We will get around to the accessibility issues ...

... right after we fix a few other bugs.

A story out of the University of Kansas tells the tale of 900+ exams that had to be tossed out due to software issues with the classroom 'clickers' used to take the exam. This story caught my eye because one of the topics discussed at the annual business meeting in November, 2007 was the formation of a Consulting Group that would work with institutions, companies, public entities, etc. to assess the accessibility of their products and services. A specific example provided by the head of this subgroup was that of a vendor of ‘classroom clickers’ who desired an outside and objective opinion of their products. These devices are more formally known as 'student response systems' or 'classroom response systems'.

The question before the ATHEN membership was to ascertain interest in doing such accessibility evaluations. In general - do we as an organization have the ‘horsepower’ to create an Accessibility Evaluation group and accept payments for such services. Yes -- 'payment' -- and there is where the conversation got a little uncomfortable for some of the members. Another possible catch for entities who hire ATHEN for such work is the insistence of leadership that such evaluations be made available for public consumption. We are a non-profit educationally affiliated organization with the mission to "collect and disseminate best practices in access technology within and for the higher education environment". The idea of doing such evaluations and then not making them available for at least our membership was something to consider.

In the end the matter was left to the membership to consider and for interested parties to think about it and have an off-line conversation with President Ron Stewart. Hopefully we will hear of updates about this at the CSUN conference.

EASI Webinar on E-Text Initiatives

Ron Stewart recently present an extremely comprehensive and interesting Webinar all about current E-Text initiatives taking place at all grades, and all levels, and from many sides. This was hosted by the good folks of EASI: Equal Access to Software and Information.

In November, EASI will do 2 presentations about different DAISY players. They hope to get someone from NLS to talk about their coming e-text books. They would like to have a running series on all things E-Text for the next several months. If you have any suggestions or would like to offer to present, drop Norm and Dick a line.

EASI contacts:
(949) 916-2837 (Note Pacific time zone)
E-mail: info@easi.cc
Norman Coombs, Ph.D.CEO, EASI
Richard BanksCIO, EASI

Accessing Higher Ground

My all time favorite conference (and the annual meeting of the ATHEN membership) is the Accessing Higher Ground conference put on by the University of Colorado at Boulder. This is the 10th anniversary and it gets better each and every year. Boulder is beautiful, the hotel is fantastic, the conference is small and the attendees are focused. This is the third year I have attended this conference but it seems like I have been going there forever!

Last year the leadership of Accessing Higher Ground and ATHEN got together and now we are one of the sponsors of the conference. Besides the obvious perks of getting to pick which room to have the annual meeting and the ability to cut into the buffet line with no backsies, it is quite an honor to be so closely associated with this conference. ATHEN also sponsors an educational track of presentations by our members (refer to the conference program for specifi details):

PRE-CONFERENCE SESSIONS

• The AHEAD Institute on E-Text Production (2 day pre-conference workshop): Ron Stewart, Dolphin Computer Access and Gaeir Dietrich, High Tech Center Training Unit
• Hardware and Software Players for Digital Talking Books (DAISY): Robert Beach, KCCC

GENERAL SESSIONS

• Planting Textbooks and Harvesting DAISY: A Model Program for E-Text Production: Daniel Berkowitz & Adam Randazzo, Boston University
• Planting Textbooks and Harvesting DAISY (part II): A technical demonstration of the Boston University production process: Daniel Berkowitz & Adam Randazzo, Boston University
• Innovative AT Research at the University of Washington: Dan Comden, University of Washington
• DAISY for All: Ron Stewart, Dolphin Computer Access
• Lab: Designing Accessible PDF Forms through Adobe's LiveCycle Designer: Sean Keegan, High Tech Center Training Unit
• Software Players and Digital Talking Books (DAISY): Robert Beach, Kansas City, Kansas CC
• STEM and Blind Student- A Survey and Analysis of Current tools, Strategies and Solutions: Saroj Primlani, North Carolina State University
• Using the Duxbury Braille Translation Software: Gaeir Dietrich, High Tech Center Training Unit
• Lab: Using Adobe PDF to Create Alternate Media, Gaeir Dietrich, High Tech Center Training Unit
• Design of an Assistive Technology Online Class: David Schwarte & Joe Humbert, Purdue University
• Web Accessibility in Higher Education: How Are We Doing?: Terry Thompson, DO-IT, U. of Washington, Saroj Primlani, North Carolina State University
• Improving Math Access on the Web with MathML-based Web Pages: Sean Keegan, High Tech Center Training Unit

