In this online tutorial paper, the TAB Telephony system will be the subject of teaching. This system is the Digital Talking Book Playback over a phone line. It has been developed by Thailand Association of the Blind (TAB) and been in service since 2005. The main purpose of the system is for persons with visual impairment to be able to easily and rapidly access the print materials without any valuable DTB playback machines or PCs. Apart from the visually impaired, elderly people are also beneficial from the service as well. To log in to the system, users only dial the system’s telephone numbers, and then select a catalog and book to listen. Leveraging the DAISY (Digital accessible information system) technology, users are allowed to control their listening; they can navigate inside the book freely, such as to move to the previous/next chapter or even the phase (of reading). In addition, the system can be customized, such as speed/volume adjustments. The books on the system are the books in DAISY format produced by the TAB library. The system is operated 24/7 and is freely available worldwide.
As briefly mentioned, visually impaired persons are the main target of this online tutorial. There are around 600,000blind people in Thailand (Komchatleuk, 2002). The service is not limited to only the member of the TAB library, it is open for any blind people nationwide. Currently, there are about 20,000 people who use the system.
The selected delivery method for the tutorial is podcast. This is because the primary audience is the visual impaired people who employ an auditory input as the main source of information; therefore, the audio means of communication would be the best option. They do not need to spend a lot of time navigating on the web in order to read instructions/explanation. In addition, most of the blind (especially who reside in Bangkok or in the big cities) regularly use some kind of MP3 players in their daily activities. In this way, they can listen to the tutorial while working on other activities or the instruction can be replayed anytime without turning on computers. Another reason that makes pod cast is more interesting than the static website is because it can insert audio media from the system as part of the instruction.
Below is an outline of the content of the online tutorial for using the TAB Telephony.
A. System’s overview
What is TAB TELEPHONY?
The operation and services
B. Steps to be taken
C. Basic commands
Here is a sample script of the podcast.
A. System’s overview
“Hello, welcome to the podcast that will guide you how to use the TAB Telephony. The TAB Telephony is a Digital Talking Book Playback over a phone line. The system was co-developed by Thai National Institute of the Blind (TNIB) and TOT Public Company Limited).”
B. Steps to be taken
“First, just dial 1414 from any telephone system. Then you will hear the welcome speech from the system. You can press “0″ to change into English command or just hold the line for the Thai language. In case you want to leave any comment for the system developer, just press “9″ and record your voice there. Next, the system will direct you to the main menu where you can choose to the following options: Press “1″ for the TAB news, “2″ for the newspapers and magazines, “3″ for the DAISY books of the library, and “0″ back to the welcome speech and option for switching languages.”
C. Basic commands
“After choosing the DAISY books, you can navigate or control your reading by pressing numbers on your telephone pad. Here are the commands for basic navigation control.
Press “1″ to move to the first chapter
Press “2″ to move to previous Chapter
Press “3″ to move to previous page
Press “4″ to move to previous phrase
Press “5″ to play/pause
Press “6″ to Move to next phrase
Press “8″ to move to next Chapter
Press “0″ to exit or change other books … You can change these reading modes anytime while listening.”
Reference:
KomChatLeuk. (December, 2nd, 2002). 423 p. 7.
http://www.thaiedresearch.org/thaied_news/index1.php?id=2008
Tags: DAISY, online tutorial, podcast, TAB Telephony
