"reading audiobooks requires less literacy skills"

This seems to me to be true. This is why we read to children rather than just having them read for themselves (i.e. when they haven't learned yet). Also, a reader is going to do some interpretation, which allows the listener to not have to do that (or alternatively forces that interpretation on the listener).

That said, I have certainly noticed a feeling that listening to books during a commute isn't as 'real' as reading the book (as if it was somehow cheating). I have never heard this applied to blind readers however.

(Reply) (Thread)

Regarding the idea that reading to your child improves the child's literacy level, there turns out to be no solid evidence that this is true. A number of literacy researchers have demosntrated this, and Harvard professor Maria Tatar also explores this idea in her latest book, _Enchanted Hutners_, which explores topics in children's books and cultural ideas about children and reading. What actually does have an impact on the child's literacy level is seeing the adults in their home reading.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

That wasn't what I meant. I meant merely that we read to them because they can not yet read for themselves (lacking literacy skills), but they are still able to get the benefit from being read to (as they would from an audio book).

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I'm not really in your catchment area for this but, unsurprisingly, I do have an opinion.

I detest audio books (with a couple of exceptions) because I cannot listen as fast as I can read. Nowhere near. I participated in a study about twenty-five years ago by some speech pathology students. I needed more space between my words than average. I can read, visually, over 700 words per minute. My listening speed is somewhere around 250 and may be lower. If I'm around thorbol while he's using JAWS, it's completely and occasionally hilariously unintelligible to me.

I think there is a prejudice against audio formats unless people can see the disability which requires it. I think someone seeing you using an audiobook would go "great, she's an intellectual" but when they see someone who's dyslexic or just prefers the audio format might say "wow, she's not smart." The fact that so many commercial audio books are abridged may contribute to that perception.

My exceptions on audiobooks: There are a few commercial audio books that I've listened to as performances. James Mason reading Ecclesiastes is nearly pornography for a voice junky like me. There are several "read by the author" books I've enjoyed, although in most of those cases it was because the library had the audio book (unabridged), but the regular book was unavailable for some reason. As a subset of that, I find British writers tend to read their own work more clearly than American ones do. Beats me why.

Shakespeare plays read by good actors, and some poetry also work for me as audio experiences. I loved the Torchwood podcast, and I'm excited they're doing more of them.

When I pick audio books for friends, I pay attention to the performance quality and, as I would with any book for a friend, the taste of the recipient. I've apparently made a couple of good choices, but I do find it much harder to select an audio book than I do a print one.

Edited at 2009-05-19 03:50 pm (UTC)

(Reply) (Thread)

I get my audio books in whichever format I can. I think the ones I most actively avoid unless I can't get around it are the ones that have volunteer readers (RFB&D, librivox) -- and that is just because of inconsistent or unreliable reading quality.

I generally use my Icon, because it has a 40gb drive and supports the most variety of formats (audible, nls, mp3 for audio books; txt, rtf, html, daisy, for etext) and has decent tts.

For etext and certain kinds of protected wma audiobooks, DRM is definitely an issue. If I have to jump through hoops to unlock and/or convert a book, I'll probably do it once to see if it's worth it, but the bar gets set pretty high.

Although I've definitely heard the idea that audiobooks imply a lesser degree of "real" literacy, I tend to observe the overall level of literacy (not just in terms of reading words and spelling, but deeper literacy skills such as understanding and interpretation of a work) and I realize that most people don't have that great a degree of literacy whether it's print or audio. (Should have used a book-snob-alert tag or something.)

(Reply) (Thread)

I sometimes wonder if the audio format compels readers to concentrate more and perhaps get more out of what they are listening to. At least, I feel I gte more out of reading now that I am listening to books than I did when I was a sighted reader speedreading along.

Is the Icon a pda-phone device? I need to start looking into a new phone and I'm thinking of getting something on which I can listen to books.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

The Icon/Braille+ is more a PDA (no phone, but it looks like it had originally been designed to have telephone capabilities down the line). I use it mostly as a portable library for the reasons I listed above.

