Book Port Plus

Last summer the Lions Club provided my daughter a BookPort Plus, the new personal recording device from American Printing House for the Blind (APH). My daughter loves this device and carries it with her wherever she goes.

The BookPort Plus lets you download talking book files, MP3 files or audible files, storing them on a removable SD card. You can also make personal recordings onto an SD card using the BookPort Plus built-in microphone.

The BookPort Plus also has a built-in clock and calendar, making it a great personal organization tool.

With all that the BookPort Plus is capable of, as a sighted person I do not find it all that intuitive to use. My daughter, who is totally blind, does find it easy to use, but sometimes she needs help with downloading files. I am looking forward to the day I can turn this task over to her, but until then I find myself in the unenviable role of being her technology guru.

I decided to organize the best BookPort Plus tutorials and other information here. It will help me be organized, and perhaps help someone else in the process. If you are a parent or teacher of the visually impaired, learning how to use the BookPort Plus, this webpage will help you find the solution to your technology problem.

Photo property of author (All Rights Reserved - Photo may not be used or duplicated for any reason without permission of owner)

Chase is a very articulate young man who gives us a thorough introduction and overview of the new Book Port Plus.

You can download digital talking books from Bookshare.org directly to your Book Port Plus. Bookshare has thousands of titles. My daughter has been able to find almost any book she has been looking for with only a few exceptions.

You will need a Bookshare account, which is available to individuals with a qualifying print disability. A Bookshare account is free to students.

My daughter and I highly recommend this service! Click here to learn more!

When downloading books from Bookshare, you will need to extract or unzip the files, then find them on the Book Transfer software that came with your Book Port Plus. Highlight them on the Book Transfer Software, then press send or send folder to copy the files from your computer to your Book Port Plus or SD card.

You can also download books from the National Library Service (NLS) onto your Book Port Plus. You will need a membership to the NLS. Click the link below for more information.

You will also need a key from APH to listen to the BARD books on your Book Port Plus. When you let the NLS know you will be using your Book Port Plus to listen to their books, they will notify APH who will send you an electronic key to download onto your device.

When downloading BARD books from the NLS, do not unzip the files. Simply download, then locate the folder on the Book Transfer Software. Select send folder to move the files to your Book Port Plus.

You can also download titles from Learning Ally, which as formerly known as Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), onto your Book Port Plus. You will need a membership to Learning Ally to access their materials.

An individual or family membership is $99 per year, but you can try it out free for 30 days.

Audible.com is basically an online audible bookstore. You must have a membership to utilize the service, but it is available to anyone. You do not need to have any type of disability to use the services of Audible.com.

What a great site for downloading books from the public domain. These are old stories whose authors have been dead at least 75 years; many are classics like Black Beauty, Little Women and Treasure Island. The downloading time seems a bit long, but if you are not in a hurry you can find some real treasures here!

Project Gutenberg has digitalized almost 40,000 books with expired copyrights. You can access them using your Book Port Plus. The Project Gutenberg service is free to everyone.

One of my daughter's favorite things is to spend a little bit of money on a Friday afternoon at the Amazon website on a big album she can listen to over the weekend.

This is an example of the type of album she loves to download onto her Book Port Plus.

My daughter loves finding free MP3 files to download from Amazon! She often makes purchases as well, but the free files are a lot of fun and let her try something she might not otherwise have been exposed to.

Here are some free MP3 downloads she has enjoyed and thought you might like as well.

My friend, Nalida Lacet Besson, made these wonderful tutorials. They are so helpful when you are learning to use your Book Port Plus. I have found her descriptions to be thorough and easy to understand.

Let Nalida walk you through the Book Port Plus. This may be the easiest way to learn this device on the web!

Your Book Port Plus comes with a 2GB SD card, but you will want to upgrade to a larger storage device.

You will probably want to have at least two SD cards for your Book Port Plus: One for your books and one for your music. Because of storage limitations imposed by the transfer software, you may even want more cards to store various genres of music or books. For example, perhaps you will store your textbooks on one SD card and the books you are reading for pleasure on another.