Turner uses digital books that allow him to speed up a synthesized reading voice without getting that chipmunk effect. To sighted people, the new digital books look similar to what you’d see on a Kindle. Turner says the key element is their operating system, which is called DAISY. It lets him navigate the books by tapping on the screen in response to audio prompts or by using an electronic Braille machine."It allows someone who’s reading an electronic book to have anchor points they can quickly move to," Turner explains, "beginnings of chapters, beginnings of sections, specific pages, that sort of thing."
These days, Turner works for a company called Benetech that makes these books. The Silicon Valley nonprofit began its online library a decade ago. Since then, it’s become clear that the books created for blind readers can actually help lots of kids learn to read, such as nine-year-old Jonas Wagner (pictured).
Jonas can see just fine, but his teachers say he has a learning disability that makes it hard for him to interpret text. But he has no trouble using a school computer to access a digital version of his fourth-grade reading textbook.
"If you want to change your page, you just have to click the numbers," he says, as he unplugs his headphones so visitors can listen in. "Then you click the “speak” button." As he does this, the machine begins to read aloud.