Books for All

In our Books for All report we said that “Efficient production and distribution would be enhanced by establishing file repositiries to store digial versions of materials. At the present time the most suitable format is one which can be reliably created and edited using Microsoft Word, since most accessible formats can be generated from Word.”

Previously if you wanted to make a Daisy DTB you usually had to buy a program like Dolphin’s EasyProducer or EasyConverter, but now there is a Daisy converter for Word available. See the Daisy site for more info and where to get the download.

By creating a properly structured accessible document in Word (i.e. use headings, table styles and alt text descriptions) this now means you can easily create:

• tagged (accessible) PDFs
• Microsoft Reader books
• Daisy DTB books
• RTF / XML files

It’s all there folks - we just need to get on and get these books and other materials made and shared!

Richard Orme, Head of Accessibility at RNIB, noted today that the IPA have published a resolution stating that “It is a shared ambition of publishers around the wordl to make their works accessible to all readers. IPA looks forward to the day where all readers can have the same access, at the same time, in a awy suitable to their needs to all books and calls for all stakeholders to collaborate in practical ways to achieve this important goal.” The full text can be found on the IPA web site.

Disability Discrimination legislation exists in many countries, and a case was brought against the US Social Security Administration, who refsued to provide information in accessible formats to partially sighted people who receive benefits. The judge ruled that the agency must provide communications in formats that are accessible to these [visually impaired] beneficiaries. See the Blind Access Journal for more details. This could be the first of many actions.

Scanning books into digital form so that you can create accessible versions is time consuming if you only have a single sheet flat-bed scanner - you have to scan the page, tkae the book out, turn the page, put the book backj, scan the page, take the book out….etc.

One solution is to buy a multi-page scanner and rip the book apart, then feed it in as a batch.

Here’s another, which is ingenious although I’m not sure it’s that practical…..an automatic book scanner made from Lego!

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geocities.jp%2Ftakascience%2Flego%2Ffabs_en.html&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools 

There’s an article discussing the digital question papers in the Spring 2008 edition of the LTS Connected magazine, which can be downloaded from http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/connected/articles/20/index.asp. Good to see the development getting out into the mainstream.

Last post for today. The latest version of the trial CLA photocopying and licence extends copyright exemption to all disabled students, not just those who are ‘visually impaired’. This has huge implications - here’s why….

Before 1 August 2007, a University could make an ‘Accessible Copy’ (e.g. large print, Braille, digital etc) of copyright textbooks or other material and supply it to any ‘Authorised Person’ (i.e. a student):

“(a) who is blind;
(b) who has an impairment of visual function which cannot be improved, by the use of corrective lenses, to a level that would normally be acceptable for reading without a special level or kind of light;
(c) who is unable, through physical disability, to hold or manipulate a book; or
(d) who is unable, through physical disability, to focus or move his eyes to the extent that would normally be acceptable for reading.”

[s.31F (9) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.]

There are a few conditions, like the University must possess an original copy from which the Accessible Copy is made; you can’t make an Accessible Copy if one exists commercially - you have to buy it; and you’re not allowed to change it beyond what is necessary to make it accessible.

In practice, then, this means that Universities, or students themselves, are able to happily scan in and make accessible versions of textbooks without needing to ask permission from the publisher provided the copies are being made for a student who is “visually impaired”. If you’re a dyslexic student, you’re stuffed (unless you’re also visually impaired and/or have a physical disability).

So the situation was a bit daft, in my view. I, as a University employee, could make a digital version of a book for a student who can’t read because he can’t see very well, but it would be illegal for me to give the same digital copy to a student who is dyslexic (unless I got permission from the rights-holder). Annoying and also makes it unnecessaruly difficult for me to meet obligations under the DDA.

Common sense has now prevailed and from 1 August 2007, the FE / HE photocopying and scanning licence now says that “An Authorised Person is to be regarded as visually impaired or disabled for the purposes of this clause if he would be regarded as a visually impaired person” in accordance with s.31F (9) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or, as appropriate, as a disabled person in accordance with s.1 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.”

i.e. we can now make Accessible Copies for any student who is disabled, not just those who are ‘visually impaired’. A Disability is defined by the DDA as “a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”.

