Read the transcript of video: RNIB's excellent introduction to Dolphin Guide

Hello.
If you're blind or partially sighted, these days a computer can make an absolute revolutionary change to your life and what you can do. In the old days when we just had pens and paper, once you could no longer see well enough to read you started to get very limited in communication. But now using a computer you can write letters, send electronic mail to people, and surf the whole internet

But that's easier than done because you've got to get to grips with not only learning about the computer, but you've also got to get the special screen reading software like Jaws or Window Eyes, and learn a whole lot of new commands and try to memorise things. It can be an extremely daunting business to try to get something which is really so tempting and really should be so simple.

So, there's a product which can really help to make access to a computer so much less painful, and it's called Guide and it's made by a company called Dolphin. I'm going to show you now how easy it is to get going with it.

So with me, I've got a standard laptop computer and we've put Dolphin Guide software onto it. We've done that simply by getting a disc, putting it in and letting it do the rest itself. It's very straightforward to load. You can set up your computer so the Dolphin Guide software starts immediately when you turn your computer on, so that's very easy. I've just got it as a menu item because I don't use it all the time. I'm now going to let the Dolphin software start, and in a moment we should here it speak.

"Hello and welcome to Guide."

Now, it's called Guide because that's what it does.

"Press 1 to send and receive e-mails. Press 2 to write letters and other documents. Press 3 to access a website. Press 4 to scan and read."

I've interrupted it because there's quite a long menu of things, but as you can see, you start the software and Guide immediately starts to tell you the options you can do. You don't need to understand about other bits of software installed on your computer - web-browsers, Internet Explorer, all that kind of thing - you just need to know what it is you want to do. So it's focused on your needs as a user. Let's see if we can write a simple document using Guide.

"Press 2 to write letters and other documents."
It says to press 2 to write letters and documents, so I press 2.

"2. Letter and document menu. Press 1 to write a new letter. Press 2 to write a new document. Press 3 to..."

Now I've just interrupted there because I've got the option I want, press 2 to write a new document.

"2. Please type your document. Press the escape key when you have finished. Press F1 for more help or to repeat these options."

So I'll just write...

"Hello muy delete y. Y. Muy (followed by a quacking noise)"

Oh, I think it's telling me I've got a mistake there.

"Delete space, delete y, delete u, delete m."

I put a 'u' in by mistake in the word 'my', so hello my...

"Hello my name is John."

I typed 'my name is John' so we are going to have a nice short document, and I've now finished it so it said 'press escape'.

"Escape. Document actions. Select an action for this document. Press 1 to print your document or set print options. Press 2 to change it. Press 3 to save it. Press 4 for advanced save options."

I want to save my document, so I'll press 3.

"3. Please type a name or description for this document."

I'll just call it 'test'.

"Test. Enter. Update existing file? Press 1 to update the existing file of that name. Press escape to go back a stage. Press F1 for help."

So there's already a file on here called 'test' and I do want to update it so I'll just press 1.

"1. Saved successfully to drive's list. Letter and document menu. Press 1 to write a new letter. Press 2 to write a new document. Press 3 to find a saved letter or document."

So I'm back to that document list we had before and I'm now finished with that so I can go back to the main menu by pressing escape.

"Escape. Main Menu. Press 1 to send and receive e-mails. Press 2 to write letters and other documents. Press 3 to access a website."

Let's go on the internet shall we, see what's there.

"3. Web-browser menu. Press 1 to use the full web-browser. Press 2 to use the text-only browser. Press escape to go back to the main menu."

So it gives me the choice of a full browser which would allow me to see pictures and images, or to have a simplified display which just uses the text. So let's go into '2' for a simplified text display.

"2. Website menu. Press 1 to search the web. Press 2 to enter the address of a specific website. Press 3 to view your favourite websites list. Press 4 to carry on surfing where you last left off."

So as you can hear, very straightforward options and you can just choose what you want to do. Well I want to go and visit the RNIB online shop, so I'm going to press '2'.

"2. Please type the website address. Press enter to continue."

So the address is -

"www.rnib.org.uk/shop. Enter."

And I pressed enter.

"Loading, please wait."

That will then take us to the RNIB online shop.

"Shop - RNIB - www.rnib.org.uk. Press enter to select an action for this page. Press escape to go back to the main web menu. Form 1. Skip to section navigation. Skip to main content. Small text. Medium text. Large text. RNIB home."

So we've arrived at the RNIB online shop, and then you can just read the web page using the up and down arrow keys to navigate around. You see it's all very simple, I didn't have to do anything other than listen to the items read out by Guide, and then just choose one by pressing '1,2,3 or 4'.

Now Guide will do an awful lot more for you, like help you to scan documents and copy things, and also to listen to music and other things like talking books on your computer. It's a very comprehensive piece of software, but the important thing is it's really simple. You really don't have to worry about the technicalities, even if you've never used a computer before. All you have to do is just put in the Guide by Dolphin disc and away you go, it really couldn't be simpler. Guide will just guide you through, every step of the way.

If you like what you've heard about Guide then you can get a free demo CD from us by calling customer services. And our phone number, RNIB helpline, is 0303 123 9999 or you can order on our online shop at www.rnib.org.uk/shop

RNIB. Supporting blind and partially sighted people

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