by Bob Hachey
Did you know that the Forum is available on NFB-Newsline (R) (referred to hereafter as Newsline)? That's right. All issues of "The ACB Braille Forum" (including issues of the E-Forum) may now be accessed on Newsline along with hundreds of newspapers and magazines. Newsline turns the printed word into electronic speech and can be accessed by anyone with a telephone who is eligible based on disability.
Anyone who is a patron of the braille and talking book library is also eligible for Newsline. To subscribe to Newsline, call your local talking book library or call the national Newsline office at 1-866-504-7300.
For Newsline subscribers, here's a step-by-step guide for accessing "The ACB Forum."
- Log into Newsline and press option 7 for magazines.
- Press option 1 for blindness-specific content.
- Press 1 again for the ACB Forum.
- Choose either option 1 or option 2 depending upon which month's issue you wish to read. There should always be two months available for listening. From here you can press 10 for the introduction, including table of contents, and 11 for the articles.
- Once you're in the list of articles, use the following commands to navigate.
Press 1 for previous article, 2 to restart the current article or 3 for the next article.
Press 4 for the previous sentence, 5 to restart the current sentence or 6 for the next sentence.
Press 7 to slow down the speaking rate, 8 to change speaking voices or 9 to increase the speaking rate.
Press * for the previous menu, 0 to pause speech or # for help.
Anyone who wants more specific help using Newsline may contact me at (781) 893-6251. I will be happy to help get you started.