to learn about the different ways in which one can listen to this material and how we as visually impaired people can access it easily. This series of web pages is my attempt to guide the reader through the ever growing choice of players now considered to be "accessible", which are either mainstream or specialist pieces of equipment.
Any piece of software, web page or equipment referred to within these pages is not necessarily an endorsement by myself. Some of the information I have obtained from "The Blind iPod Mailing List" for which I am the Moderator. Many resources I have discovered through my own research and interest. The audio presentations linked to vary in quality and effective delivery. All I am doing is providing you with the resources from which you can gain further information. From time to time, I have given explanatory notes of players or software I am familiar with, and views expressed in this regard are entirely my own. Any software referred to should be installed and used at your own risk.
I hope these pages are useful. If you would like to discuss these devices with me, please feel free to contact me using the details below and I would be glad to assist wherever I can. These pages are likely to change frequently so check back often for further information.
Please do contact me with suggestions for future pages or links to useful resources. I am also willing to quickly correct factual errors which may occur within these pages.
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