[senit] Switch accessible electronic books

I'd like to start a debate about how switch users,

what the user needs to do with electronic books and
how they do it depends very much on the users. For
instance students with SLD don't need to do
complicated things with books.The following applies to
all students with SLD both switch users and
touchscreen or mouse users. Perhaps they need the
nature of the "books" to be different, with more
animation, and sound effects and music as well as
speech output. ideally the books would be symbolled in
the school/student's preferred system and at a level
acccording to their language level. I am familiar with
clicker books, powerpoint and switch it maker, not so
much with the others you mention. 
All this implies that a useful electronic book for
students with SLD must be easily customisable and
individualisable.In the sense of it being quite easy
to do for staff and not time consuming to make
changes.
david
--- Paul Nisbet <Paul.Nisbet at ed.ac.uk> wrote:

> I'd like to start a debate about how switch users,
> and other users of
> assistive technologies (e.g. communication aids,
> IntelliKeys, eye-gaze
> systems, speech recognition, head-operated mice) can
> access electronic
> books.
> 
>  
> 
> We recently completed a project ("Books for All" -
> see
> http://www.booksforall.org.uk) which looked at the
> need for accessible books
> and curriculum materials for pupils who can't use
> standard printed stuff.
> There have been several outcomes, and one of them is
> that CALL, together
> with Learning and Teaching Scotland, and SCRAN are
> going to build an
> exemplar online library of materials in accessible
> formats.
> 
>  
> 
> The library will have books in different formats -
> e.g. PDF, plain text for
> printing Braille, MP3, etc and we want some examples
> of switch-accessible
> books, so here's a very basic question: what format
> should these switch
> accessible books be in? PDF? Clicker? SwitchIt
> Maker? MS Reader? Daisy?
> 
>  
> 
> I think 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 an electronic book from the library on
> their computer (or from an
> online 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 switch accessible books
> in say Powerpoint and
> use a switch to swap slides, but the switch access
> is pretty limited and
> there's not a lot of control over functions other
> than turning pages. 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 existing eBook readers
> like 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 in order to
> access the book using for
> example Acrobat Reader.
> 
>  
> 
> I don't know the best way to tackle this,
> collectively: do we want an
> 'add-on' utility, 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!
> 
>  
> 
> I've created a blog for Books for All, so if you
> would like to comment or
> get more info see the blog at
> http://pauln.edublogs.org/. 
> 
>  
> 
> PS It's a little known fact that you can create an
> accessible version of
> copyright material for a pupil 'who is unable,
> through physical disability,
> to hold or manipulate a book"  without having to ask
> permission from the
> publisher. See
> http://www.books4all.org.uk/html/copyright.html and
> http://www.cla.co.uk/Schools_licences.php, which
> means that there is no
> legal obstacle to us all collectively creating and
> distributing accessible
> electronic books. So lets get on with it!
> 
>  
> 
> Paul
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 
> Paul D. Nisbet
> 
> Senior Research Fellow
> 
> Communication Aids for Language and Learning (CALL)
> Centre
> 
> Moray House School of Education
> 
> University of Edinburgh
> 
> Paterson's Land, Holyrood Road
> 
> Edinburgh EH8 8AQ
> 
> Tel. 0131 651 6236     Fax 0131 651 6234
> 
> email Paul.Nisbet at ed.ac.uk
> 
> http://callcentrescotland.org.uk 
> 
> http://www.AdaptedDigitalExams.org.uk 
> 
> http://www.booksforall.org.uk  
> 
>  
> 
> _________________________________________________
> 
>  
> 
> 


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