The Key Note speaker for this year is one of my favorite folks working in the Access Technology Field - E.A. Draffan. Trained as a Speech and Language Therapist, E.A. worked for several years within the fields of various communication disabilities before specialising in Dyslexia and Assistive Technology. She has since worked with disabled students in Further and Higher Education, set up an Assistive Technology Centre, trained assessors, developed a database of assistive technologies and is working with a research group at the University of Southampton (UK).

AHEAD E-Text Solutions group at AHEAD 2007

I have recently returned from the AHEAD 2007 conference and rather than confront the backlog of messages, student files, eMails, and other flotsam awash upon my workspace I shall instead attempt to make sense of my notes from the conference and update my readers on the doings of the AHEAD E-Text Solutions Group. Caution - these notes are incomplete and are fullest where my interests were perked. The E-Text Solutions Group website has been updated with much good information and its membership is available to answer questions and such.

I also recommend taking a look at the independent website AltFormat.com.

There were two meetings of the group during the conference. The first was a semi-informal Q&A session on Thursday evening. Led by Chairman Ron Stewart, this public forum was designed to be an "informative discussion to learn about the continuing work of AHEAD to foster the availability of e-texts for all college students." The second meeting took place the following morning and was a more formal "informative session on current activities" designed to provide "up-to-date developments in the provision of educational materials in accessible formats". Both were very well attended and the following notes are a combination culled from both meetings.

Rick Bowes, representing the AAP (Association of American Publishers) and the AFSI (Alternate Format Solutions Initiative), provided an update on the cooperative agreement that is being developed between the major educational publishers in partnership with the AHEAD E-Text Solutions Group. The slides from Rick's presentation in both PowerPoint and Outline Format are available on the E-Text Solutions Group webpage. Much good information is also available on the AAP Higher Education Accessibility webpage.

Rick updated the audience to a degree but could not say much beyond what he reported at the CSUN conference earlier in the year. This is actually good news in that the publishers are taking his work seriously and moving forward. Bad news he could have shared - good news needs to be kept under wraps for the time being as the publishers discuss, deliberate and design their next moves.

Rick did go into a brief overview of NIMAS /NIMAC for those who were unfamiliar with them and noted that as worthy as this legislation is, the implementation has not been without problems. While NIMAS is being sorted out, Higher Education must not allow itself to become complacent to the idea that there will soon be similar laws for us and we must learn from mistakes made in the implementation of NIMAS and not make the same. NIMAS has had a slow-go since the green light of December 3, 2006 and as of mid-July 2007 there are less than 400 textbook file sets in the NIMAC repository with a total library of approx. 1,100 file sets - the majority being supplemental materials. This is out of a potential inventory of a quarter of a million titles.

Rick pointed out that a NIMAS File Set is not simply a single document and it has become apparent to both the NIMAC and the publishers that there is as much interest in the supplemental materials associated with the textbooks as there is with the textbooks themselves. This has tempered the publishers enthusiasm a bit as they try to figure out how to provide materials that are not necessarily specified under the law but which are none-the-less integral to the academic mission.

As for output, so far there have less than 300 downloads by the educational systems of nine (9) states. Much of this has to do with the need for individual states to decide how they are going to confront NIMAS and incorporate it into their state education statutes. In essence, many Attorney Generals and Departments of Education around the country are stymied and until they figure out what to do and move forward there could be a log-jam effect that has a negative on both postsecondary operations and efforts.

For example, Texas recently dodged a bullet when legislation was introduced that would have directed publishers to only provide digital materials in ASCii format. A knee-jerk reaction would be to question the technical know how of the Texas legislation [a'la the grand Senator from Alaska], but a closer look reveals that this is perhaps simply lazy continuation of previous Braille legislation (circa 2001) that calls for "ASCII, ICADD 22 or SGML for Windows or DOS, or agreed format produced upon 3.5" DDHD diskette, 5.25" Syquest, or other agreed on media." Unfortunately lawmakers in Texas are not alone in their inability to keep up with evolving technology. Fortunately the right lobby intervened and the wording was changed to something more user-friendly and appropriate.

