Come to think of it, the shuffle might be a decent solution to the mp3 player problem. I know it doesn't say what track is being played or anything, but the buttons are simple, raised, and can be operated without looking at them (unlike most menu driven mp3 players).

They are flash based, and don't hold as much audio as the hard drive devices, but they are also considerably cheaper.

The National Federation For the Blind mentions the RCA Lyra (similar to the shuffle) and the RIO Carbon (aka Dell MP3 Player). The latter is a hard disk device, but supposedly the navigation menus have a top and bottom instead of wrapping around, making them navigable with a bit of practice.

Finally, if you want to be the most fashionable music junky, you should check out the PEZ MP3 player. It's similar to the shuffle in interface and function, but it's shaped like a PEZ dispenser. Unlike the shuffle, you put music on it like it's a normal pc drive... which might be easier than using iTunes. The same holds true for the other, non-apple devices mentioned.

An audio player for the blind is an interesting topic. As a sighted person, I can only imagine the frustrations of the iPod and other players.

My first thought on this was that a main frustration might be that you do not know what song or podcast is playing. Am I listening to an old podcast? How long do I have to listen to the show intro until I know which show it is? Therefore, I thought a solution might be to have software that could add computer generated speach to the beginning of the mp3s (or AACs or whatever) that would tell the listener the name of the artist, song or whatever tag information desired. This solution seems a lot easier than creating a new audio player. I've looked around and can't find anything to do this, but all the technology exists. This would also be useful for any Shuffle users.

My second thought, thinking more about the menus, is that the adapter for the iPod outouts the menu information I believe. This is how it works with car adapters. So an adapter that speaks these menu items and song titles should be possible.

I like the Linux idea someone suggested. Please let us know how your quest goes and what you find works best.

Thanks But we were not talking about software but hardware MP3 players.