[senit] Switch accessible electronic books

Yes that's one option - a switch accessible Daisy book reader (both a

Another angle of attach is to concider what features we must seen in a
format to support switch access. These should only be a few if any
because applications control athe access and the document defines the
content.

If we look at the features that were added to ODF to to make it
accessible (largely gfor screen reader users) I suspect we would find
they are either extra content streams in alternative media (e.g alt
tags for images) or structural to ensure navigation.

For switch access I'm thinking the only additional need might be to
ensure a good structure to allow navigation and access to individual
items of required granularity. It's up to the program to provide
various scan modes etc. You probably don't even need extra grouping
structure as that can be worked out from the hierarchy (as Jambu does)
That's assuming that whatever base format used already has good
structure.

Steve Lee

On 18/01/2008, Paul Nisbet <Paul.Nisbet at ed.ac.uk> wrote:
> Yes that's one option - a switch accessible Daisy book reader (both a
> software reader on PC/Mac or a hardware player). Publishers don't mind Daisy
> because Daisy players are very expensive compared with ordinary MP3 players
> and therefore it's a method of limiting availability, but I think we want
> low cost and good availability, which means using mainstream technologies if
> we can. If the rest of the world uses PDF and ordinary MP3, then what are
> the chances of persuading the rest of the world to convert to Daisy? Daisy
> is a really good format for people with visual impairment because it's
> designed for that population, but it may or may not suit people with a
> physical impairment. I suspect we need multiple formats plus converters to
> transform books into the required format.
>
> 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
>
> _________________________________________________
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
> [mailto:senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Adrian Higginbotham
> Sent: 18 January 2008 10:52
> To: senit at lists.becta.org.uk
> Subject: RE: [senit] Switch accessible electronic books
>
> The daisy format maybe? www.daisy.org - primarily designed with visual
> impairment in mind but with the intent initially that it have universal
> appeal.  It's not actually a format but rather an open standard for
> delivering and synchronising mixed media in order to make the content
> accessible.  Publishers don't mind it because it can only play on a
> proprietory (daisy compatible) player - software or hardware.  Supported
> formats include xhtml (for text), mp3 (audio), images, and one or two
> others.  When used on a software player text to speech is possible so you
> can have books read aloud even where source material is in text format.
>
> Has advantages over pdf that players work more like media playters, it's
> easy to skp between pages - or other navigation elements, word, sentence,
> paragraph, chapter etc.  shouldn't be very difficult to adapt software or
> hardware players for alternate modes of input.
>
> Limitation is probably availability of reading material in UK at current
> time.
>
> Adrian Higginbotham
> Project manager: Learning services
> Becta
> Tel: Direct dial 024 7679 7333 - Becta switchboard 02476-416994.
> Email: Adrian.Higginbotham at becta.org.uk
> Web: http://www.becta.org.uk/
> BECTA, Millburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7JJ
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
> [mailto:senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Richard Walter
> Sent: 17 January 2008 20:38
> To: senit at lists.becta.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [senit] Switch accessible electronic books
>
> Paul Nisbet 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.
> >
> >
> Yes an interesting one.
> I think we could do with a general reader that was easy to use and alter -so
> I would have thought that an open format would be better than one that is
> owned commercially and thus liable to change every few years and could
> possibly have restrictions on the distribution.
> PDF is more or less an open format but it is not switch accessible.
> You could cobble together text reader with a pdf- I don't know if you could
> make it all switch accessible using a switch interface, certainly I think
> you could do page turning.
>
> You can obviously make accessible books in Powerpoint, Clicker 5,
> Hyperstudio, SwitchItmaker, Opus etc etc Powerpoint limited to a single
> access point if using switches, and all of them need quite alot of work to
> create a complete book.
>
> Perhaps we should start from the other end and say what it is we need in a
> generic talking book reader.
>
> Richard Walter
>
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-- 
Steve Lee
--
Jambu - Alternative Access to Computers
www.fullmeasure.co.uk