Software makes iTunes accessible to blind

Martha Coakley looks on as Jim Denham and Perkins students Cory and Laurie explore iTunes

Jim Denham, the assistive technology coordinator at the Perkins School for the Blind, is looking forward to spending this rainy weekend, at home, on his computer.

Thanks to a technological advance, Denham, who is blind, can sit at home by himself and browse among the thousands of audio books, podcasts and albums digitally stored on Apple’s iTunes.

“There’s a podcast out there that identifies different bird calls, and I really want to check that out,” he said yesterday, during a break from teaching two Perkins students how to use the new software.

The breakthrough was announced yesterday at Perkins, a storied school in Watertown.

The new software - which transforms the written information on an iTunes-linked computer screen into speech or Braille - stemmed from an agreement between Apple, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer company, the National Federation of the Blind and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.

“It is a great day for Massachusetts,” said Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind. “Blind people will be better off and have access to better education.”

According to Coakley, blind rights activists noticed that blind people couldn’t independently access iTunes or iTunes U, an online program that allows students at some universities to connect to course lectures and lab demonstrations.

“We want to make sure that everybody, including people with disabilities, have the opportunity to access this cultural and educational information,” Perkins School for the Blind President Steven Rothstein said.

The groups worked out an agreement with Apple that led to development of the new software, and a $250,000 donation to the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, which will be used to purchase some of the new software.