Audio Textbooks

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I could read a book or block of text until the cows come home and still not understand it. It's diffrent on forms like this becuase I'm not expected to take a test or answer questions on it. I've been home schooled since the fith grade and my mom would usualy read my textbooks too me while I drew or painted. With history, I liked to look out the window and imagine the events she was reading about taking place. My mom was never an eye-contact nazi but she did believe that if a student wasn't looking at the teacher, they weren't paying attention...to a degree. She stopped beleving that theory when I would tell her I liked to imagine the story taking place outside and could answer all the questions correctly. I could never pay attention to what I was supposed to be learning if I had to look at the teacher. Anyway, no matter how many times I read someting and am expected to remember it, I just can't. My mom made me take A LOT of reading comprehension courses; they helped a little, but not that much. I wonder if I have undiagnosed dyslexia as well because whenever I look at black text on white paper, all the letters smear together and I have to strain to make them out. But anway, if I was allowed to listen to what I was supposed to be reading and work on my art at the same time, I always had a better time remembering it. I want to be a vet in the future and have to go to college to do that. I plan on going to a local community college for my associate's degree and stay with my parents while I persue it. Even if I'm still living with my parents, I can't expect my mom to read my textbooks to me all the time. I'm wondering if it is possible to get college textbooks on "audiobook". Aparently McGraw Hill and other textbook companies are woking on making books for the kindle and IPad, I wonder if they will be able to read the text for you.

Hello?

is there anybody out there?

(Note: My experiences are from observing and interacting with fellow students back in 2010.)

I've never heard of an "audiobook" version of a textbook. The closest thing I know of would be having a digital version of a text and using a standard screen reader. Even that option might not be as easy as it should be.

The downloadable digital textbooks I observed did not seem very useful. The first issue to arise was that one doesn't really own the text. Instead one has a license to use the text for a limited time period such as end of the semester, three months, or six months. The cost was usually lower and more reasonable, but the text would not then be available for future use without paying again. After purchasing such texts, the issue of software arose. The university and departments would not install the software needed because each publishing company seemed to have its own and there were issues around the textbook licenses (on how many devices may the user install the book, etc.) and users (one user installs the book and the software allows any other user account on the machine to access it, etc.). Within the last year I've seen the university pushing digital textbooks, so I assume a number of the issues I saw a couple years ago have gotten much better.

The other way I've heard of textbooks being digitized is by having the university scan a physical copy and OCR the text. I've never seen this option work out well either. The student must purchase the text to scan. Since the university destroys the binding in the process, the textbook cannot be resold. This process is also very time consuming. The university provides this on a first come, first scanned basis, but it does not guarantee when the book will be completed. One cannot have books scanned ahead of time because they'll only scan books for classes currently enrolled in. For the student I saw using this, it meant he didn't get any of the texts he needed before mid-semester and that was only one of three. (I don't know if he ever got the rest because he stopped attending soon after.)