I like having so many more digitized options for books, because I can speed all of them up as much as I want without the cassette-chipmunk effect.

Oh, also, I just went and checked. According to my Goodreads list where I chronicle such things, I've read 65 books this year, which averages to between 3 and 4 books a week.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Re the chipmunk effect: I do love imitating that osund, though I've always thought of it as Mickey Mouse on a speed and helium cocktail.

I know I read a piece on how blind readers supposedly read more than sighted people according to some special format library, but now I can't remember where/when I read it, argh. Of course, I'm also interested in finding out more about the methodology used in coming to this conclusion.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I'd be interested to read this, too. My thought would be that any blind people willing to do the legwork to find and get signed up with a special format library are pretty dedicated readers, and not an average subset of casual readers, let alone average Americans.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

That would be my attitude, also. The study that supposedly quote proves unquote that braille readers have a higher rate of employment also makes me wonder, as, in my experience, kids who get braille instruction tend to have a parent or two parents who advocate for their kids to get such services, which means they have a home life in which education is important and parents who are actively involved in their education and life goals. In addition, such parents also seem to have a high level of educatoin themselves. You see how other factors begin to impact what is originally stated as a direct correlation.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I think your best bet for a phone that'll let you listen to books might be one of the Windows Mobile based ones. Funnily enough, although the Nokia N82 supports OCR, it's not much for reading etexts.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Ack! Windows Mobile! I had a too-close encounter with a PacMate at one point which left me kind of leery of Windows Mobile devices. I was actually thinking of a Nokia with the Code Factory thrid party software loaded on to it.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I forgot mobilespeak has a reader. I assume it handles things besides daisy?

If you go the Nokia route, you might as well get one of the ones that supports the KNFB Reader (just in case) -- the 6220 classic (I think) and the N82. I don't know about the newer Nokia phones.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I listen to audiobooks for pleasure, books read by actors, or authors, Neil Gaiman reading is own work, for example.

I have recently done a little experimenting with using text to speech, and expect to do more this summer, as part of my desire to learn how to use the tools I advocate to others as part of my job. My experience so far has been good. I had TextAloud read me one of the Jeeves and Wooster books, and I could follow it, and it was a fine counterpoint to the filing I was doing. I have used Kurzweil to read me papers I have composed, in order to better edit them, and found the results to be truly amazing. Listening caught very different errors than visually reading did, but I do not know if that was a function of the change in format being a different cognitive process, or that the format change just gave me a bit of distance from soemthing I have been editing and composing for days.

I have yet to try to listen to something of depth, or something where I had to learn from the text, but that is next on the agenda. Would you like me to report back with results? It may be a few weeks.

(Reply) (Thread)

Sure, that would be interesting. You haven't lived until you have read French media theory through TTS. On the other hand, Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age is a trip when you listen to it using a computer voice. Perhaps you have to some degree already acclimated to TTS? It took me a year or so before I could listen to it for prolonged periods of time.
To some degree, I think using TTS as a mode of locating errors may be something that is more useful for those who don't use it 24/7, as I can totally miss my own mistakes, although I'm good at catching other people's.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I have barely used it, just to test snippets, and to listen to a couple of things here and there. I have found that if I listen to it for long (more than 10 minutes), I start tuning it out, and stop really listening. I am tempted to try to do other things while I listen, and if I do, predictably, my comprehension goes right out the window.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I'm not eligible for special libraries, although I prefer reading fiction in audio

I've *recorded* 4-track, but only consumed standard

CDs are really easy to play and review; podcasts with chapter breaks come second on my iPod.

DRM influences me re: cost. I'd pay $5 to rent a novel, but not $20 to own it, so I wait and borrow most of my books from the libary. 80% CDs, 18% cassettes, 2% disposable iPod "Playaway"

I have no opinion on reading speed; it's a different experience.

