Links for Free Catholic Books and Catholic audio

There are several online resources which contain many wonderful Catholic books, as well as free Catholic audio. I posted this list on a mailing list for blind and visually impaired Catholics. I thought I’d repost it to my blog for the benefit of others who might be interested in good, free Catholic materials.

First, I wanted to list two sources to obtain free books which will be of interest to Catholics, as well as to people who are not Catholic but who might like to learn more about the Catholic church and its teachings.

The Catholic EBooks Project
These are free, downloadable books.

Catholic Audio Books
Public domain audio in mp3 format

More Catholic audio …

Sonitus Sanctus
Downloadable catholic audio talks/lectures.

Catholic iPod

EWTN Series Index
If you have time to listen to all of the material contained in the above link, I’m impressed.

Catholic answers Live Archived shows
Catholic Answers is one of my favorite organizations for Catholic apologetics. Their nightly two-hour show is one of the programs which my podcatcher downloads to my phone. I only wish I had the time to listen to all of them. I believe that all of their shows going back to 2007 are available from the above link.

Salvation Is From the Jews
Roy Schoeman’s Web site contains many of his talks, as well as archives of his radio programs on Radio Maria.

Bible Christian Society

John Martignoni offers talks discussing the Catholic faith from a Biblical perspective.

 

 

Audio from the above links is in mp3 format. Essentially, this means that you can listen to them on your computer or other device such as a smartphone, tablet, etc.
If you have a podcast program on your phone, tablet or computer , it is possible to have it automatically download new episodes of many of these programs as they become available. As an example, my iPhone’s Podcasts app automatically grabs Catholic Answers Live, EWTN’s Open Line show and the Journey Home program and downloads them to my phone as they become available. Let me know if you have any questions about this and I’ll be glad to assist, if I can.

My Experience Using iNote/Free Money Identifier for iOS

First, let me provide a bit of introductory material for my sighted readers who may not fully know about the usefulness of iOS devices for visually impaired users. In addition to the voice assistant known as Siri, Apple’s iOS devices includes a feature or program called Voiceover. This is known as a screen reader, which allows us to review and interact with items on the device’s touchscreen. iOS contains many useful apps which offers many features which are of importance to visually impaired users. You can visit Apple’s page on iOS accessibility to learn more. You can also visit Web sites such as Applevis to learn more about how Apple products and apps benefit the visually impaired.
iNote is the free currency identifier from the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing. It’s available via the app store on your device or you can
use iTunes to locate and download it.
My wallet had gotten a bit disorganized and I was about to ask someone
at work to identify a bill for me. Suddenly, I thought, “wait a minute,
I have my iPhone” and I loaded iNote to see how it worked.
If you don’t read any of the instructions, using iNote won’t be obvious,
even though the interface is amazingly simple. As is typical for me, I
did not bother to read the instructions and couldn’t make heads or tails
of how to read my money, no pun intended. After floundering around for
a while, I decided to read the manual, which I located by doing a Google
search, which led me to the BEP’s Web page for the iNote app. I don’t
actually think that they placed an actual manual within the app, and
doing so would have been helpful.
Anyway, what I discovered, after reading some of the manual, is that,
once it’s actually loaded, iNote continuously scans for bills to
identify. Therefore, there’s no real need to look for a “take picture”
or “read my bill” button to activate the camera. You just hold the
phone above the bill, wait 5-10 seconds and iNote will tell you the
denomination, as well as the word “front” or “back”, which is pretty nifty.
It’s important to make sure that your location has some decent lighting
and that you raise the phone six to eight inches above the bill. What
worked for me was placing the bill flat on a desk in a horizontal
position. Next, I held the phone above the bill, also in the same
horizontal position.
iNote can also use tones to identify your money rather than speech
output and it can also provide feedback using vibration, which would be
essential for deaf-blind users who don’t own a Braille display. I
haven’t yet tried the Looktell Money Identifier but iNote is free and
seems to work well for me. I’ve been told that Looktell is able to identify currency from other countries but this isn’t a feature that I need. If you’ve used either of these apps, I’d be interested to read your comments.

NVDA 2014.3 Soon To Be Released

While it’s not out yet, version 2014.3 of the free and open source NVDA screen reader is scheduled for its final release at the end of this month. Of course, this could be delayed if the release candidates or test versions are found to contain serious bugs. However, it’s very likely that we’ll see the next version by the end of August or early September, with the first release candidate due out very shortly. Users of Microsoft Office will find this new update particularly useful, as it contains many enhancements to Office. Here are some of the additions which we’ll see in the upcoming new version.

