(Daisy is an acronym for Digital Accessible Information Systems, and it’s an international standard for audio publications such as “talking books”.) There are products such as the Victor Reader Stream, which is a Daisy-compatible talking book and media player, and the Plextalk Pocket Daisy player, but they generally cost £300 to £400 or more. If there is, suppliers don’t appear to be addressing it. You would think there would be a huge market for cheap, easy-to-use MP3 players suitable for blind and visually impaired users, and for older users whose fingers are not as nimble as they used to be. Experiment with Siri on an iPad or iPhone to find out if you can operate an iPod Touch successfully.Ī new iPod Touch may be a bit spendy at the moment, but you may be able to afford a second hand or refurbished one.Įither way, as an iTunes user, sticking with Apple is the simplest way to maintain your current set-up. See Apple’s help page, Use Accessibility features on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.īetter still, the latest iPod Touch has Siri, Apple’s voice-controlled digital assistant. These include the VoiceOver screen reader and Voice Control, which recognises command such as shuffle, pause and next song. However, it does have a number of features that may make it usable by blind and visually impaired users. You might dismiss it for being a touchscreen player or, more likely, because it’s expensive at £199/£299 or $199/$299.

The iPod Touch is the only surviving member of the iPod family, and it’s much like an iPhone without the phone.

You may have a friend who is happy to do this for you, should the need arise, or a local repair shop that can do it cheaply.

Replacement iPod batteries often ship with the small tools required, and there are usually demonstration videos on YouTube. However, iFixit also shows how to replace the batteries in later versions of the Shuffle, and this could influence your choice of a new model. Unfortunately, iFixit says this is “very difficult” with a first-generation version, so I don’t recommend it in your case. Alternatively, you could get someone to replace the battery in your current Shuffle.

Blind friendly itunes to mp3 converter