The Texas side-swipe points out a general misunderstanding in both publishing and legislation that a mandatory one-size-fits-all solution is perfectly applicable and acceptable. As Rick noted throughout both sessions, the publishers want to do what is right, but simply do not know how. Actually, it is not proper to white-wash the publishers - perhaps some numbers will clarify. According to Rick, in terms of books used in education, there are some 4,600 publishing organizations in the United States producing in excess of 250,000 titles annually. These are not always 'publishers' per se and the majority are small, independent, affiliated with professional organizations or university presses and more than 50% are non-profit entities. As one of the panelist pointed out - there is no "they" when referring to publishers.

In fact, the AAP Higher Education group includes a half-dozen of the most prominent textbook publishers who produce 70% to 80% of the textbooks in use today. These publishers 'get it' in terms of what they should do and must do both morally and under the law. Unfortunately, until the dust settles on NIMAS and similar efforts take hold for Higher Education their hands and efforts are tied. The big publishers have a bottom line to look out for and cannot risk moving in a direction that may turn into an unprofitable dead-end. The small publishers are in worse straits as many of them run in the red and simply do not have the resources or know-how to create accessible formats. Akin to the AHEAD E-Text Institute trainings for the 3,500+ colleges and universities in the U.S., Ron Stewart notes that there should be similar trainings for the 4,600+ organizations that publish.

One point that kept coming across through both sessions was the need for flexibility in formats. This cannot be a one-size-fits-all proposition as that will not work for any of the participants (publishers, educators, and especially students). The key to NIMAS is supposed to be its flexibility in that the source files are supposed to be able to be easily converted to a variety of outputs (DAISY, Braille, variable print, etc.) but creating the source files that go into the NIMAC seem to be causing a bit of a headache for those that publish.

Time in both sessions was devoted to the rights and permissions process as regards converting textbooks in alternate formats. Though worthy of attention, the Publishers Look-Up Service sponsored by the AAP is only an interim step and only contains information on less than a quarter of publishing entities. Also throughout both meetings there was information and discussion on a variety of topics, including activities of the E-Text Solution Group, basics of NIMAS/NIMAC, current and pending legal cases and OCR letters, international interests, lessons from K-12 and more. Unfortunately my notetaking skills ain't what they used to be and I was unable to keep up with the conversation. Perhaps in the future these sessions can be recorded for pod/vodcasting. Anyway - check the PPT/RTF of Rick's presentation as it has a lot of good information.

Other items Rick presented include the AFSI vision of a national portal for digital formats of materials - akin to a NIMAC for higher ed, improving and streamlining rights and permissions procedures under copyright, file sharing beyond immediate state systems and created a system for trusted transactions (example Froogle) along with a federated search to improve the process of locating materials, creating a virtual repository allowing publishers and others to physically control their content, directed and secure distribution points and more. All of this is covered in his slides.

The meat of the meetings - and what most people came to hear - was Rick's report on the AFSI initiative. As he put it, he could not divulge too much but at present the publishers involved are "gnawing on the report" that was present in May of this year. On the Tuesday of the conference (July 17) the AAP voted to move from a research phase to developing a plan of action. According to Rick - the Executive Committee has tasked a select subcommittee to determine how publishers working with AHEAD and its members may better serve the needs of students with print disabilities. Over the next 120 days specific action plans will be formulated alongside evaluation process and financial requirements.

Yes -- money is an issue and needs to be openly acknowledged. As anyone who has developed an E-Text production facility can attest it takes money to put the technology, people and processes into place. Extend this to a for-profit corporate entity putting out a lot of product and needing to show a profit - or for that matter a non-profit that operates in the red and daily fights for its very existence - and you get an idea of one reason why things are perhaps not moving along as swiftly as we seem to think they should. As regards the idea of a centralized entity, there will be costs associated with the development as well as the maintenance at least to a point where it can maintain self sustainability (if ever).

I know there is a lot of information here and admit is is a bit jumbled and incomplete. If anyone else out there has notes from the meetings and would like to share their take on the things please drop me a line. I would be remiss if i did not thank Rick, Ron and all the members of the AHEAD E-Text Solutions group for all of their efforts and communication.

