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Accessible Bibles

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A Word From God's Word




In order to read the chapter of the Bible in which A Word From God's Word appears, just activate the link for the passage's reference. The New International Bible opens, and you should be placed on the beginning of the chapter where that passage appears.

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Bible Web Sites

The following articles are a summary of some organizations that supply Bible programs, commentaries, Bible study aids, and other Christian religious materials. Each submission contains a description of the products, and or services that the organizations offer. We have also included Comments and for each web site, as a means of describing the products and services offered by these organizations. While some organizations provide their products and, or services free of charge, some of them require their users to register with their web site, provide proof of eligibility, and, or they may even request a nominal fee. Even though not all of these organizations specifically designed their products and, or services to be readily accessible, their products may easily be used by access technology.


PLEASE NOTE: D.S.A. Enterprises of PA, Inc. provides the description of these web sites as a service for the convenience of our customers, and in no way endorses the products and, or services they provide.


AG Center for the Blind

AG Center for the Blind

"Making the Cross Accessible"


This slogan reflects our firm belief that blindness and visual impairment should not hinder a person's relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our primary objective is to see the Blind and Visually Impaired come to know Christ and grow in His knowledge and grace. We are a General Council of the Assemblies of God US Missions ministry. Please give us the honor of serving you or someone you know. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.


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Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind, Inc.

Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind, Incorporated


With the advance of the computer generation, it is now possible to provide greater amounts of reading material in Braille for the blind and deaf-blind. It is the goal of the Bartimaeus Alliance to provide via our online libraries as well as to translate Christian reference and study aids into Braille ready files for use by blind persons who are qualified and able to access our braille library as well as print libraries via the internet or have at their disposal a Braille printer. As additional funds become available, the Bartimaeus Alliance will also endeavor to provide hardcopy, paper Braille, to those individuals who do not have computer access.

Our FREE Public Domain and qualified members Christian Bookshare library sections are continuing to grow as well. The "LINKS" page will also provide access to many other online websites containing articles, books, and other informative materials.


Comments:

The Bartimaeus Alliance for the Blind provides a wide variety of Bibles, books, and Bible Study aids to the general public and even more for its registered users. Many of the resources they provide allow blind and low vision users to access study materials that are difficult to find at any other location. The resources they supply can be downloaded, and then read at leisure on your personal computer.


Requirements:

In order to use all of the resources provided by the Bartimaeus Alliance for the Blind, you must become a Bartimaeus member. The web site provides a simple form that you can fill in. Even though you must provide proof of your reading disability, they will accept the membership with the National Library Service, (NLS), in this regard. After you have become a member, you can sign into the members only sections of the web site, and access copyrighted resources that are unavailable to the general public.


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The Bible Gateway

Bible Gateway

The Bible Gateway is a tool for reading and researching scripture online -- all in the language or translation of your choice! It provides advanced searching capabilities, which allow readers to find and compare particular passages in scripture based on keywords, phrases, or scripture reference.

Bible Gateway lets you view a complete list of available Bible versions and translations. To access some of the Bible Gateway's other features (a Verse of the Day widget, Bible commentaries, audio Bibles, and more), use the navigation menu.


History


The Bible Gateway was first started in 1993 by Nick Hengeveld who was attending Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI at the time. In 1995 Nick became the first webmaster at Gospelcom.net, now Gospel.com . He brought the Bible Gateway with him, and since then, Bible Gateway has been a favorite online resource. Today, the Bible Gateway team continues to add new translations, languages, and functionality to the site.

The Bible Gateway is extremely grateful to many publishers and Christian organizations that have contributed their many Bible resources and translations for use in the Bible Gateway, including Gospel.com community members such as Biblica and The Lockman Foundation.


Comments:

The Bible Gateway is a web based Bible research and study system. All of the resources that they offer can be accessed through your web browser and the features are readily accessible with screen reading software. The organization provides a membership for the use of the services, but this is not required to read and study the Bible. Notwithstanding, membership to the Bible Gateway does allow you to synchronize your Scripture studies between your computer, and a mobile device, such as an iPhone.


