L’Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, which has been promoting equal rights and bringing light to people with blindness, low vision and multiple disabilities for over a century, announces the launch of the new Skill Alexa “Libro in Voce”, developed with the support of Amazon.
Book in Voice, the Alexa Skill of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired
Through the Skill “Book in Voice”available on all Alexa-enabled devices, members of the National Talking Book Center will have access to a large library of over 22,000 audiobooks. There are the Harry Potters and numerous literary masterpieces, such as Don Quixote de la Mancha and Le Petit Princealso available in its original language.
To start, just say “Alexa, open Book in Voice” and Amazon’s voice assistant will play the audiobooks you want. The content, structured in accordance with a specific standard available only to the CNLP and rendered accessible to blind and visually impaired people, they will integrate with a wide range of commands.
Users will be able to search specific books using the author name and book title. It will also be possible to move forward and backward by specific minutes or entire tracks. And then pause and resume reading according to personal preference. And also manage bookmarks.
Mario Bearded, President of the Unionexplains: “Our commitment as the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired is confirmed and strengthened through this new Skill for Alexa which will allow hundreds and hundreds of blind and visually impaired readers to read and listen directly to our Talking Book works, a service which for almost seventy years it has allowed access to reading to people who cannot enjoy reading through sight”.
An important Skill
Among the books there are titles such as Da Vinci’s code; The Hobbit; Pride and Prejudice; The Alchemist; Ten Little Indians; The Snack Thief; The Name of The rose; The Baron Rampant; The Adventures of Pinocchio; You’re cat meat, Geronimo Stilton.
Marino Attini, member of the National Directorate responsible for the projectcomments: “This skill is added to the Unione Digitale project that we have been developing for about two years thanks to the precious skills of our technicians and readers, the collaboration with partners of absolute importance such as Amazon, the support of the Italian Parliament which granted our Union a great trust credit, approving the project of which this Skill is part, in December 2021 “.
Giacomo Costantini, Amazon Alexa Business Development Manager, explains: “Our promise to customers is to make Alexa ever smarter, more useful for their daily lives and ever more accessible. When our devices and services become more accessible, they become better for everyone. After the first collaboration last year for the creation of ‘Edicola in Voce’ – the Skill through which UICI members can listen to the reading of 25 local and national newspapers and magazines for free through the voice of Alexa – we are very proud to having collaborated again with UICI on the ‘Libro in Voce’ skill, which gives access to a vast library, made up of over 22,000 audiobooks”.