Books for All

The Books for All report recommended creating a Scottish Accessible Resources Network to help schools and pupils share accessible resources and in so doing improve provision and reduce duplication. Over the next few months CALL, LTS and SCRAN are going to work together to create an example database which will list accessible books that have already been created, and will also have some samples of books in a range of accessible formats. We would like to make a range of resources available for download, covering primary and secondary, different subjects, and different types of materials (e.g. reading books, textbooks, worksheets, assessment and exam papers). If you would either like to donate a resource or tell us which books you would like and in which format, please add a comment to this post. The database can have both copyright and non-copyright material and the copyrght resources will only be available for pupils who are copyright exempt, which at the moment means those with either a visual impairment or a physical difficulty in handling books or turning pages.

 This is a very exciting development and we hope it will demonstrate the possibilities for sharing accessible resources, and also provide a mechanism for it - the database will have a facility for teachers to upload adapted resources that they have created.

Please post a comment with the books you would like to donate or see available on the database, and the format (e.g. PDF, Daisy, Clicker, DOC so you can change the font and print it out, plain text so you can print Braille, with symbols, audio etc).

Robert (CALL’s web site guru) has created a new slicker and more accessible mini site with information about the Adapted Digital Exams. The FAQ section has more questions and answers about the text reading programs that can be used to read the exams. The site is at:

www.adapteddigitalexams.org.uk

We’re chuffed to announce that the esteemed Scottish Government have given us some dosh to distribute ‘Heather’, a high quality Scottsh accent computer voice, to Scottish primary and secondary schools. Heather is a new synthetic voice from CereProc ltd in Edinburgh.

Basically, the plot is to test and refine the voice using a range of text-to-speech programs on both Mac and PC (e.g. WordTalk, Clicker 5, Browsealoud/PDFaloud/Read and Write Gold, GhostReader etc) and also VOCAs (voice output communication aids) and then distribute it FREE OF CHARGE to all Scottish primary and secondary schools.

The idea is that you’ll be able to have your Scottish exams (and anything else) read out in a really good Scottish voice, from about March 2008. Watch this space….

David Noble, ace podcaster of this parish, rashly suggested that we record a chat on the phone about Books for All, and he has published the edited result as Education Podcast Reflection 47 on his Booruch site here. An excellent cure for insomia.

If you want to find out more about podcasting, and much more, have a look on Booruch - it’s all there.

SQA have put all the 2007 past papers up on their web site for anyone to download and use. You can get them from here. Note that the past papers are ‘raw’, ordinary PDFs - they are not the Adapted Papers which have been used by pupils with additional support needs in our our pilot projects in 2006 and 2007. The difference between the raw PDF exams and the Adapted Papers is that the adapted papers are speech-enabled, so you can have them read out with the free Browsealoud or PDFaloud programs, and the question and answer papers have answer boxes so you can type your answers on screen.

This blog is about books and other learning resources in accessible alternative formats, for children with disabilities and additional support needs. You can find out more about Books for All on the CALL Centre web site at www.booksforall.org.uk.

The Books for All initiative developed from a project that I and Dr. Stuart Aitken undertook from September 2006 to March 2007. The main result of the project was a large and hefty tome, which was published on the Scottish Government web site here.

There’s been a lot happening following the publication of the Books for All report in May 2007 and so I thought I’d create a blog to keep track of it. Blogging is new to me; blogs are a social communication tool; and I’m famed for my feeble communication skills, so bear with me as I drag myself into this new world.