Newsline: Tutorial

NFB-NEWSLINE(r) Tutorial

Hello, and welcome to NFB-NEWSLINE(r), a service of the National Federation of the Blind, providing subscribers with over 100 newspapers and magazines.  You can reach NFB-NEWSLINE(r) 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from any touchtone phone.  Simply dial your USA Datanet local telephone number, which is provided to you upon subscription.  If a local number is not available in your area, you may also reach NFB-NEWSLINE(r) toll-free by dialing 1-888-882-1629.  By entering commands on your touchtone telephone keypad, you can read publications ranging from major national papers to local presses, and weekly and monthly magazines.  

During this tutorial you'll complete 8 short lessons that will demonstrate NFB-NEWSLINE(r)'s capabilities, and help you to become skilled at navigating through periodicals and articles.  By the completion of the final lesson, you'll understand NEWSLINE's advanced functions to maximize your enjoyment of the service and its usefulness to you.

Lesson 1: Selecting a local newspaper

If you are using a local USA Datanet telephone number to reach NFB-NEWSLINE(r), you'll hear the following message:

	"Welcome to USA Datanet's information portal. Please enter your three digit portal code or press ** for a list of available services."

Your three digit portal code is 632.  When you enter the portal code, NEWSLINE will request your identification number and security code.  These are provided to you upon subscription to NFB-NEWSLINE(r). 

If you are calling NFB-NEWSLINE(r) via the toll-free number, you will not be prompted for the portal code. 


	"Please hold while your call is connected.  Welcome to NFB-NEWSLINE(r) provided by the National Federation of the Blind and the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress along with state sponsors.  Please enter your 6 digit identification number or press the pound key to hear how to become an NFB-NEWSLINE(r) Subscriber. Please enter your security code."

The next message will welcome you to your state's NEWSLINE service and will offer you more options:

"Hello.  Welcome to NFB-NEWSLINE(r) for Michigan, sponsored by the Library of Michigan, Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.  For assistance with Newsline, call Georrgia Kitchenat (810) 233-4776.   Press 2 for the Michigan Information Channel for topics of local interest.  For Context Sensitive Help at any time, press the # key.  
Welcome [subscriber name].  Please select from the following options."
  
The following list of options is NEWSLINE's main menu.

"To read news about NFB-NEWSLINE(r), press 1
To read your Sponsor's Information Channel, press 2
To read Your Newspapers, press 3
To enter your Favorites List, press 4
To read All NFB-NEWSLINE(r) Newspapers, press 5
To continue reading where you left off, press 6
To read magazines, press 7
To read NFB-NEWSLINE(r) Tutorial, press 9"

Option 3, Your Newspapers, offers a list of available newspapers in your area.  We'll select this option to read a local paper in the Detroit area.


"Please select from the following content options.  
To select theChristian Science Monitor, press 1
To select TheDetroit Free Press, press 2
To select TheFlint Journal, press 3
To select the Flint Journal Classifieds, press 4
"To select The USA Today, press 5" To select the Wall Stree Journal, press 6."

Pressing 2 in order to select the Detroit Free Press will bring you to the next menu, where you can choose which edition you'd like to read.  For any given newspaper, NFB-NEWSLINE(r) holds today's edition, yesterday's edition, and, if available, the most recent Sunday edition.  Magazines may vary slightly depending on how frequently they are published.  Please listen as we select today's edition of theDetroit Free Press:

"Please select from the following available issues.  For the Detroit Free Press dated [today], press 1.  For the Detroit Free Press dated [yesterday], press 2.  For the Detroit Free Press dated [last Sunday], press 3. "

We'll select 1 to read today's edition.  

At any time, if you make the wrong selection while using the NFB-NEWSLINE(r) menus, or if you wish to return to the previous menu to make another selection, simply press the * key.  Each time you press *, you will back up one menu at a time.  So if you decide you'd like a different paper than the one you've selected, or you're not interested in a particular section and want to select another, just press * until you have returned to the menu you want.

This is the end of your first lesson.  We will review these steps later on, but for now, let's move on to the next lesson that will demonstrate how to select and read an article.

Lesson 2: Reading a newspaper article

Once you have chosen an issue to read, NFB-NEWSLINE(r) will then list topics from which to select.  For this demonstration, we'll continue to read theDetroit Free press.   The list of topic sections that you may choose from corresponds to the topic sections in the print versions of each newspaper.  Please listen as we choose a section to read:

"Please listen to the sections a available and select the section you want.For the first section, press 10.

