cast

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DE | GA | IA | LA | ME | MA | MI | MN | MO | NY | PA | UT | VT | WI

The 15-state Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) Consortium is working to improve academic outcomes for

approximately 1.3 million K-12 students with print disabilities within the member States through the timely acquisition and delivery of high-quality educational materials in accessible

formats (audio, Braille, eText, large print).

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The development of this project by the AIM Consortium at the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) and the Michigan Department of Education IDEA Mandated

Activities Project Michigan’s Integrated Technology Supports was funded by Grant # H327S070003 from the

U. S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. The contents of this project are not exhaustive and inclusion does not imply endorsement by

the U.S. Department of Education, the Michigan Department of Education, Michigan’s Integrated

Technology Supports, or the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

gh PLAYER v2.2

The gh Player 2.2 is a Digital Talking Book reader that provides complete access to DAISY books, (including NIMAS file sets) and simple

text files.

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• Free gh Player Download (30 day demo)

• http://www.gh-accessiblility.com/

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gh Player Overview:

Displays and reads textbooks, novels, and other documents aloud.

Can display DTBs (digital talking books) ina. BRAILLE, b. large printc. electronic text

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Formats supported: DAISY/NISO 3.0 DAISY 2.02 DAISY 2.0 NIMAS Math in DAISY DAISY XML Simple Text (txt)

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Key features: Text to speech using synthesized voices Synchronized text highlighting Digital text magnification Contrast enhancement

Will play human-recorded audio(if that feature is built into the book)

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The first gh Screen:

The library window is automatically displayed when the software is launched.

Library Window

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What does the gh Library do?

My Library:

1. Opens books2. Adds new books3. Deletes books

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Adding books to the library:

To add a DTB (digital talking book) to the library, use the “Update Library” button, then browse to the book's folder on your computer.

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Opening a book in the gh library:

To open a book from your library, use the “Open Book” button.

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Removing books from the gh library:

To remove one or more books from the library, use the “Remove Entry” and/or “Clear All” buttons.

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Re-opening the gh libraryWhen you open a book, the library automatically closes. You

may re-open the library at any time from the File menu. (or by using the Ctrl+L keyboard shortcut)

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Directly open a NIMAS,DAISY or .txt document without using the gh Library

From File Menu, choose “Open book”. Then, browse to find and open a NIMAS, DAISY or .txt file

Accessibility toolbar

Voice toolbar

Playbacktoolbar

Bookmarkstoolbar

Navigatorstoolbar

NavigationModes toolbar

NavigationPane

Digital bookWith pics

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Accessibility toolbar:

1. Zooming buttons can change text size of the book, allowing a “large print” view of the book.

2. The Contrast button toggles through optional text and background colors.

3. The Tracking button is an on/off switch that controls whether text is highlighted as it is read or not.

4. The Panning button allows you to “grab” the page and move it around by using the click-hold-move mouse action.

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Voice control toolbar

Volume buttons gradually increase or decrease each time they are clicked.

Rate buttons control the speed of the playback – these work on both synthetic and recorded voices.

Voice button up/down arrows let the user select their preferred synthetic voice

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Playback toolbar

Play button may also be used to pause the text reading voice

Navigate backward and forward buttons allow the user to easily jump forward or backward in the book by page, segment, section, paragraph, word or time. The jump distance is determined by the setting in the Navigation Mode toolbar.

Repeat button will read the last sentence or segment again.

Navigate backwardPlay Navigate forward

Repeat

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Bookmarks toolbar

The user may place bookmarks on the current page of a book by using the “Bookmark” tool. The bookmark is automatically placed in the Bookmarks tab in the navigation pane.

The picture at right shows 3 bookmarks found in the navigation pane. Their name begins with the page number. (more on using the navigation pane later....)

Bookmarktool

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Bookmarks editor tool

The Bookmark Editor lets the user add notes to bookmarks, print the bookmarks and notes, and

manage or delete bookmarks.

Bookmark Editor button

BookmarkList

Print notesAnd bookmarks

Deletebookmarks

Grow/shrinkText size

Notes area

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Navigation Mode Toolbar

With the navigation mode set to “Page”, the forward arrow moves the user one page ahead. Set to “Word”, the forward arrow

moves the user one word ahead, and so on.

Red = currentselection

Blue = available modes in this book

Gray = mode not available in this book

Jump by page,section, paragraph,

word, etc, accordingto the navigation mode

setting shown above

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Navigation Pane

Use the tabs to search by book section (chapter), pages, or your bookmarks. Then double-click to go directly there.

Book section tab

Bookmarkstab Pages

tab

Another way to navigate

around a book

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Page Navigator

Page Navigator opens a separate window containing a list of pages (left), or sections (right), of the book. You may

navigate directly to the page or section you want.

Still another way

to navigate around a book

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Options – Customize: General tab

Use the general tab to set basic options for gh Player

Select theGeneral tab

From the Options Menu, choose“Customize”

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Customize – narrator voice

Set the default voice options here.

Narrator voice tab

This is the voice that reads the

text of a DTB(digital talking book)

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Customize – Player voice

Set default options for the Player voice here.

Player Voice tab

Reads menus andtoolbars

Player voice usually mutedby sighted users

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Customize - BRAILLE

NIMAS and DAISY books may be sent to a refreshable Braille device or to a Braille printer by using the “Braille Display” tab.

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Deactivating gh Player

To use one gh Player license on multiple computers, the software may be deactivated on one (e.g. a school computer), then reactivated on another (e.g. a home computer).

From the Help MenuChoose “Deactivate”

To complete deactivation

choose “Yes”

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Keyboard shortcuts:

Space bar – play/pauseRight/left arrows – navigate forward/backwardUp/down arrows – switch navigation modes

CTRL – L: Open your book libraryCTRL – R: RepeatCTRL – B: Place a bookmark on this pageCTRL – E: Edit bookmarks, add notes

More keyboard shortcuts can be found in the Help Menu, or by pressing Shift-F1.

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Documents

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library windowwww

daisy books

open book

update library button

gh screen