BARD Screen Reader: Intro to BARD Express Main Menu

Vikki: Don't you love it when you find a tool that makes life a little easier? I certainly do. And in this workshop we'll have a look at BARD Express, a handy tool that makes searching for and downloading BARD books super easy. BARD stands for braille and audio, reading download. It is a free service from the National Library Service for the Blind or NLS.

BARD Express is a free Windows-based program that allows us to search BARD using different criteria such as by titles, authors, and keywords. BARD Express makes downloading books and magazines a breeze.

This series is intended for screen reader users. If you prefer to use your mouse, be sure to check out the low vision version of this series on the Hadley website. Now it's important to note that we must have an active BARD account to use BARD Express. If you'd like to learn more, have a look at the first workshop in this series to learn how to set up your own free account.

We won't go through the process of downloading BARD Express, but check out the resources below for a link to the NLS website. There, you'll find a link for downloading the program. The staff at your local library for the blind can also assist you with downloading BARD Express on your Windows computer.

The purpose of this workshop is to provide an overview of all the buttons in the main menu. We'll dig a little deeper into the functions of each button in subsequent workshops. Once we've downloaded the program and used our BARD username and password to sign in.

Screen Reader: Log in successful, main menu.

Vikki: We find ourselves in the main menu.

Screen Reader: Bookshelf, Control + B button.

Vikki: We hear the label of our first button bookshelf. The main menu is our home base for searching the BARD website, managing our downloads, and setting our preferences. No matter where we find ourselves in the BARD Express program, whenever we need to return to the main menu, we can Tab to the return main menu button or use the keyboard shortcut Control + M for main.

As we heard, the first button in the main menu is the bookshelf. Here, we find a list of all of the downloaded books and magazines that we've stored on our computer until we're ready to transfer them to a cartridge. We can move to our bookshelf with our keyboard shortcut, Control + B for bookshelf.

Screen Reader: Bookshelf organized by type list. All books and magazines, count six one of seven.

Vikki: I like the way the bookshelf lists our materials. Let's use our Arrow keys to move down the list to explore our other options breaking them up into audio books and magazines.

Screen Reader: Audio books, count five two of seven. Audio magazines, count zero three of seven.

Vikki: Braille books and magazines and read and unread items. It gives us a detailed look at what's currently on both our computer and our cartridge. We move through the list and press the Enter key to hear a list of the materials under each category.

Screen Reader: Bookshelf, Control + B button.

Vikki: Back at the main menu, we find our next button the wishlist. Let's Tab through our other choices on the main menu.

Screen Reader: Wishlist.

Vikki: It lists all of the books and magazines that we're interested in but haven't yet downloaded to our computer. We can jump to our wishlist from anywhere in BARD Express by using the keyboard shortcut Control + W for wish.

Screen Reader: Wishlist organized by type list. All books and magazines, count 26 one of five.

Vikki: Let's head back to our main menu by pressing the Escape key.

- [Screen] Wishlist Control + W button.

Vikki: Our next six buttons are search buttons. BARD Express gives us lots of different ways to search for a book or magazine. Below our bookshelf and wishlist, we find buttons that let us browse the BARD collection. Let's Tab to our next button for recently added books and magazines.

Screen Reader: Recently added books and magazines. Control + R button.

Vikki: We'll Tab again.

Screen Reader: Most popular books, Control + D button.

Vikki: And most popular books. Check out the workshop in this series for more information about these popular tools in BARD Express. We can continue using our Tab key to move through our other options including browsing by subject, magazines, series, and search BARD. I hope you'll join me in the workshop in this series where we learn how to use these tools to search for our favorite book. Our next button in the main menu is the preferences button.

Screen Reader: Preferences, Control + P button.

Vikki: We use our keyboard shortcut Control + P for preferences to open this Window.

Screen Reader: Format grouping, combo box audio, and braille collapsed.

Vikki: Here we find several options to customize our BARD experience. The final workshop in this series offers an in-depth look at all of the preferences options.

Screen Reader: Preferences, Control + P button.

Vikki: Back at our main menu we'll use Control + N for number to move to our next button manage devices.

Screen Reader: Manage devices please wait. Device list, press F1 for help edit read only selected device list.

Vikki: Here we find a list of drives or devices that are connected to our computer and the number of books or magazines on each drive. Let's Tab to our drive.

Screen Reader: Drive E, contains two books button.

Vikki: And press Enter.

Screen Reader: Edit read only selected two books are using 169.4 megabytes of space 0%.

Vikki: Here, we hear the amount of space currently being used. Let's Tab to our next line, where we hear the amount of available space on our drive.

Screen Reader: Edit read only selected 211.7 gigabytes free space on drive E SDXC card.

Vikki: We can also Tab to a list of books on our drive.

Screen Reader: List, SeinLanguage checkbox not checked author Seinfeld space.

Vikki: Let's select this first book in my list.

Screen Reader: Selected checked.

Vikki: The manage devices option can also be used to delete books. Once we've selected the book, we then Tab to the Delete button.

Screen Reader: Validate books button Alt + V. Eject drive button Alt + E. Book details button Alt + B. Report button Alt + R. Delete books button Alt + D.

Vikki: And press Enter. We can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt + D to delete the book.

Screen Reader: BARD Express dialogue, are you sure you want to delete one book? Yes, button Alt + Y.

Vikki: We have a dialog box that asks us to confirm whether we want to delete this book. We press Enter to confirm. The book is removed from our bookshelf and computer. If we'd rather not delete the book, we press the N key for no to close the Window without deleting the book.

Screen Reader: Device contents, delete books button Alt + D. Manage devices.

Vikki: Back the main menu we've come to our final option download status.

Screen Reader: Download status, Control + T button.

Vikki: We can also open our download status from anywhere in the program with the keyboard shortcut Control + T for time.

Screen Reader: No books are downloading. Edit read only selected no books are downloading.

Vikki: This option gives us detailed information about downloads that are currently in progress. This is a handy tool when we're in the middle of a download and wish to confirm how much time is left. In today's workshop, we learned all about the main menu in BARD Express. I'm Vikki Vaughan, and I thank you for joining me.