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The Bookworm

by Isaac Obie

I tested a device last summer that I am quite excited about, called the Bookworm. This device is for reading books using braille and braille only! It has no speech. The Bookworm is approximately eight inches long and about three and a half inches wide and about one inch tall. It uses four rechargeable nickel metal hydrite batteries. They can last up to 20 hours. This device is extremely portable as it will fit in a suit coat pocket, briefcase or purse. You can take it on trains, buses or anywhere you so desire. It is a nifty little device made in Germany and sold in North America by Handytech of Canada and AccessAbility in San Francisco, Calif. How it works

The Bookworm does not go out on the Internet and retrieve your books for you. You must first download your books from the National Library Service, the braille book international booklist or whatever source you're using. These books can be in NLS grade two braille or HTML format. The Bookworm will convert HTML format to grade one or grade two braille. So once you've downloaded the book to your personal computer, you then hook up the Bookworm and run a program called "BWcomm." This program sets up the protocols, does the translation and uploading to the Bookworm. Once this is done, you're ready to sit and read.

The Bookworm has four controls: forward, backward, escape and enter. These four controls can be used in conjunction with one another to give you a surprising array of control features. They're easy to learn as well.

The Bookworm's manual is already loaded on the device, so you can read things at any time. Let me list some of the many features of the Bookworm.

  1. Autoscroll. You can set the Bookworm to autoscroll the braille display while you read at a steady pace. This pace is user controllable. (The Bookworm has only eight "elements" or braille cells.)
  2. You can automark your place. When you stop reading, it will resume exactly where you left off.
  3. You can move from chapter to chapter, paragraph to paragraph, page to page, line to line.
  4. You can delete pages, chapters, individually.
  5. You can load at least eight or nine volumes of braille.
  6. You can use the Bookworm as an emergency braille display in both DOS and Windows!
  7. You can load books using JAWS or Window-Eyes.
  8. The Bookworm works well with Commo.
  9. I used the Bookworm with WordPerfect 5.1 as a braille display.
  10. The Bookworm is "the working man's braille display and braille reader."
  11. It costs only $1,695, of course!
  12. You can use four AA batteries, although you must take caution not to attempt charging while using these ordinary batteries. The Bookworm should work well with Windows 95 and 98. But please note that a Windows driver is being developed at this writing and will be available to all Bookworm owners free of charge when it is available! (It could very well be available by the time you read this.)

I just wanted to share information about a special device with everyone. If you don't ask for it, the manufacturers will remove it from their arsenal of adaptive devices. I believe this is a "must-have!" You owe it to yourself to check this out at Handytech's web site or at AccessAbility's web site. Handytech's site is http://www.handytech.com. AccessAbility's phone number is (888) 322-7200, and the web site is http://www.4access.com.