If we select "News" by pressing 17, NFB-NEWSLINE(r) then lists all the articles available within that section.   However, choosing which article you'd like to read is a bit different than choosing a newspaper or topic section.  Please listen to this demonstration to learn how to move through the available articles to find those of interest to you.

NFB-NEWSLINE(r) will tell you the title of the first article, and then immediately begin reading its text.  

If you wish to read the first article in your chosen section, you can begin immediately.  NEWSLINE will continue through the entire text of that article and then begin reading the following one.  If at any time you decide that you'd like to skip over the article that you're currently reading, press 3 to move to the next article.  If you continue to press 3, you can scan through all the articles in the section.  

If you decide to return to an article you've already skipped over, pressing 1 will bring you back to each previous article.

And if you would like to return to the first sentence of your current article, pressing 2 will allow you to begin that article again.

If you wish, you may also skip ahead or back up by sentence within a single article.  To skip ahead to the next sentence, press 6.  

And if you'd like to back up to the previous sentence, press 4.

If you wish to re-read the sentence you're currently reading, pressing 5 will allow you to start from the first word:

Anytime that you would like to pause NEWSLINE, you can do so by pressing 0.  Newsline will resume the article when you press 0 again.  Or, if you need to hang up the telephone, NEWSLINE will remember where you stopped reading.  You can return to the same place you left off by pressing 6 from the main menu.
 
Now that you're comfortable reading a newspaper through NFB-NEWSLINE(r), let's move on to learn more about its features and options.

Lesson 3: Selecting from the list of all NFB-NEWSLINE(r) publications.

If you wish to read a publication from outside your local area, you can access NFB-NEWSLINE(r)'s master list of over one hundred publications by selecting option five from the main menu.  In this lesson, we'll learn how to navigate in this master list and to find the newspapers or magazines that you'd like to read.  

"To read all NFB-NEWSLINE(r) Newspapers, press 5"

NEWSLINE will then list the titles of each publication in alphabetical groups of eight.  This means that rather than listening to the entire list each time you wish to select a publication, you may skip through their titles, eight at a time, by pressing the number 9.  For example if you want to read the AARP Magazine, you will find it in the first group of eight.  

"Please select from the following content options"

If you wish to read The New York Times, you will find it in the thirteenth group of eight.  Keep in mind that as we add more newspapers the papers will move further down in the list. Please listen as we skip forward to select The New York Times.

"to select The New York Times, press 6."

"Please select from the following available issues.  For The New York Times dated [today], press 1.  For The New York Times  dated [yesterday], press 2.  For The New York Times dated [Sunday], press 3."

We'll choose option 1 for today's edition.  Next, we'll choose from the topic sections available in today's New York Times.  

"Please select from the following sections
Norte: This is the list of sections for Tuesday's New York Times. The list will vary from day to day a bit. The "Health and Fitness" Section is available only on Tuesday.

Business/Financial Desk, press 10
Classifieds, press 11
Editorial Desk, press 12
Foreign Desk, press 13
Health and Fitness, press 14
Metropolitan Desk, press 15
National Desk, press 16
Science Desk, press 17
Sports Desk, press 18
Arts/Cultural Desk, press 19"

If we select option 16 for the "National Desk," we can then select and read these articles as we did earlier, by pressing 3 to skip ahead through each article, 1 to back up through the previous articles, and 2 to return to the beginning of your current article.

Remember that you can scan through your current article by pressing 6 to skip to each next sentence, 4 to back up to each previous sentence, and 5 to return to the beginning of your current sentence.  Now that you're becoming comfortable finding and choosing articles to read, let's adjust the personal settings of your NFB-NEWSLINE(r) account.


Lesson 4: Setting your personal preferences

There are two ways that you can adjust the speed and tone of the voice you hear when reading articles on NFB-NEWSLINE(r).  It is important to note, however, that the voice can only be changed or adjusted after you have begun reading an article.  If you attempt to adjust the voice from one of the previous menus, NEWSLINE may interpret your request as a selection or it may tell you that the key you have pressed is not an option.  Once you are reading an article, pressing 00 will bring you to "Speech Control."  Let's enter the Speech Control Mode from our "National Desk" article in The New York Times.  

"Entering Speech Control "

NEWSLINE will not say anything in this mode until you select an adjustment to the speaking voice that you heard while reading your article.