You might be digitzing books on the Web without knowing it thanks to this stealthy anti-spam technology | NetworkWorld.com Community

Again with the Carnegie Mellon where a scientist is looking to create a new type of security check that will assist in a project meant to digitize and make searchable text from books and printed materials. Above and beyond that, the offering would probably be more secure than most current systems. You know those CAPTCHA's we all dislike so very much --- thanks to them (and some behind the scenes stealth) you may be helping to digitize books on the web.

According to NetWorkWorld:

"Instead of requiring visitors to retype random numbers and letters, they would retype text that otherwise is difficult for the optical character recognition systems to decipher when being used to digitize books and other printed materials. The translated text would then go toward the digitization of the printed material on behalf of the Internet Archive project."

This reminds me of a Google Tech Talks lecture by Luis von Ahn (Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon) on the topic of Human Based Computation. This talk (available via Google Video):

introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve. Traditional approaches to solving such problems focus on improving software. [von Ahn] advocate[s] a novel approach: constructively channel human brainpower using computer games. For example, the ESP Game, described in this talk, is an enjoyable online game -- many people play over 40 hours a week -- and when people play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords. These keywords can be used to significantly improve the accuracy of image search. People play the game not because they want to help, but because they enjoy it. I describe other examples of "games with a purpose": Peekaboom, which helps determine the location of objects in images, and Verbosity, which collects common-sense knowledge.

While poking around the Google Tech Talks site I discovered the Authors [at] Google site and the following lecture by Daniel H. Wilson discussing his book "How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips On Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion". I highly recommend this book as a combination of fact, fantasy and humor. I especially recommend the audio version as read by Stefan Rudnicki and available through Audible.com. By the way -- the video is captioned.

EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Constituent Group

Direct from the EDUCAUSE Website: IT Accessibility Constituent Group

Whether for pedagogical, administrative, social, or other ends, information, programs, and services at universities and colleges continue to expand exponentially, and mechanisms to access these programs, services and information have increasingly become technology-centric, both physically and virtually. All programs and resources must be equally accessible to students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders, such as parents and local communities, as appropriate within the higher education environment, regardless of physical or other related abilities.

The IT Accessibility Constituent Group will help the EDUCAUSE community to assess the scope of issues of universal IT accessibility, to identify resources and initiatives, to develop best practices on policy and assistive program and service development, and in general to focus on how to approach campus-wide universal access of information by engaging in dialogue across boundaries within and beyond the campus environment.

Leader: Terry Thompson, Senior Computer Specialist, University of Washington, tft@u.washington.edu [and ATHEN member]

ATHEN Well Represented Among Top Tech-Savvy Community Colleges

The Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus Blog has posted a list of the "Top Tech-Savvy Community Colleges" in the United States. The category of "Small colleges - less than 3,000 students" caught my eye:

1st: Patrick Henry Community College, Martinsville, Va. (tie)
1st: Tompkins Cortland Community College, Dryden, N.Y. (tie)
2nd: Central Wyoming College, Riverton, Wyo.

Why - might you ask is this so interesting to this blog? Well, it just so happens that long-time ATHEN and AHEAD E-Text Solutions Group member Khaki Wunderlich is the Associate Dean of Learning Supportand Organizational Development and the Access Tech Goddess for the campus.

It was also brought to my attention that another ATHEN affiliated institution is among the Top Tech-Savvy Community Colleges:

Midsize colleges - between 3,000 and 7,500 students:
1st: Indian River Community College, Fort Pierce, Fla. (tie)
1st: Laramie County Community College, Cheyenne, Wyo. (tie)
2nd: Darton College, Albany, Ga.

As Lisa Dignan, Coordinator of the Disability Resource Center at LCCC points out "it must be the ATHEN membership that makes the difference, eh?"

As Membership Coordinator I should have caught this earlier -- but I do thank Lisa for tooting her own horn. I do not think this is a coincidence as here we have two 'tech-savvy' institutions where the professional staff not only understands the role of access technology but is committed to (and proud of) their work. So -- do we know anyone at the other CC's on these lists? Let's get out there and recruit new members!