1. The opening and closing sounds can optionally be disabled.
2. NVDA will be able to work with the calendar which is a part of Microsoft Outlook 2007 and higher. Times are announced while moving with arrow keys. You will be told if the selected time is within any appointments. Pressing the tab key will speak the selected appointment.
3. NVDA has enhanced support for the inbox in Outlook 2010 and above. If you disable the report table row/column headers option, you can disable the speaking of column titles such as from, subject, etc. You will also be able to use table navigation commands to move from one column to the next within the inbox message list.
4. While in a Word document, pressing insert-F can now report paragraph indenting. There is also a new “report paragraph indenting” setting which will speak this information automatically.
5. When you press the enter key from within a Word document, NVDA can now report newly inserted items such as a new bullet, number or tab indent. As an example, when you’re entering a numbered list, NVDA will speak the newly inserted number when pressing the enter key.
6. Pressing insert-alt-C reads the text of a comment if the cursor is located within a comment in a Word document.
7. There is now improved support in automatic row and column header reading in both Word and Excel.
8. In Word, NVDA reports the distance from the left edge of the page when you press the tab key.
9. In speech as well as with Braille, NVDA now speaks labels for commonly used formatting hotkeys from within Word: (bold, italic, underline, alignment, outline level, superscript, subscript and font size). (
10. In Excel, NVDA can read comments in a selected cell, also with insert-alt-C. 11. There is a new dialog to edit comments in the selected cell.
12. Excel offers more labels or descriptive information for more selection hotkeys.
13. Pressing insert-F from within Excel now reports vertical and horizontal alignment of the current cell. There is also a new alignment option from within the Document Settings dialog to report this information.
14. In Excel, NVDA can report the style of the currently selected cell, either with the insert-F command or by enabling an option from within the Document Settings dialog.
15. There are new options for speaking the locations of shapes from within Powerpoint.
16. The insert-delete speak location command provides a bit more information while within edit fields and from within browse mode documents, such as Web pages. 17. The LibLouis Braille translator has been updated.
18. Bugs have been fixed to improve access to Outlook, Google chrome, Word, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

A True Story From the Job-Hunting Files

I am a member of several mailing lists which discuss topics related to my field, as well as other topics which happen to interest me. One of these lists is a discussion group concerning employment issues as it relates to job seekers who are blind or who are visually impaired. Someone on the list started a thread which led into a discussion of the prejudices which we face from well-meaning, sighted recruiters and how we can best handle such problems in a positive way. I posted a true story to the list and decided to repost it to this blog, for those who might find it of some interest or value.

A long time ago, in an unnamed galaxy far, far away, a local outfit was looking for a computer instructor. I walked in, handed them my resume and asked to speak to someone about the position. The interviewer, who I’ll call Joan, came out to meet me and we talked about the position and what they were looking for. Her demeanor was professional but I was sensing a kind of distance from her and I knew she was wondering how on earth this blind guy was going to use, let alone teach other people how to use a computer but she wouldn’t ask and I knew I had to address it.
Had I not done this, the interview would have ended professionally by her thanking me for my time and her showing me to the door.
So, I took a breath and said, “Well, you’re probably wondering how a blind man is able to use a computer and do this job.”
“Yes,” she admitted, a bit awkwardly.
Well, I come prepared for these things and I asked, “May I show you?”
Well, I guess Joan figured she had nothing to lose and she must have had extra time and so she said, “Yes.”
I asked her to take me to one of her computers. She did so. I pulled out my trusty thumb drive from my pocket, inserted it into the USB port, fired up my portable copy of the NVDA screen reader and had her PC talking in less than a minute. Of course, I was explaining all of this to her as I was doing it so she would at least have a clue as to what I was doing.
For those not familiar with this type of software, NVDA, or Nonvisual Desktop Access, is known as a screen reader, a program which allows a visually impaired computer user to hear what information is on the screen. In addition, these programs offer a variety of ways to allow a person to review as well as to jump to a particular section of the screen with keyboard commands. NVDA can be run directly from a USB flash drive, without the need to first install it onto a PC’s hard drive.
Once NVDA was up and running, I opened Word, did a bit of simple editing and then went on Google and performed a simple Web search.
It is no exaggeration to say that, from that moment, her demeanor totally changed. She went from being professional and businesslike to being extremely friendly and much warmer. I was expecting her to thank me for showing her how I use a computer and assumed the interview was over. Instead, she asked, “Would you like to see our classroom?” Let me tell you I was floored and, trying not to show too much surprise, said, “Yes.” She took me to the classroom, introduced me to the instructor and tried to find the CEO so that I could meet her but the CEO was out to lunch.
Sadly, I never heard from Joan and so I didn’t get a second interview or an offer of employment. My theory, and I’ll never know if I’m right, is that I’d have been working there had it been up to Joan but she may have been convinced by her CEO or someone else that I wouldn’t be as good of a fit as she might have hoped. Again, I’ll never know. The truth is that a more qualified applicant may have walked in the door the next day who was more deserving of the position. It’s really OK. However, the point is that I think the interview was as memorable for Joan as it was for me, perhaps more so. Also, Joan now knows the capabilities of people with disabilities and will perhaps receive the next blind applicant with the warmth and receptivity that he or she deserves and will begin the interview by evaluating them on his or her skills.
Also, it pays to know your screen reader. Learn to use it confidently and, when possible, have it with you in case you need to demonstrate how it works. I can tell you it can make a difference.

