Sony to announce US e-book reader

According to BusinessWeek, the consumer electronics giant is set to announce a Librie-like E-ink e-book reader for the US that both uses SD cards for data storage and displays native PDF files (along with a proprietary Sony format). Industry heavyweights Simon & Schuster, Random House, and HarperCollins are already signed up to provide content, with the latter two promising to digitize their entire back catalogs for inclusion on Sony's Connect music-and-now-book service, for a combined total of up to 50,000 titles. Sony certainly has an advantage here by being first out of the gate with a relatively large content offering and purported 15-book battery life, but products from iRex, Jinke, and more flexible devices from other manufacturers may prove more popular if they can provide consumers with similar content but better hardware.

O.K. - so this may not seem all that exciting now - but consider that should this "iTunes" of the commercial trade be successful it is definitely a step forward towards all books one day being available digitally. Add to the mix the failing eyesite of the Boomers and the fruit that may one day become fully accessible eBooks straight from the publishers is beginning to ripen on the vine.

Imation Releases 4GB Micro Hard Drive

Something else to covet, eh? I’m still waiting for my Lacie 4gb portable to arrive but at least now UnivComp has options should the first be truly unavailable. More and more I find my one-gig'r to be a true friend but I am outgrowing it. For now I am staying away from Micro-drives as the moniker 'bling' makes me giggle and twitch. But at least I now know what to get my wife for Valentine's Day!

Last second holiday gifts ... or getting ready for the next holiday

Need a last minute gift idea or want to get a head start on the next holiday? These links are for you:

• PhiferReader "the ultimate adjustable reading stand"
• The New Standard Keyboard [is that anything lik ethe New Rhythm & Blues Quartet?]
• An Audible.com subscription - for when you need something more than music for the mp3 player you give or get.
• The Gamer's Pillow [for to be comfortable while vanquishing foes!]
• For the ultimate in hands-free cell phone use while driving: the Iqua Snake
• O.K. - maybe one USB toy - but it is so darn cute!
• Talking Lips - perhaps the oddest peripheral I have ever seen...
• Leave it to Hammacher Schlemmer to sell the ultimate holiday "toy".

Retrofit your Web pages for wireless compatibility

I'm no web developer - preferring to leave all that sort of thing to those who know better - but I do know enough to be interested by this bit of "howto". In a nutshell - wireless compatibility here refers to how well your webpage looks on a wireless device such as cell phone or PSP. The key being slim and trim without the extra 'bling' typically associated with today's web. I can't tell Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) from cascading style sheets (CSS) - but I doo know that anything that is slim and trim is good for accessibility. Unless - of cpurse - I am wrong. In which case I stand to be corrected.

Study Refutes Keyboard, Carpal Link

Study Refutes Keyboard, Carpal Link
By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

A report released Wednesday by the Harvard Medical School may turn some common assumptions about computer usage on their head. According to the report, titled "Hands: Strategies for Strong, Pain-Free Hands," heavy keyboarding may not be responsible for incidences of carpal tunnel syndrome after all.

Carpal tunnel is caused when nerves in the wrist are pinched, however it's not caused by frequent use of a keyboard, claims the report. Instead, it is caused by heredity, body weight, fracture, or even pregnancy.

Debate amongst yourselves - but it is not the first report of this kind I have read over the years. Personally I find using the mouse to be more painful than typing. My wife developed nearly debilitating wrist pain during each of her pregnancies. The MIT ATIC maintains a good page of information on RSI - check it out. And while you are at it - Take the advice of Gaeir and Alan Cantor and learn those keyboard commands! Should you be a visual learner - that's OK too.

CALL FOR POSTER SESSIONSCampus Technology

Summer 2006 Campus Technology Conference
July 31 – August 3, 2006Sheraton Boston Hotel, Boston, MA

Campus Technology magazine presents a bold new conference this summer in Boston. Following 12 years of the annual Syllabus conference for education technology professionals, this summer’s program emphasizes the critical impact of cross-departmental teams that drive change on campuses. These teams are comprised of campus visionaries and administrators across technology, academic, and funding areas. Content will be presented in innovative panel discussions and interactive formats that allow you to learn from peers, solve problems you may be facing on campus, and return to your institutions with tools, knowledge, and a blueprint for change.

Plan now to present an interactive poster session at Campus Technology 2006
Proposal deadline: January 26, 2006

Campus Technology 2006 examines the central themes and key technologies that have become increasingly important to campus technology leaders who implement and use technology solutions at higher education institutions. The conference explores emerging technologies and trends, strategies for IT leadership and teamwork, as well as best practices and exemplary applications of technology in higher education.

Proposals are now being accepted for poster sessions, which are presented during Exhibit Hall hours, August 1 and 2. Poster sessions provide a vehicle for detailed exposure of the presenter’s work and in-depth discussion with attendees.

Draft Legislation: Access by Persons with Disabilities to Broadband Services and Equipment - American Foundation for the Blind

Draft Legislation: Access by Persons with Disabilities to Broadband Services and Equipment

Staff of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet are working on a rewrite of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which provides for access to telecommunications equipment and services for individuals with disabilities. While Internet/Broadband equipment and services were being deployed at that time, the 1996 amendments never covered any of these services. This draft legislation, if finally introduced and enacted, would provide new access requirements for what is now widely deployed equipment and services that are radically restructuring the way people communicate and create information. The draft legislation has not yet been introduced as a bill and, therefore, has no identifying number. The text of Section 404, Access by Persons with Disabilities, of the draft bill follows.

