The Talking Book and Braille Center (TBBC) is happy to announce that the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) has now made their BARD Express Player available for your PC!

With the BARD Express Player, you can listen to any audiobook on your PC!

If you already have BARD Express on your PC, you just need to update it. When you open BARD Express, there will be an alert saying “A new version of BARD Express is available,” giving you the option to skip, remind you later, or to update. Or, when you are in BARD Express, on the top menu pick the third option, “Help.” The second item is “Check for updates.”

If you want to download BARD Express on your PC, you can download it from this webpage: https://www.loc.gov/nls/how-to-enroll/sign-up-for-bard-and-bard-mobile/welcome-to-bard-express/

Much like BARD Mobile, the BARD Express Player allows you to adjust the narration speed; jump to navigation points such as part, chapter, and article; create bookmarks; and much more. You can also create global settings for narration speed, auto-play, auto-rewind, and more.

If you are using JAWS and NVDA, you can either use the tab key to move to each of the player’s functions or tap a single letter assigned to that function. For example, you can type F for fast forward, R for rewind, and B for bookmarks. A complete list of commands can be found under the BARD Express Help menu.

Scripts are built into the 2024 version of JAWS to optimize the BARD Express Player. If you are using JAWS 2022 or 2023, you can download the same scripts from the BARD Express page on the NLS website and import them into your screen reader.

NLS recommends reading Section 7 of the BARD Express user guide, which is dedicated to the BARD Express Player to familiarize yourself with the new player. The user guide can be found on the BARD Express page on the NLS website at https://www.loc.gov/nls/how-to-enroll/sign-up-for-bard-and-bard-mobile/welcome-to-bard-express/