There are three aspects of NEWSLINE's reading voice that you can adjust: its speed, pitch and volume.  In Speech Control mode, you can raise the voice's volume by press 3, and lower it by pressing 1.  When you press these keys, you will hear the voice adjusting to your commands:

"Speaking louder"
"Speaking softer"

And to make sure you are happy with your selection, you can press 2 to hear the voice again at the setting you've selected.

"This is the current volume"

The six and four keys will allow you to raise and lower the voice's pitch.  Like the volume controls, the voice will tell you its new pitch.  We'll raise it by pressing six:

"This is a higher pitch"

And lower it by pressing 4

"This is a lower pitch"

And again, to make sure you like the pitch you've selected, pressing 5 will replay it:

"This is the current pitch"

Finally, you can adjust the speed at which NFB-NEWSLINE(r) reads articles by pressing 9 to speed it up or 7 to slow it down.  Pressing 8 will allow you to select from several voice tones.

"Speaking faster
Speaking slower
New Voice"

You may find "Speech Control" mode useful when you are initially setting your preferences as an NFB-NEWSLINE(r) user.  After you've become comfortable reading with NFB-NEWSLINE(r), you may find that you prefer to read at a higher speed than when you first started using the service.  Or, you may wish to slow down a certain article in order to pay particular attention to its content.  To quickly change the speed of NEWSLINE's voice, you don't need to enter "Speech Control" at all.  Instead, you can press 9 or 7 during an article to raise or lower the speed.  

Also, if you'd prefer a different reading voice, you can press 8 to cycle through the available options.

We hope that you will use these options to increase your comfort and enjoyment of NFB-NEWSLINE(r).  Another important way to customize NFB-NEWSLINE(r) to your personal preferences is to create a Favorites List, which we'll do in the next lesson.


Lesson 5: Creating a Favorites List

Since NFB-NEWSLINE(r) offers so many newspapers and magazines, it can clearly become time consuming to select publications from the master list.  NEWSLINE automatically lists six of the papers nearest to your home under option 3, Your Newspapers, on the main menu.  If, however, you want fast, regular access to some newspapers or magazines that are published outside your local area, NFB-NEWSLINE(r) gives you the option of creating a Favorites List.  To do this, press 4 from the main menu.  
 
The first time you enter the Favorites List, NEWSLINE will inform you that there are no items in that list.  Please follow along as we add periodicals to a Favorites List:

"There are currently no items in your Favorites List.  To add an item to your Favorites, press 7.  Please select from the following content to add to your Favorites List."

The list that follows is exactly the same as the master list of publications from which we selected The New York Times earlier.  Keeping in mind that we can scroll through the titles of newspapers and magazines in groups of eight, let's select the Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe to add to our list of favorites.

We'll press key 9 nine separate times to reach the group containing the Los Angeles Times, and then press the corresponding number 7 to add this paper to our Favorites. 

..."to select the Los Angeles Times, press 7.  [press 7] Item successfully added."  

Each time you add a newspaper or magazine to your Favorites List, NEWSLINE will reread that list, including your new addition.

"Returning to Favorites List.  To Select the Los Angeles Times, press 1.  To add an item to your Favorites, press 7. "

We'll press 7 to add another newspaper.  Scrolling through the publications, we'll press 9 twice to reach The Boston Globe.

..."to select The Boston Globe, press 3 Item successfully added.  Returning to Favorites List.  To select The Boston Glove, press 1.  To select the Los Angeles Times, press 2.  To add an item to your Favorites List press 7.  To delete an item press 8.  To erase your Favorites List press 9."

Pressing 8 in your Favorites menu will allow you to delete any one publication from your Favorites List, and pressing 9 will delete all items from that list.  

Your Favorites List can include up to six newspapers or magazines.  Once you become comfortable accessing and updating this list, you'll have fast access to hundreds of articles addressing your particular interests. Our next  lessons will discuss the advanced functions in NFB-NEWSLINE(r), and how to use the system to its fullest potential.

Lesson 6: Context Sensitive Help

In any menu or article within NFB-NEWSLINE(r), pressing the # (pound) key will bring you to Context Sensitive Help.  This Help function is specific to each of NEWSLINE's menus and modes.  This means that if you enter Context Sensitive Help from the master list of publications, you will learn which keys will help you choose a newspaper to read.  However, if you are reading an article when you press the # key, you will then receive instruction on which keys you will need to navigate through the article.  

