Managing CD
and DVD disks is essential for someone with visual impairment as much of the
media we need to access is in this format. If you are hearing impaired then the
good news is that digital content can be amplified. Read on to hear about the
tools I use routinely. Aired
This
program has been around for years and is still hard to beat. When set up
properly it is a dream to use. The program searches an internet database and
inserts all the track manes, artist and album title. Simply insert your CD to
rip and you simply press F9 to rip mp3 files off your computer. CDex is very
strong technically and will succeed in ripping CDs that other programs cannot
cope with.
There is
also and excellent Internet recording tool in CDex which I describe in the
Internet Applications page. This is a classic utility around people with Visual
Impairment. There are lots of tutorials out there, including Audio Tutorials
which you should be able to find fairly easily. Email me at low_vision_survival@yahoo.co.uk
if you need help finding these.
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from the Jaws User Programs Page
Despite its
name this utility will burn Data DVDS as well as CDs. This is accessible,
Freeware and really very good. I do not know if it works on Vista. XP Programs often will, so you can
give it a try. Tell me if it installs OK.
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from the Jaws User Programs Page
As I am
hearing impaired as well as visually impaired I often have difficulty when
trying to listen to low volume mp3 or indistinct recordings. This fantastic
free and simple utility has proved invaluable. It has several features but the
main one is simply to increase or decrease the volume of an mp3 file. It
manages to do this without
introducing any distortion. Very easy to use. Simply type a value into
the edit box the default is 89 and I normally put 95 in to apply an increase. I think the absolute maximum is about 102
but this is really very loud even for me.
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from the Jaws User Programs Page
Before I
discovered accessible MP3 players like the Zen Stone and the Victor Reader
Stream I used to have a great deal of difficulty listening to books downloaded
from the internet. Basically the chapters would often play in the wrong order.
I eventually discovered that this was due to inconsistencies in the Tag
information “hidden” in the MP3 files. I found that if I could
clear all this information the files would play in the correct order. This is
potentially very time consuming but this little utility can clear the Tags or
edit the Tags of whole directories of MP3 files. This is very similar in
interface to MP3 Gain. I have never had problems with using either of these
programs and they are an absolute breeze. Unfortunately not a description that
can be given to other Audio software.
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from the Jaws User Programs Page
The best
freeware conversion application I found was the PowerAmp program. The programs
install a Media Player which is not that great or accessible. It can safely be ignored. Another aspect of the program is great
and is completely accessible though.
It installs a conversion utility into the Windows Explorer shell.
Clicking on a music mp3, wav or wma file will bring up an option to convert
when you click the right mouse button or push the application key. Unfortunately
the freeware version appears very hard to find now. I have therefore included a
version on this web site which is provided for download by Low Vision forum
members in Waltham Forest only.
Click here for direct download in a Zip File
This is the
easiest software that I have found for splitting and merging mp3 files. There
is one bit only of the program that you have to use the jaws cursor. For some
reason you can not tab to the browse button to select the file you want to edit.
You will either have to use the Jaws cursor or use NVDA to move the actual mouse
cursor over the first part of the program until you hear NVDA say browse for
input file. Once you have clicked this button with the Jaws Cursor or the mouse
everything else in the program is accessible by simply using the tab button.
A really
great and useful feature of this program is that it has a button to “Grab
position from winamp. What this means is that you can simply play a file in
Winamp, press space to pause winamp, return to TrackMaker and pressing the Grab
Winamp position will insert the time at which you want to make the first cut.
Returning to winamp you can move to different parts of the file. Pressing space
again to pause will enable you to continue to inset times automatically grabbed
from Winamp.
Once you have
all the bits simply tab down to create tracks and you are done. Again this seems hard to find nowadays
so to provide a direct link in a zip file for Waltham Forts Low Vision members
only. Once unzipped, the program will not need to be installed. Simply run it
and the program will launch immediately. The best course is to make a copy of
it to your programs folder and simply create a short cut to it. Click this
every time you want to run the program.
Click here to directly download in a Zip file.
If however
you want to simply edit a large Mp3 file into 10 minute sections the Booksplit
is by far the easiest program I have found. Obviously not suitable for using
with splitting up music files but ideal for creating 10 minutes sections which
are much easier to navigate in an Mp3 player. There is also an Audio tutorial
on using this program on the Jaws User Home Page at http://www.jaws-users.com/
Download
from the Jaws User Programs Page
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This page was last updated on Sunday, 10 May 2009