BTW Lisa and Khaki -- now might be a good time to upgrade your ATHEN membership to the Institutional level.

E-Text in Maryland is Back in the Spotlight

I tend to keep up with the goings on in Maryland because I grew up there and still have friends and family in the area. Last year a bill was filed that would require NIMAS files be provided for college students as well as K-12. It was vetoed by the Governor. Now a new push is on for similar legislation.

I like this article from the Baltimore Sun because it really lays out the difficulties faced by students in a matter of fact tone. For example, the intern interviewed for this story "had to drop a 17th-century British literature course two weeks before the first 10-page paper was due. His professor had selected a more than 1,000-page anthology as the textbook, but not indicated what sections were required." How well we feel his pain -- whether a visually impaired individual or a service provider.

What we are also familiar with are the misconceptions that one-size fits all language will convey the proper message. From the article: "People keep calling this 'the blind bill,'" [the sponsor]said. "Electronic and audio texts help students with dyslexia, learning disabilities and a whole host of other diseases that weaken eyesight. ... Coining this a Braille textbook bill narrows the scope and the population that it would help, and is a good strategy to try and kill it."

Blackboard Hitches to Google’s Wagon (Campus Technology.com)

From Campus Technology.com

Blackboard Inc. said last week it would integrate Google Inc.’s search technology into its campus management systems. Blackboard joined Google’s Enterprise Professional Program. The move will provide “a tremendous value to people across a campus community, allowing them to develop greater search literacy to find information within academic departments, across disciplines, and even on campuses in other locations,” said Blackboard president Michael Chasen.

A first priority of the deal will be to integrate the Blackboard Learning System and Google Scholar, the firms said. Google Scholar provides a way to search for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers and articles, from academic publishers and universities. The integration through the Blackboard Building Block for Google Scholar will provide access to these scholarly references from courses within the Blackboard environment.

Blackboard will also offer a set of Google OneBox for Enterprise modules through a Blackboard Building Block for Google OneBox. The integration will enable targeted searches of an institution’s course catalogue, organization catalogue, and learning objects repository. Google OneBox for Enterprise is a feature of the Google Search Appliance which allows users to retrieve real-time content from various data sources across their institution.

More from the ...

Washington Business Journal - October 10, 2006
Blackboard teams up with Google by Neil Adler
Staff Reporter

Blackboard, a provider of software and related services to the education industry, is partnering with online search giant Google. The D.C.-based company will launch a series of efforts to enhance search capabilities for students and faculty at thousands of academic institutions worldwide. Blackboard says it will integrate various services with Google's enterprise search technology to help facilitate deeper, more meaningful search capabilities for members of the academic community.

Blackboard is joining the Google Enterprise Professional program, becoming the first member of the program to focus on educational institutions. As part of the partnership, Blackboard's learning system will be integrated with Google Scholar, providing quick access to millions of scholarly references directly from courses within the Blackboard system. As a Google partner, Blackboard will also offer consulting services to assist academic institutions looking to leverage search capabilities across their organization.

One of our own makes the news (in a good way)

Amazin' what you will find on the web. This came up on my Googleized Newsfeed. October is 'Disabilities Awareness Month' here in the U.S.A. and colleges and universities across the nation are putting together some sort of Disability Awareness Week of some sort. Let's see if we can find some more:

• Tennessean.com - Disability Mentoring Day
• digitalburg.com - UCM Hosts Disability Awareness Month
• Arkansas State - this one took place out of the cycle (in March)
• Premier's Council on the Status of Disabled Persons
• Let's give a big hand for California Lutheran University
• All they got in the UK was a single day!
• Hope College breaks barriers
• Grinnell puts is best foot forward with a showing of My Left Foot
• Ohlone College hosts a BBQ and follows it up with a showing of F.A.T. City
• Western Illinois shows a real mans movie - Murderball!

The Macs They Is A-Commin!

Just got word from PCSC [that's the Personal Computer Support Center here at BU - home of the undergraduate UberGeeks] that they expect to see a massive influx of Macs on campus this Fall - backed up by University Computers citing that some 40% of sales to incoming freshmen are Macs. A closer look at the eMail makes me wonder how I got on this distribution list as it is from PCSC HQ to "Campus Computing Departments". Could it be that someone around here has finally figured out what is taking over my job like kudzu on a barn! Huummm - this place does work in mysterious ways at times.