Cornell faculty teach in India

India, which has cornered the world economy's virtual backroom, now will bring leading American science, engineering and computing faculty from Cornell University and other top colleges to teach students at Amrita University and other institutions, thanks to EduSat and emerging distance-learning strategies.

This might not seem as though it has much to do with Access Technology - but consider it to be distance education to the max for students in both countries. American colleges and universities [not to mention the U.S. govt.] are deeply concerned about lower enrollments in science programs here while seeing incresing enrollments abroad - especially in India. In additon, Indian tech programs are no longer seen as second tier. Why try to beat 'em when you can set up shop among them on their home turf.

From Ron Stewart - Chair AHEAD E-Text Solutions Group

On Monday December 5th, AHEAD hosted a meeting of the representatives of many of the major stakeholder groups involved in the curricular accessibility discussion at the AAP (Association of American Publishers) offices in New York City. This day long solutions oriented, meeting sought pragmatic solutions and provided for an opportunity to move the process forward on developing a comprehensive [pragmatic] solution around the issue of access to curricular materials for postsecondary students with disabilities. Documents pertaining to this meeting have been added to the AHEAD E-Text Solutions Group website.

Identified areas of discussion included:

1. Contacting and obtaining materials for the great number of publishers is currently and inefficient and ineffective process. A centralized system needs to be developed to minimize the points for making a request and obtaining the needed curricular materials.
2. Clear and reasonable expectations need to be developed between the various entities involved in e-text provision as to what are reasonable timelines from requesting materials and receiving those materials in a form that can be easily converted based on the needs of the individual student.
3. A great level of commonality exists in the two year schools and lower level classes at the four year school on the textbooks commonly used in the courses offered. An ability to share materials between schools and systems would be very beneficial to the process and would result in more efficient resource utilization within the campuses.
4. A common understanding needs to be developed as to the process that is used in Disability Service offices to determine student’s qualifications for the appropriate use of e-text materials and those students who would typically be determined to be eligible to use e-text materials.
5. Guidelines need to be mutually developed for the creating of alt format materials when the materials can not be obtained from the publisher in a timeframe suitable to meet the needs of the student with a print related disability.
6. Currently the materials that are being provided by the publishers are of marginal quality, and a great deal of effort has to be made to convert these materials to a form usable by the students. Often times it is more efficient and the final product is of a higher quality when the postsecondary institution produces the materials in-house.
7. A working group needs to be developed to formulate solutions to the current immediate problems of availability and quality of the materials being provided by the publishers. A second group need to focus on the longer term issues of the format of materials provided, centralizing provision, and moving all parties to a common digital format for e-text materials.
8. Awareness and training activities related to the acquisition, production, control and dissemination of electronic curricular materials is very lacking amongst all participant in this area, effective and mutually agreeable education and awareness activities need to be developed and delivered across the entire spectrum of organizations involved in curricular access.

The following documents also servered as a basis for the meeting or are helpful in gaining insight into the perspectives of the various parties present.

• Implimentation Guidelines for New York State's Chapter 219
• Copyright Issues – AAP Position Paper Presented At AHEAD 2004

Meanwhile - down in DC:

ASSOCIATIONS DISTRIBUTE COPYRIGHT POLICY GUIDE TO CAMPUSES

Washington, DC, December 6, 2005: Organizations representing higher education, research libraries, and publishers today encouraged colleges and universities across the nation to review their policies for complying with copyright law to ensure they are in line with recent legal and technological developments.

To help institutions carry out such reviews, the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Association of American University Presses (AAUP), and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have written and distributed Campus Copyright Rights & Responsibilities: A Basic Guide to Policy Considerations [.pdf download]. The document is intended to present a clear summary of copyright issues in the higher education setting that reflects university and college concerns as well as those of the publishing industry, with which they routinely interact. It has been endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Authors Guild.

Harass co-workers with USB missiles | News.blog | CNET News.com

By now this list should know my love and desire for all things USB - put this on my Holiday Wish List! [now then ... who do I know in the UK who could get this for me?]

Survey: Online education is 'growing by degrees'

According to the folks at eSchool News:

Nearly two-thirds of all colleges and universities that deliver face-to-face instruction now also offer online courses, and last year's enrollment in these online courses was up nearly 20 percent over 2003 figures, according to the latest survey representing the state of online instruction at the nation's higher-education institutions.

The .pdf of the report is available via The Sloan Foundation [.pdf download]

Though disability access is not mentioned in the report [it's not the focus, after all] such facts and figures continue to make us aware of how higher education is changing...and how we need to stay informed.

NCDAE Webcast: Student Information Systems and Individuals with Disabilities

For those of you who could not listen in to the National Center on Disability and Access to Education webcast yesterday - here is the page with both Quicktime and Windows Media Player versions. The transcript is coming soon. Unfortunately the media versions are non-poddable so you have use a computer to access them.