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Carmella’s Quest narrated by blind author
By Alicia Waters | January 14, 2015
It’s the story of a blind author’s effort to read her own work and have it added to the NLS Download service. Download the book, CARMELLA’S QUEST by Carmella Broome as DBC00073 from BARD.
Carmella writes- My first book, “Carmella’s Quest: Taking On College Sight Unseen,” was released in print in February of 2009. As excited as I was to hold a copy in my hands, flip the pages, and yes, even sniff it to see if it really smelled like a new book, I was already thinking ahead to my next goal. I needed to get the book into accessible format for other readers who were blind. Getting “Carmella’s Quest” into Bookshare’s collection of digital books was quick and easy, but I wanted it available in audio format as well. I’d enjoyed books on tape for years through the National Library Service, and wanted my book to be included in their collection. I knew that my state’s Talking Book Services had a studio where local volunteers recorded books about South Carolina, or by South Carolina authors. This collection was made available nationally to NLS patrons through interlibrary loan. The title, In My Own Voice, can be requested through Interlibrary Loan as Sc-BPH (CBC00492) by calling 574-9310.
Hoping for the best, I contacted Chris Yates at the Talking Book Services office near my home. I wanted to read the book myself. I explained that I’d probably use a process similar to one I’d figured out when I needed to give presentations in graduate school. I had a laptop, a text file, JAWS, and a set of headphones. I would have JAWS read to me and I would repeat what I was listening to aloud to my audience. I wore an ear bud in one ear and simply slowed the speech rate down a bit and narrowed a document’s margins so that I could easily stay a few words behind whatever JAWS was saying. I moved through the text line by line, adding pauses and inflection, and other more human embellishments. In this case, my audience would be TBS’s digital recording equipment.
The first recording session went great. I snuggled into a small soundproof recording booth with my laptop and my guide dog, Maggie. I already had the JAWS speech rate and margins on the text copy of “Carmella’s Quest” set the way I liked them.
I knew that, especially when reading a memoir, I’d connect with the story more
personally if I knew the person narrating it was the person who actually wrote it. I also knew that I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else’s voice to read my book. If I did it myself, I could make sure it sounded the way I wanted it to.
By early August, the recording of “Carmella’s Quest” was complete. Carmella’s Quest” is now available across the country to anyone signed up with NLS. I’m proud to have contributed to a service that has provided me with countless hours of reading enjoyment over the years. I wish positive collaborations like the one between myself and South Carolina Talking Book Services could happen more often. Working together, we made “Carmella’s Quest” accessible, in my own voice, to countless other blind readers.
Source: bardtalk Tue 1/13/2015 10:49 PM
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