Anyway - what used to fill me with anxiety now only fills me with trepidation. I assume all of these new units will be Dual-Core BootCamp-able and therefore if a student comes to me with expectations of getting their books into alt-media I will have a suggestion for them other than "trade that thing in for a PC".

BTW - if anyone reading this happens to be a BU student looking for a semester job - drop me a line at access@bu.edu because I am hiring for DAISY Production Staff:

• Title: E-Text Production Specialist
• Location: On-Campus, Office of Disability Services
• Description: Convert textbooks and other materials into alternate formats & produce electronic textbooks and digital materials for BU students with various disabilities and print impairments.
• Requirements: Experience with Web development and/or copy editing with MS-Word. Experience working in the Windows XP environment. Knowledge of access technologies and alternate media appreciated but not required. Dependability a must! Training provided.
• Pay: Starting at $10.00 per hour

Q & A with the E-Text Solutions Group

Last night at the AHEAD conference in San Diego, the AHEAD E-Text Solutions Group hosted an open forum for attendees. As such, I did my best to take notes and keep up with the back and forth of the conversation. The following notes are mine are incomplete and have been edited - but I believe there is some important stuff here. Outside of the panel members I am not including names as I did not manage to catch most of them.

Q: Will we [DSS offices] ever be out of the scanning business?
A: Ron says "no". The goals is to alleviate some 80% of the scanning currently being done by DSS offices but there will likely always be a need for in-house scanning due to handouts, legacy items, gap filling while awaiting content from other sources, etc.

Q: Publishers are concerned about the abuse of digital materials via copying, trading, sharing, etc. Has anyone actually resorted such abuse?
A: Ed talked about AAP studies of peer-to-peer networks such as Grokster, eDonkey and others where they have seen illegal trading of digital forms of textbooks. But to date there has been no sign of books scanned for students with disabilities showing up on these same sites. However, the visceral (and understandable) preemptive reaction of publishers is to be defensive and expect it is only a matter of time before such materials make it onto the web.

Q: Can the publishers create a standardized request form?
A: The AAP is working towards its members using if not standardized, at least similar forms. This is a two-way street, however, as publishers are requesting that DSS has a standardized format or language for making requests. Ed McCoyd announced the soon to be launched Publisher Look-Up Service [beta].

Q: In the conversation it became understood that 6-7 publishing houses control some 85% of the Higher Ed textbook market. An attendee asked if these half-dozen publishers could simply hire staff and create in-house processes to create DAISY versions of their books.
A: There are several parts to this answer. It is important to understand that each of these publishing houses encompasses many smaller print houses under each of their umbrellas. However - the publishers are moving forward on this [behind the scenes] and working with organizations such as Bookshare.org and RFB&D on their DAISY projects. Ron reminds us that DAISY is an emergent technology and like any for-profit entity, the publishers are understandably hesitant to invest in and embrace it fully until it has proven its worth in the marketplace.

Q: Why aren't the publishers more fully using RFB&D and Bookshare?
A: There cannot be a single broker (or even a couple) because there are simply too many titles and too much work for one entity to handle.

Q: There were several questions and a conversation about NIMAS and how this fits into the puzzle.
A: NIMAS will be part of the solution but it is not as important at the postsecondary level as in K-12. As students are introduced to the ease of getting materials because of NIMAS, they will enter higher ed and expect a certain level of quality and access. Ultimately, students and their requests (demands) will drive the end-user format.

That's the gist of last night's conversation - there was more but I cannot read my chicken-scratch or make sense of my shorthand. Look for updates to the E-Text solutions group website coming soon.

Coming of Age: an introduction to the new world wide web

This book - Coming of Age (.pdf - 1.9MB) - is a nice UK introduction to Web 2.0 for individuals, teachers, school and Local Authority managers (Superintendents and Administrators), school libraries, Professional Development coordinators, students and parents.

The book provides a set of stories, describing the ways in which Web 2.0 technology can be used in schools, particularly as a way of supporting social, collaborative learning, and a more individualised curriculum.

I downloaded it and have read through much of it and though I know there is some really good information out there on the web, it is hard to find such a comprehensive listing of ideas and information from professionals in the field actually using and training on this stuff. If you get the chance, I very much recommend taking a look for yourself - go ahead - don't cost nothin'...

