Technology and Print Accessibility

http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2011-09-07/technology-and-print-accessibility
Technology and Print Accessibility

People with print disabilities typically rely on the government or charitable organizations for accessible versions of books. But new publishing standards could change that...

Before the advent of digital publishing, most books and other media were extremely difficult for people with low vision, blindness or dyslexia to access. People with print disabilities mostly relied on third parties and charitable organizations for Braille, audio books, and other accessible formats. But advances in consumer technology, coupled with new programming and publishing standards like HTML5 and ePub3, could soon usher in a new era of accessibility. We talk with two innovators in the field of publishing and accessible technology.

Guests

Jim Fruchterman

President & CEO, Benetech; Founder and CEO, Bookshare

George Kerscher

Secretary General, DAISY Consortium; Senior Officer, Accessible Technology Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D); Chair, Steering Council Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), W3C; President, International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)

Related Links

Bookshare.org
DAISY Consortium
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
International Digital Publishing Forum
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Learning Ally

Making Books Truly Accessible

Comments

Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.

bwj729 wrote:

Interesting topic - on a web site that is not very accessible...

Tue, 09/06/2011 - 12:28pm
Kent23 wrote:

Is there any hope that more Kindle Books will have th audio turned on, by the publishers? I use Kindle on PC to help me read books, I use large fonts with a white on black theme.

I hope Open Library keeps grwoing, I've found several books there both in audio and print, for free.

Is it true that NLS will soon have an app for the iphone?

Thanks Kojo and staff for doing this show.

Wed, 09/07/2011 - 1:08pm
vdemson wrote:

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress is the father of accessible library services for persons with print disabilities, providing not only the digital Talking Book players George mentioned, but also downloadable Talking Books in human voice and Braille for eligible persons in the United States. A great free government service that is widely underutilized.

Wed, 09/07/2011 - 1:40pm
rodmell wrote:

I find the discussion of text-to speech versus human narration very interesting. I have not heard a computer generated voice that c
ould express irony, sarcasm, point of view, humor etc
Text-to-speech technologies are wonderful for certain materials..but poetry?

Tue, 09/20/2011 - 12:34am
The Kojo Nnamdi Show is produced by member-supported WAMU 88.5 in Washington DC.