Using Bookshare’s “Add to Reading List” Feature with Window-eyes

I sent the following message to the Bookshare discussion list. I’m reposting it here in case any readers of this blog have encountered this problem. Btw, I’ve already reported it to AI Squared.

Hello.
During the last phone meeting of the Philadelphia Computer Users’ Group for the blind and visually Impaired, one of the callers, who I believe may be on this list, brought up a problem she was having using Bookshare’s reading lists feature with the Window-eyes screen reader. She indicated that, when choosing the add to reading list link, she was not able to locate the combo box which provides the names of the reading lists you can choose for adding the desired book. I didn’t have a copy of Window-eyes at home and so I wasn’t able to do any testing during the conference call. However, I had a theory which I offered, being that window-eyes wasn’t seeing that the screen had refreshed after choosing the add to reading list link. I’ve had a chance to do some
experimenting and have confirmed that this is, in fact, the problem. For those who are using Window-eyes and are experiencing this problem, I’ll outline the workaround. Before I go any further, I’ll say that the problem does not occur with JAWS or with NVDA.
First, I’ll explain that I’m using version 8.4 of Window-eyes, which is the latest version as of the time of this writing. I’m running it on a Windows 7, 32-bit system and tested this problem with both Firefox 31 and Internet Explorer 11. I believe the caller was using Firefox and the behavior is slightly different, depending on which browser you’re using when adding a book to your reading list.
First, let’s start with Firefox. Go through a list of books on Bookshare and find a book that you want to add to your reading list. Look for the “Add to Reading List” link. Window-eyes will read it as “same page link add to reading list.”
Once you’ve found this link, press enter.
At this point, the page changes slightly and there should be a combo box, probably just a bit above where the virtual cursor is located. The combo box gives you a list of the different reading lists you might have created. As an example, with my account the combo box has items such as General fiction, General nonfiction, science fiction, catholic, etc. Other screen readers are able to detect that the page has changed and you will probably have little or no difficulty in locating the combo box. However, window-eyes is unaware that the page has changed so it will seem as though nothing has happened after you pressed the enter key. To force window-eyes to take a second look at the newly modified page, use the screen refresh command, which is insert-backslash by default if you’re using the standard desktop keyboard layout. If you’re using the laptop keyboard layout, use caps lock with the backslash key. If you happen to be using what they call the insert key layout, which is pretty much a JAWS keyboard layout, you can also use insert-escape. Window-eyes will say something like “screen refreshed.”
At this point, you may be thrown back to the top of the screen if you’re using Firefox and you’ll need to go back to the book you wanted to add. If you’re using Internet Explorer, window-eyes is a bit better at preserving your place and you’ll be pretty much where you were before you refreshed the screen. At this point, you’ll see an additional combo box with the names of your reading lists, along with an “add” button to add the book to the list you select. As with any combo box, you’ll need to press enter while you’re focused on it which will exit browse mode, allowing you to freely move about the combo box to select your reading list. Once you’ve selected the reading list you were looking for, press the tab key and you should be focused on the “add” button. Press spacebar or enter and the book should be added to the reading list you chose.
It is likely that the folks at GW Micro, now AI Squared, are already aware of this issue. Just in case they are not, I will send them a bug report before the end of the day.
As I said, users of JAWS and NVDA won’t have this problem. Choosing the “add to reading list” link will allow you to instantly locate the combo box to choose the reading list. I hope this information proves to be of some use for any Window-eyes users.