Report: AHEAD E-Text Institute #3

The E-Text Institute sponsored by the AHEAD E-Text Solutions Group went extremely well. Ron Stewart was, as always, a crowd favorite and he covered the Policies and Procedures portion of the program on Thursday. Most of the two-dozen attendees were aware of what he discussed and the questions posed were right on the money - serving to enhance the presentation. This being my third institute and having seen Ron present before, I could tell he was very comfortable as he kept deviating from the slides but still managed to bring it in on time. Primary topics included:

• What E-text is and is not [file formats]
• Who uses E-text and why
• Where does E-text come from (and how)
• The Laws around E-text [copyright, ADA, 504, 508, various State regulations, Chafee]
• Relevant OCR cases and implementation [what they mean to us]
• Publisher [perspective, rights, responsibilities]
• Policy development and implementation
• Common problems and solutions [not quite 'Best Practices' but in that direction]

One portion of the presentation that has seen growth over the three institutes is the Publisher Perspective. The advent of NIMAS and movement of E-text production into the accommodation mainstream - as well as numerous advances in the ease of production - have gained the attention of the publishers. They are beginning to take a serious look at the commercial viability of E-text along with a broader appreciation of their rights (and responsibilities). In this segment Ron covered:

• Publisher Rights
• Publisher Concerns
• American Association of Publishers position on scanning
• The AAP position on security of digital formats
• Digital Rights Management (DRM)

With rights, of course, comes responsibilities. Ron covered the basics of who is responsible for what [students, faculty, DSS, publishers, institutions, bookstores, etc.] which was followed by policy issues [the need, development, establishing, parties involved, etc.]. Also included was links to and information about various resources - most of which is available on the expanding AHEAD E-Text Solutions Group site.

I sat way in the back so as not to distract [Ron barely picked on me at all] and furiously took fresh notes for when I will be presenting similar information at Landmark College in June. This, however, was the best institute yet and has been streamlined nicely. Ron also told those assembled that by this time next year there would be one training each month rotating around the country and New England would certainly be included. he also alluded to an idea that the Policy and Procedures piece would be expanded to two days as would the Production portion. This way each half could be geared towards separate crowds - the former for administrators and the latter for technologists - with appropriate overlap.

Friday started out very well - more coffee and danish for the masses [Erin reminded us to be careful as our gotten gains could turn ill should anyone spill on a keyboard]. Ron started with an extremely slimmed down version of the Production slides that covered the bare essentials of terminology, scanning with Abbyy Fine Reader, E-Text and Digital File formats, and the parts of a DAISY Talking Book.

I started out my portion by having the class open the sample DAISY book folder on their workstations and going over the parts that comprise a DTB - the various files and formats within the book folder. It is rather like discussing the various files that make up a fully functional website - you've got html, .txt, .mp3, smil, ncc and more. This was followed by stick-time with Dolphin EaseReader. After all - how can folks be expected to build DAISY books if they don't know what they're made of and how they work.

Following lunch in a Babson Dining Hall we set our minds to producing DAISY books using the training module I am currently developing for Boston University. [NOTE: please feel free to take a look at these materials but keep in mind they are a work in progress. They will soon be expanded and moved to a more permanent location.] A brief overview of each portion of the process yielded great feedback from Ron and questions from the participants. I did this in order to head off the inevitable looking-ahead that tends to screw-up those who are supposed to be following along step-by-step and to give the class a feel for the overall process.

It was also here that Ron and I discovered areas where we agree to disagree. My basic process involves removing all pictures and other graphics and replacing them with the captions form the book and a notice for user to refer to their hard copy. The rationale being that in most cases students will own a copy of the book themselves and be able to access such references. The LD, MI, and most LV students can eye-ball the materials and the Blind/LV (severe) students tend to prefer quality captions and descriptions. We also remove these items because of the time and labor involved in building them into the finished DAISY book. Ron's take on this is that publishers will argue that under copyright we must maintain as much of the integrity of the textbook as possible - regardless of procedural constraints. We understand each others argument and, in fact, as my staff continually refines our process we are discovering better and faster techniques which will allow us to include items such as graphics and footnotes and still get the books to the end-users in a reasonable amount of time.

