Accessible Audio E-Book Reader for Handheld Pocket PCs

Following two years of research and development funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Educational Sciences, AbleLink Technologies of Colorado Springs, Colorado has just released the first e-book reader specifically targeted to individuals with significant cognitive disabilities.

In the initial research phase, AbleLink researchers conducted a pilot study with 49 individuals with intellectual disabilities in collaboration with Colorado Springs School District #11, Goodwill Industries of Southern Colorado, and with support from Dr. Michael Wehmeyer of the Beach Center on Disability at the University of Kansas. The results of the testing demonstrated empirical support for the Rocket Reader system. In the study three times as many individuals with little or no reading ability were able to independently use the Rocket Reader system compared with the most popular audio book reading programs. The beta version of Rocket Reader was released for additional testing in the third quarter of 2005 and Version 1.0 is now available.

“Rocket Reader opens a new door to independent access to books for recreation and education that has previously been closed for millions of people with cognitive disabilities.” Says Steven Stock, Vice-President of AbleLink Technologies, “Traditional e-book users utilize audio books as an alternative to traditional printed text, but our users don’t have that option due to the complexity of those programs. Since most of the individuals with intellectual disabilities that we serve have limited literacy skills, a simplified system that reads books out loud to them creates a new world of opportunity.”

Since the new player is for individuals with limited literacy skills and for people who just have trouble with the complexity of using standard software interfaces, Rocket Reader employs pictures and audio cues to help users select the desired titles from their personal library. The book is played using simple controls on the bottom of the screen. If users stop midway through a selection, a bookmark is automatically placed so that they pick up right where they left off. There is no limit to the number of titles that can be stored on the device, as books are stored on a postage-stamp sized SD memory card that can be interchanged to access additional books as needed. Each storage card can hold between 20 and 50 books depending upon the size of the memory. Future versions of Rocket Reader are in development which will provide full support to a number of accessible book and audio file formats including the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) standard, DAISY books, HTML, MP3, and WAV file formats.

Source: AbleLink Technologies, Inc.