One audio book and 10 podcasts a week (include podslash)

Yes when I talk about audio books, I always mention the audio production/narrator skill. At least half of the people send off the "eww! audio!" vibe.

I prefer reading in audio for novels with non-English settings/language, since most narrators take the time to research pronunciation, and the better commercial audio producers match the cultural background of the narrator with the novel's content. My memories of audio are different than print; not better or worse.

(Reply) (Thread)

I read almost exclusively using TTS on mobile readers from DAISY format books and newspapers. I find synthetic speech more flexible and faster than narrated content. Human narrators are more distracting than listening "through" the voice into the author's words. I also liberally bookmark points I can re-read by sentence, paragraph, or page.

Bookshare is my primary source of books and newspapers downloaded onto the Levelstar Icon PDA. I usually transfer books to the APH BookPort and PlexTalk Pocket for reading in bed and on the go, respectively. My news streams are expanded with dozens of RSS feeds of blogs, articles, and podcasts from news, magazines, organizations, and individuals. Recently, twitter supplies a steady stream of links to worthy and interesting articles, followed on either the Icon or browser in Accessible Twitter.

I never seem to follow through with NLS or Audible or other services with DRM and setups. I find the Bookshare DRM just right and respect it fully but could not imagine paying for an electronic book I could not pass on to others. I try to repay authors of shared scanned books with referrals to book clubs and friends, e.g. I've several now hooked on Winspear's "Macy Dobbs" series.

I keep up with two monthly book clubs and several lifelong learning courses. Other readers are curious about my reading methods and interested in the supplemental blog and other social media sources. Note that the web abounds in questions for discussion in book clubs, a great test of comprehension and guide to preparation.

I do have several frustrations. (1) Books with tables of data lose me as a jumble of numbers unless the text describes the data profile. (2) While I have great access through Bookshare and NFB NewsLine to national newspapers and magazines, my state and local papers use content management systems difficult to read either online or by RSS feed. (3) Google Book Search refuses to equalize my research with others by displaying only images of pages.

At any one time, I usually have a dozen books "open" on the Bookport and PlexTalk as I switch among club and course selections, fiction favorites, and heavy nonfiction. However, I usually finish 2 or 3 books a week, reading at night, with another 120 RSS feeds incoming dozens of articles daily. I believe my reading productivity is higher than before vision loss due to technology delivery of content and my natural habits of skimming and reading nonlinearly. Indeed, reading by listening forces focus and concentration in a good sense and, even better, performed in just about any physical setting, posture, or other ambient conditions.


For demographics, I'm 66 years old, lost last sliver of reading vision three years ago from myopic degeneration, and was only struggling a few months before settling into Bookshare. As a technologist first exposed to DECTalk in the 1980s, I appreciate TTS as a fantastically under-rated technology. However, others of my generation often respond with what I've dubbed "Synthetic voice shock" that scares them away from my reading devices and sources. I'd like to see more gentle introductions from AT vendors and the few rehab services available to retired vision losers. Finally, it would be great to totally obliterate the line between assistive and mainstream technology to expand the market and also enable sighted people to read as well as some of us.

blog: http://asyourworldchanges.wordpress.com

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Wow! Wonderful comments, thank you so much! I agree with you that I would also like to see the distinction between assistive tech and commercial tech obliterated, which is one reason that I am hoping to get this article accepted. And yes, there do seem to be generational biases regarding TTS, although I don't think they are necessarily age-related: I wonder if the folks who have the synthetic voice shock reaction also don't like science fiction?

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I'm sure synthetic voices must be harder for some people with hearing loss but not sure which hearing ranges or characteristics are more age-related. Have you seen any studies?

Ironically, I'm trying to train myself back to narrated books from TTS. Just downloaded an Overdrive format for next book club.

I'm proposing a lifelong learning session on "Using Things That Talk" to try to make TTS seem more usable and useful. Maybe I can gather some data there. I wonder if there are hypotheses to test, e.g. affinity for science fiction.

Thanks for a very stimulating survey. I hope you can share the paper soon.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)