The Boston University training module is broken into five sections [with additional segments in the works]:

1. From .pdf to .doc - we start out our process by scanning into .pdf format. This gives us a digital master to work from. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) we break the large single .pdf into more manageable chunks [typically book chapters].
2. Editing of .doc files - we do not "edit" so much as clean up. No OCR is perfect and we need to pretty much strip out the formatting so that they will best fit into the DAISY production software. We also make certain that the text in the digital files exactly matches the text in the hard copy.
3. Section three has multiple parts and takes users through the Dolphin EasePublisher production software.
4. Here we do quality control and make certain the various files are named correctly and that all is safe and sound.
5. Finally there is information about how we go about delivering the finished product to the student end-user.

For this training we used the files from a book I had done at BU this past semester and concentrated on only a few pages of the first chapter. Out of a dozen-and-a-half attendees actively following along with my instructions [some chose to sit and watch], two-thirds were able to produce a working finished product. Considering this was the first time I had actually used this training module - and given the number of errors I found in the process during the workshop - and not to mention Ron being in the same room - I was delighted with the results.

We followed the hands-on piece with a quick look at Dolphin Producer - the barebones DAISY production tool that works with Microsoft Word. Overall the institute was a fantastic experience and I cannot thank Ron Stewart enough for allowing me the opportunity to take part. And I only got on Ron's nerves a little bit.

Mac Attack ... or ...

Baseball, Hot Dogs and Apple's [piece o' the] Pie

There has been discussion on the listservs recently regarding the accessibility of iPods and how to best provide students with mp3 files on these and other players. I noted that since the iPod craze we are seeing more students using Mac's. It is unfortunate that access tech [both hardware and software] continues to be scarce for the Macintosh. Admittedly, I am not a Mac enthusiast, but that should not matter. When a student is approved for access to their textbooks in alternate formats or has need of peripherals in the classroom and my office is unable to support their needs as easily as we could with a Windows based PC- this is cause for concern. The introduction of the new Intel-based Mac and the announcement that Apple is opening a flagship store walking distance from my office leads me to believe that the student switch to Mac's is not a passing fad.

My experiences with Mac accessibility have not been positive - a recent example being the need for a student running OS-X on a Powerbook to access DAISY books. To date we have been unable to get the one and only DTB player for Mac, something called KatiePlayer, to work - and that is before trying to upgrade it for RFB&D access. The student, who knows more about Macs than I do, sees to think the problem lies in her version of OS-X [Tiger?] or certain other programs she is running. I even posted a query to the alt-media and access-tech listservs and got nary a response - [cricket ... cricket ... cricket]. According to sources, RFB&D will soon have a Mac version of one of the other programs for playing their DAISY files.

Unlike Windows access - where either a single company holds the lions share of the market or brawls break out among enthusiasts of competing programs - there is far too little available for the Mac and, as is my understanding, what is available has been thrown a Wakefield worthy knuckleball with the introduction of the Intel chip - back to the drawing board sums it up.

My department is in process of procuring several new machines for alt-media production and I have asked for a Mac in some form so that we can learn about and experiment with issues of accessibility. I stopped just short of asking my boss to throw in an iPod. I do not see the point in testing its accessibility as I cannot imagine Apple giving up the lucrative after-market by adding functionality that competitors offer. I'd rather have a stable of iRiver, SanDisk and Creative devices to play with.

Word of my interest found it's way to our friendly campus Apple Rep [didn't even know we had one] and now he wants to meet with me to discuss my software compatability questions. This ought to be fun. Not to say that there is no access tech available for the Mac - a quick Google search located a number of sites with info and it appears that the Mac [Tiger] screenreader Voice-Over has gotten pretty good reviews.

Here is a non-comprehensive list of what I found. Personally I have not used a Mac since OS 8.1 and have no idea what or if anything on this list is worth knowing.

• Mac Accessibility Page - includes information on a variety of 3rd party solutions
• Orator - text conversion to mp3
• Accessibility options for System 7.x, 8.x, 9.x
• Shareware and Freeware for PWDs

For a very good overview [though a few years old] on and about Mac Accessibility - check out this multipart article by a serious Mac-Head.

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.