Requirements:

The Bible Gateway doesn't require any type of membership or the purchase of any special software to use its services. All you need to do is to log onto the site, and you can immediately begin to read and study the Scriptures.


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Online Bible

Online Bible


The Online Bible provides powerful, comprehensive Bible research software. Multiple translations, commentaries and more to aid you in studying the scriptures. Unicode support has been added for displaying foreign languages.


Program Overview



Comments:

The Online Bible is a free Bible study program that you can easily download and install to your computer. Included in this program is a feature that detects when you are using the JAWS for Windows Screen Reading Software, and consequently installs a set of JAWS script files to aid in the use of the program. Even with this, the Online Bible program takes some practice to allow a visually challenged computer user to effectively use some of its features.


Requirements:

Because the Online Bible is a free program, you can quickly download and install the main application to your computer without purchasing the software, that may be downloaded and then added to the main program.


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Optasia Ministry

Optasia Ministry


Optasia Ministry is a non-profit organization with the mission:


We provide biblical study tools and other Christian ministry resources in a digital form that can be read by blind persons using screen reading computer software, giving persons with visual disabilities access to materials that are not usable for them in print form. A list of available material is included on this web site or is available by contacting us.

The Optasia Bible versions we provide are designed for easy access by blind persons using screen readers, and work well with Braille notetaker devices.

We provide a full set of Biblical Commentaries, pastoral CareResources, Church Leadership books, and books on Prayer and Spirituality, as well as a selection of devotional reading by a variety of authors.

Because we are operating under the Chafee Amendment of the US copyright law we are able to provide copyrighted material free to blind persons who qualify for our services. Those wishing to receive our material will be asked to affirm that they have a visual disability or other disability that necessitates the use of the alternative formatted documents we provide, and must agree not to distribute Optasia Ministry resources to anyone else.

Comments:

Optasia Ministry provides a number of very useful and easy to use resources for Christians of all levels. They supply a DVD that has literally hundreds of Bibles, books, commentaries, and other study aids that are in Rich Text, standard text, and web browser format. All of these books are easily read in a word processor, or web browser, and can even be used on note-taking devices.


Requirements:

As with the Bartimaeus Alliance for the Blind mentioned previously, Optasia Ministries requires you to register as a member, in order to receive the materials they offer. However, signing up for their service can be done with a standard email message. Also, they do not require you to purchase any software, or buy any of the materials they supply, but they do accept donations.


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Theophilos Bible Software

Theophilos Bible Software


Theophilos is a fast and effective way to explore God's word. It comes packed with powerful features that you wouldn't expect to find in a free program. In fact, you are receiving a package of great value that can grow with your desire to study God's Word.


The free download of Theophilos comes complete with the following:



You can download the free Theophilos package with the contents described above. Or purchase one of their CD-ROM collections. The CD-ROM versions give you more multimedia content, a selection of reference materials to match your needs, and a number of additional titles that can be unlocked for a reasonable fee. Either way, once you have the Theophilos program you can populate your library from the selection of Bibles and books from their Online Library. Most titles are free. Those for which Theophilos has to pay royalties to the author or publisher must be purchased.


The Theophilos Bible Software allows you to:



Comments:

The Theophilos Bible Software is the only Bible program that has direct support from Freedom Scientific. With few if any adjustments, the application runs very well with the JAWS screen reader. The only setting that should be adjusted in Theophilos is to have the program read by line, rather than by verse. The steps to make this modification can be found in the JAWS for Windows Help file, in the Theophilos Getting Started section. Likewise, the JAWS Help file lists a number of convenient keystrokes that allow users to run the Theophilos Bible Software from the keyboard.


Requirements:

Because the core program for the Theophilos Bible Software is a free download, there are no requirements for using the application. Some books, Bible versions, and other resources are copyrighted, and thus they must be purchased before they can be used. Notwithstanding, this doesn't in anyway limit the use of this valuable resource.


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