Audio tapes

["Larry Kunz ((919) 254-6395)" <ldkunz -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM>]

Paige Medlin's <PAM -at- gammex -dot- com> customer called to ask for
manuals on audio tape....

> I have never heard of manuals on tape but
> instinctively feel there is a better solution. I would
> rather develop an online tutorial.

> The audience:  medical physicists and radiologists.

Well, at least think about it.  After all, the customer must've
had some reason for asking.  What will the medical physicists
and radiologists be doing when they need the information?  If
their hands and eyes will be tied up, then audio tape might be
the way to go.

Audio tapes work nicely, for example, for those self-guided
tours you do in your car.  Neither books nor online help are
very practical when you're trying to drive and sightsee.

Make sure, of course, that you adapt the manual to the tape medium.
Back in my early, early days at IBM, in a classroom full of plucky
young tech writers, an instructor played a "manual on tape" for
us. It consisted of a professional announcer trying to read,
verbatim, a very difficult passage about systems software.  Because
he was a professional, he made it all the way to the second
paragraph before melting into giggles and finally shouting,
"<expletive deleted>, this is bad!"

Larry Kunz
STC Assistant to the President for Professional Development
ldkunz -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com