February is Low Vision Awareness Month and it’s the perfect time to celebrate the return of the Micro-Speak recorder. The smartphone is like the Swiss Army knife—as the saying goes, “there’s an app for that.” This of course presumes the user is knowledgeable about navigating the smartphone, and all the little gesture nuances, taps, etc. needed to make the apps work. One of the things that often happens with a vision loss is that someone who was quite proficient with their computer, tablet or smartphone prior to reduced vision may suddenly have some difficulty using the device because they are no longer able to see the screen as well as they once did, and haven’t yet learned an alternative method of using the device, with either the screen reader or the low vision features. As a result, the Swiss Army knife they depended on for some many things, texts, emails, calls, notes, memos, etc. is little more than a stylish paperweight.
Before the ubiquitous smartphone, those of us with low vision often had a purse or backpack full of tools—optical and digital magnifiers, portable light, bold line pen and paper, recorder, etc. The advantage was we had a specific tool for various tasks and using that tool didn’t depend on us necessarily knowing how any of the other tools in our bag worked. As a result, if for some reason, one wasn’t working or we could no longer use it, it often didn’t impact our ability to use the other tools.
With all the tools on a smartphone, the tool bag certainly gets smaller, but if you have to change the way you use the phone—say learn to use the screen reader or magnifier, you may also lose the ability to use all the other tools during the transition.
As part of my job, I am routinely researching devices or services for individuals often new to vision loss. It is not uncommon to be asked to call back and leave a phone number or web address on their answering machine because they have no way to record the information—they have become unable to read back their handwriting or have to wait for an assistant to read it back to them. They may be unable to use any of the notetaking apps or recording apps on their smartphones because they are in the process of learning to use it in a different way, with a screen reader or another low vision feature they have yet to master.
As a result, there is still a valuable place for many of those stand-alone devices, like a digital recorder. One of my all-time favorite stand-alone digital recorders, the Micro-Speak was discontinued several years ago. I was delighted to learn that Talking Products has reintroduced this recorder as the Micro-Speak Plus, and added some new, updated features.
The Micro-Speak, is certainly not the only user-friendly digital recorder out there. I’ve often recommended The Wilson recorder—also very user-friendly. For those looking for more features, like folders, one of the basic Olympus recorders like the VN-541PC is a good choice and in the same price range.
What really makes the Micro-Speak stand out is its design—it just feels like it was designed from the ground up with accessibility and durability in mind. The buttons used to operate the recorder are large, tactile buttons with a lot of contrast—red and black on the yellow body of the recorder. Speech and audio prompts are built-in, and are on by default, right out of the box, so users don’t have to dive into the settings to make it accessible.
A quick look at the Micro-Speak Plus includes tactile navigation buttons on the face of the recorder—record, play/pause, forward and back arrows. The on/off switch is located on the side. A standard port is available for ear buds, a USBC port for charging and swapping out files with the computer, and new, in the Plus, a micro-SD slot. The Micro-Speak already comes with 1 gig of memory built in for hours of recording, the micro-SD slot, just adds to what can be stored on it. Also, files are recorded as MP3 files by default, which is very handy so files don’t need to be converted from other file formats when uploaded to the computer.
To get started with the Micro-Speak Plus, just turn on the recorder using the on/off switch at the bottom left edge of the recorder, next to the USBC slot. The recorder says, “Ready,” and announces the battery charge level. Press the play/pause button between the left and right arrow, below the itty-bitty LCD screen and voila, a user-guide begins playing! Adjust the volume with the up and down arrows located on the right side and listen as the recording describes how to use the Micro-Speak’s features and other how-to basics.
Yes, the Micro-Speak does have a very small LCD screen which shows the battery level and the name of the file playing. The print is small but may be accessible for low vision users with a magnifier. It is not adjustable and has so little information that its small size and font doesn’t detract from the recorder’s overall usability.
To make a recording, just press the wide, red button above the screen, and when you hear the beep, begin recording. Pause the recording by pressing the square play/pause button. To finish, press the wide record button again and it stops with the sound of 3 beeps and adds the recording to the cue. To listen to the most recent recording, just press the square play/pause button to hear it.
During playback, if the play/pause button is not pressed again, the recorder automatically plays the next recording in sequence and will continue looping through all the recordings until paused. At any time, however, the forward or back arrows can be pressed to move to the next or previous recordings.
Here’s a tip, while this feature adds to the overall ease of use, as more and more recordings are added, it can make things harder to find without some sort of organizational element. Starting each recording with the date and a brief title will make it so much easier to quickly move through the files to find that bit of information, or to identify files that can be deleted.
Deleting files on the Micro-Speak is almost too simple and perhaps one of the features that could be enhanced. While a file is playing, press the record button twice quickly. A second or so later a single beep, followed by 3 beeps indicates the file is deleted. A quick message is also flashed on the screen for those fast enough with their magnifying glass to see it. It would be great to have an audio message asking for another press of the button to confirm deletion. Several years ago, while working with a new user, she discovered the delete function by accident after deleting the user guide. Fortunately, a printed user guide comes in the box and we downloaded another audio guide, at the time, from the website and replaced it on the Micro-Speak. The audio version of the user guide on the Micro-Speak does seem to be an abbreviated version of the printed user guide. That said, however, the basics are covered in the audio version.
Connect the Micro-Speak to a computer with the enclosed USB cord to recharge the battery and exchange files or manage files on the recorder. Once connected, the Micro-Speak appears as a USB drive and files can be renamed or transferred back and forth. The sound quality on the Micro-Speak is quite good, so adding a podcast, some music files, or anything in the MP3 file format will give you audio on the go from the recorder.
Just like previous versions of the Micro-Speak, this latest generation, the Micro-Speak Plus is user friendly and accessible with audio prompts and spoken messages right out of the box. It’s very light and small enough to fit in the palm of a hand so it can easily be carried in a pocket or purse. Welcome back! What took you so long?
For more information, check out the Talking Products website. The Micro-Speak Plus recorder is once again available from retailers, like AT Guys or Amazon for $69.95.
For those smartphone users who want to stick with the Swiss Army style toolkit, here are two suggestions for taking down a quick note. For iPhone users, the Voice Memos app is probably already installed on the phone. If not, it’s available in the App Store. It’s user friendly and accessible. Check out Apple Support for a quick tutorial on making a recording with Voice Memos.
For the Android user, Hi-Q MP3 recorder is a great choice, with a free and Pro version. The free version is limited to recordings of 10 minutes or less so it is still useful for those quick notes. Add the icon to the home screen to make it even handier. Hi-Q has many settings and options for the serious audiophile, like selecting from several of the most popular file formats for recording, etc. Even with those options, its interface is intuitive, user-friendly, and plays nicely with TalkBack. Check out a quick review of Hi-Q MP3 on Blind Help.