Once you have entered Context Sensitive Help, you may press any key to hear its function.  For example, if you've entered Context Sensitive Help from an article by pressing the # key, then pressing six will explain that this key allows you to skip to the next sentence of your article.  Please listen as Context Sensitive Help reviews the functions of several keys:

"Press the * key to exit help.  Press ** to exit NEWSLINE.  Press any other key to learn about its function.  Pressing 6 moves to the next sentence.  Pressing 9 raises the speaking speed.  Pressing 1 moves back to the previous article.  Pressing 3 moves to the next article."

Context Sensitive Help can be very useful if you've forgotten how to perform a desired function using the telephone keypad, or if you are in a menu that you are not completely familiar with.

Remember that any time you wish to back out of one menu and return to the previous one, pressing the * key will take to the previous menu, all the way back to the main menu if you wish.

Next, we'll learn how to use NFB-NEWSLINE(r)'s Search Mode to find articles of particular interest, or to do research on a specific subject.  


Lesson 7: Search Mode

Pressing the # key twice, while reading any article, will allow you to search the publication you are currently reading for a specific word or phrase.  

"Please enter your search phrase"

We'll select "travel" as our search topic.  Search Mode requires us to enter our chosen word or phrase using a code that substitutes two-digit numbers from 01 through 26, in sequence, for each letter of the alphabet.  For example, we'll enter 01 for A since A is the first letter of the alphabet, 04 for D since it is the fourth, and 26 for Z, the twenty-sixth letter.  Using these substitutions we will enter the word 'travel' as the numbers 20, 18, 01, 22, 05, 12, and 99.  Pressing 99 tells the system that you have finished entering your word or phrase.  It is easiest to convert your keyword to this numeric code before dialing NFB-NEWSLINE(r), so that you are ready when the system asks you to enter your search criteria.  Listen as NFB-NEWSLINE(r) searches for our keyword.

"Newsline found xx matches for 'travel.' Article One..."

Once NFB-NEWSLINE(r) begins to read the first article discovered by your search, you may move through the articles in the same way we've learned, pressing 3 to skip ahead, 1 to back up, and 2 to return to the beginning of the current article.  
NFB-NEWSLINE(r)'s Search Mode can also process punctuation marks like commas, colons or quotation marks.  If you want to search for a word or phrase containing punctuation, you can enter Context Sensitive Help to learn  the code that corresponds to your desired character.  

"You can search for a word or phrase in the newspaper you are currently reading.  First, enter the word or phrase you are looking for, then press 99.  Please enter your search phrase.  Each word or phrase is spelled by entering two digits.  For example you would enter 01 for the letter A, 12 for the letter L and 26 for the letter Z.
For space, enter 00.  Colon is 27.  Period is 28.  Slash is 29. Double quote is 40.  Single quote is 41.  Comma is 42.  The numbers zero through nine are entered by keying 30 through 39.  To hear what you have entered so far, enter 96.  To backspace one character, enter 97.  To erase the entire word or phrase and start over, enter 98.  To begin your search, enter 99.  Each character will be spoken as you enter it."

Remember that pressing the * key will take you out of Context Sensitive Help and back to Search Mode.  Pressing the * key again will return you to your article.  Search Mode is a powerful tool that can assist you with business or academic research, or it can minimize the time you must spend searching for articles on a particular subject.


Lesson 8: Spell Mode

To enter Spell Mode from any article, press # (pound), 5.  Sometimes, while reading newspapers and magazines on NFB-NEWSLINE(r), you may come across a word that is difficult to understand.  If reducing the speed of the reading voice doesn't make the word more clear, Spell Mode can help you to be certain that you fully understand each word.  
Take out 'Washington...next sentence...next sentence

Once you have entered Spell Mode, you can either spell the word on which you paused the article, or you can use the keys to choose another.  Pressing 3 will take you to the first word of each sentence, and pressing 1 will take you back to each previous sentence.

"Entering Spell Mode.  Damascus...next sentence, Gazi."

Or you can go forward word by word by pressing 6, and back, word by word, by pressing 4.

"Two...decades...in...charge...of...Syrian"

 Pressing 2 will spell the word on which paused NFB-NEWSLINE(r).  

"S-Y-R-I-A-N"

Remember if you're unsure of which key to press to access the feature that you want, you can always press # to reach Context Sensitive Help, which will tell you the function of each key in your current mode.  

This concludes the final lesson of this tutorial.  We hope that you are now comfortable using NFB-NEWSLINE(r) for business, research, and pleasure reading.  If you have any questions regarding access to NFB-NEWSLINE(r) or using its features, please call the National Federation of the Blind at (410) 659-9314.  

This page was last modified October 16, 2006 11:29 PM EST.