What we now need is for this change to be applied to the CLA Schools Licence as well, so we can make Accessible books for disabled pupils in schools, because at present we can only make stuff for pupils who are ‘visually impaired’ . Watch this space….

Although you can have your ’speech enabled’ SQA Adapted Digital Paper read out by Browsealoud, PDFaloud is better because it can read any PDF - such as prelims, NABs, or other materials you have created yourself in school. Unfortunately, the publishers of PDFaloud (TextHelp Systems) stopped selling PDFaloud last summer and the only way to buy it was to buy Read and Write Gold, which is quite pricy (£320 for a single user; £1795 for a secondary site licence).

After some prodding by me, the good news is that TextHelp and Learning and Teaching Scotland have neotiated a licence scheme for PDFaloud for Scottish schools and I hope that you’ll be able to buy PDFaloud from LTS in a couple of weeks. Cost I’m told will be £275 for a site licence, which is excellent value. When it’s available I’ll let you know.

You can now download 2007 Adapted Past Papers from the Assessment Arrangements section on the SQA web site at http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/14977.html. Papers covering a wide range of levels and subjects are available. The Adapted Papers are ’speech enabled’ so that you listen to them if you have the free Browsealoud software, or you can listen to them using some other text reader program like PDFaloud. The Question and Answer papers have answer boxes so you can type your answers in.

The Adapted past papers are different from the ordinary 2007 past papers which you can download elsewhere on SQA’s site (http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/findpastpaper.htm). The ordinary papers are not speech-enabled (so Browsealoud won’t read them - although if you have bought e.g. PDFaloud then PDFaloud does read them because PDFaloud can read any PDF) and do not have answer boxes for typing in answers.

Thunder is a free screen reader with text-only web browser (Webbie) for people with a visual impairment. There’s a good video of it being demonstrated at www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCs48NjhHRg.

Note that a screen reader is a different animal to a text reader. A screen reader is usually designed for a visually impaired person and generally reads anything on the screen. If you have sight, screen readers can be irritating because they talk all the time and read out information you don’t care about, and so someone who can see but has reading difficulties would usually opt for a text reader. With a text reader, you point at the text you want to read, or select it, and then the text reader speaks it out. Examples of text readers are WordTalk (www.wordtalk.org.uk); Read and Write Gold (www.texthelp.com); Browsealoud (www.browsealoud.com); ClaroRead (www.clarosoftware.com).

We want some examples of switch-accessible books on the Scottish Accessible Book Library, so here’s a very basic question: what format should these be in?

A single switch user (or two switch, or someone using IntelliKeys, communication aid, eye-gaze or head-controlled mouse etc) should be able to:

1. Open the book from the library
2. start reading where they left off
3. Navigate through the contents and structure
4. Go to a particular chapter or page
5. Turn the pages
6. Swap between the current page and the contents page
7. Change views (e.g. single or two page view, zoom in/out)
8. Use Find/Search and index tools
9. Add bookmarks, text notes and comments

At the moment, we can build books in say Powerpoint and use a switch to swap slides, but the switch access is pretty limited. Or we could use SwitchItMaker or Clicker but both of these require each page to be made manually by cutting and pasting. Or we could use MS Reader, PDF or EasyReader and program a Crick switch box to give the keystroke commands for turning pages etc. But this doesn’t help a single switch user do more than just turn a page. Or we could create a scanning selection set using The Grid, or SAW, say, or use another switch access system like EZ Keys or AssistiveWare.

I don’t know the best way to tackle this, collectively: do we want an ‘add-on’, say, to Acrobat Reader so that a switch user can navigate around a PDF and access it? Or switch accessible Reader that can read PDF, or DOC, or Daisy books. Or a brand new specification for a switch-accessible electronic book format together with switch reader programs to read the books?

Comments please!