ATHEN Facebook Group

The Access Technologists Higher Education network is pleased to announce that we now have a Facebook group. For those of you who have profiles - or are looking for an excuse to create one - now is your chance. Join us!

The Amazon Kindle E-Book Reader

I was not planning to post anything about the new Amazon E-Book reader due to its (what I consider to be) lack of accessibility for individuals with most print impairments. I am not laying blame -- I can't -- because like the SonyReader before it, the Amazon unit is not and was never designed to be accessible in the manner that we in the ATHEN community think of accessible. That being noted -- a member of one of the professional listservs I frequent posted the following:

Can't help but wonder how this kind of device might be used by students with disabilities. It claims to have the capability of handling audiobooks, but I wonder how it might interface with other assistivetechnology such as DAISY?

Well -- since the subject has been broached -- I respond with the following:

Please note that the Kindle - like other e-book readers on the market - is NOT designed to be accessible in the manner in which we in the disabilities community define accessibility. Just because it is digital does not make it accessible.

The "audio books" it supports are merely audio files of the type you would purchase from Audible.com or Amazon.com. They are "e-books" as opposed to "E-Text". Though I understand the unit will also handle MP3 files such as music and podcasts.This item is not designed to be used with any sort of assistive technology or formats such as DAISY. In fact, the Kindle supports something called MOBI files. These are not in the same as PDF files (but a simple downloadable 'patch' will convert PDF to MOBI). It will apparently handle Word and RTF documents but how they get loaded on the unit I do not know.

How this may be used by SWD's depends upon the SWD. I could see students with mobility impairments not having to lug so many heavy tomes around and students with ADD being more organized by having everything in one place. Keep in mind, however, that this unit is not designed for academic reading -- don't try to take notes on this or use it to study in-depth technical books in color. Don't expect textbook publishers to jump on the bandwagon anytime soon.I believe it has the ability to adjust the text size but this is NOT the same as magnifying the screen image. The unit is not specifically designed for low-vision users.

Now that I have all but bashed the poor thing -- who is going to buy me one for Chrismukkah? Speaking of which -- I believe a better use of your money at this holiday time would be the "buy one - give one" promotion going on at the OLPC program.

ATIA Conference Discount for ATHEN Members

ATHEN is a partner for the 2008 Assistive Technology Industry Association conference. ATHEN members Howard Kramer (who runs the Accessing Higher Ground conference) and former Vice-President of ATHEN Dan Comden are the Strand Managers for the Higher Education and Transition educational strand.

There is a special registration rate for ATHEN members and the deadline for using it is fast approaching (November 26th). There is a passcode you must use on the registration form in order to get the discount of $50.oo. Contact Dan Comden or Howard Kramer to get this code. For newere members who may have joined recently because of the Accessing Higher Ground conference, they may have to conform your ATHEN membership status so contact them soon.

There is also a discount for the hotel and conference center but you have until late December to make such arrangements.

ATHEN Annual Business Meeting 2007 @ Accessing Higher Ground

Here are highlight notes from the ATHEN business meeting at the 2007 Accessing Higher Ground conference in Boulder, Colorado last week. The full minutes will be posted on the ATHEN website soon enough.

The election results give us some new officers on the Executive Board:

• President = Ron Stewart
• Vice-President = Terry Thompson
• Secretary = Dann Berkowitz
• Treasurer = Heidi Scher

In addition - Joe Humbert is taking over as Membership Coordinator.

As for news and business:

• E.A. Draffan provided an update on the October TechShare conference in the UK. There is a desire to open this conference up to entities outside of the UK.
• Terry Thompson gave a report on the EduCause IT Accessibility Constituent Group. There is a need for more accessibility professionals to be involved in Educause.
• Dan Comden gave an update on the postsecondary strand for ATIA Conference. Though very K-12 in nature, ATIA is making efforts to reach out to the higher education community and ATHEN seems to be the conduit for this interaction. BTW - Ron Stewart is a founding member of ATIA.
• The 3rd edition of the ATHEN Journal will be up on the website soon and the 4th edition is looking for submissions. The theme for #4 is "Who We Are as a Profession"
• Sean Keegan looking for website content - however, members can add their own information and content to the ATHEN Wiki.
• Speaking of the Wiki - the survey team has a final draft up on the wiki for inspection and comment.
• Pratik Patel provided an update on the iTunes U. accessibility project on behalf of Joe Humbert who was off at another conference.

Of course we cannot forget that E.A. Draffan was honored with the first ever Life-Time Honorary Membership to the organization.

Educause 2007: Technology in Plain English

Courtesy of the Chronicle of Higher Education - Educause 2007: Technology in Plain English

Chronicle editor Jeffrey Selingo interviews Lisa Trubitt of SUNY-Albany about communicating with different constituencies on campus. Also of interest is episode 6 of Tech Therapy and a piece titled "Talk to me like I'm a child." Listen for the TV Guide Exercise. There are good and simple lessons to learn here:

When talking with others on their campuses, IT departments at Davidson and Albany ran into common pitfalls. The messages are often highly technical and contain more information than the recipients can digest. Techies are big on acronyms, which others don’t understand. Messages often take a parental tone — don’t do this, you must do that — and they are sometimes contradictory. Techies also like to give people the back story — the whole tale of what it took to get, say, Windows Vista working on the campus.