Alice Carnes, M.A. Disability Counselor Central Piedmont Community College

Why e-text books Standard print textbooks are often not accessible to students with disabilities. blindness, low vision, learning disabilities, or mobility impairments—may make standard print very difficult or completely impossible to read. Transformation of print textbooks into alternate formats is often necessary. alternate formats include Braille, large print, audio, or electronic text. publishers do not generally produce specialized alternative format materials like Braille, many textbook publishers do create electronic versions that can be used with many types of assistive technologies.

Options AccessTextNetwork ATN Alternative Media Access Center Bookshare CourseSmart Learning Ally (formerly RFB&D) National Library Service

AccessTextNetwork Improving College Textbook Accessibility a streamlined system a free clearinghouse to request textbooks from a variety of publishers:

AccessTextNetwork Publishers Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing Cengage Learning CQ Press Elsevier F.A. Davis Company John Wiley & Sons Jones & Bartlett Learning Lynne Rienner Publishers McGraw-Hill Education Pearson Education Springer Publishing W.W. Norton

AccessTextNetwork o Students receive e-text in a couple of days Search tool using the ISBN# determines: where it is available what format If the files are too big to be sent electronically you will have to wait for a CD to arrive in the mail.

Alternative Media Access Center The Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC) is committed to removing barriers for individuals with disabilities by improving the human condition through technology in academic and workplace environments.

AMAC’s Products and Services Accessible document conversion to electronic, audio or braille formats Specialized assistive technology software AMAC's web-based application for ordering, delivery, tracking and reporting Student textbook and software download center Student Accommodation Manager (SAM) software Technical support services

Learning Ally Formerly RFB&D Annual student fee of $80.00 per year Recorded by volunteers Purchase of additional equipment may be necessary Many students prefer the human voice to computerized voices

Bookshare Accessible Books and Periodicals for Readers with Print Disabilities Bookshare® is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities, thanks to an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Bookshare dramatically increases the accessibility of books. People with disabilities deserve the same ease of access to books and periodicals that people without disabilities enjoy. A searchable online library. Bookshare offers approximately 125,000 digital books, textbooks, teacher-recommended reading, periodicals and assistive technology tools. Readers of all ages. Bookshare offers affordable membership, unlimited library privileges and a community of Members, Volunteers, parents, publishers and authors.community

Bookshare Free to students Available in different formats like enlarged text Recreational reading: novels and newspapers Diverse and growing # of reading technologies Computer software, assistive technology devices, mobile devices, primary books formats, DAISY 3.0 & Braille Ready Format BRF

Bookshare Find Books How to search and browse the Bookshare library. Find Books Download Books Information about downloading Bookshare books. Download Books Read Books Options for reading downloaded Bookshare books, software, hardware and Braille as well as information about embossing options. Read Books Reading Tools Tools that work with Bookshare books (software and hardware), as well as links to other electronic and accessible book collections. Reading Tools

Accessing Bookshare teacher at the Alabama School for the Blind demonstrating how to use BRF

CourseSmart o Open to all students Not just for students with a documented disability Not necessary to purchase the print book Less expensive than the eBooks offered at campus bookstores. Students with FA might not be able to pursue this option

National Library Service That All May Read... National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) Through a national network of cooperating libraries, NLS administers a free library program of braille and audio materials circulated to eligible borrowers in the United States by postage-free mail.

ATN Pilot Project STEPP Student E-rent Pilot Project is an eTextbook rental program launched by the Alternative Media Access Center. Partnering with CourseSmart and the AccessTextNetwork, through a grant from the US Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE)

Ways to Read Digital Books Computer software Assistive technology devices Mobile devices that read Bookshare’s primary book formats: Daisy 3.0 and Braille Ready Format (BRF) Multi-modal reading (see and hear words at the same time) View Books with different fonts

Read Outloud Training Video _index.html _index.html

NaturalReader 9.0 The free text reader, Natural Readers, can read aloud your eBooks, as well as websites, Word documents, etc. 1. Download and install Free NaturalReader 9.0: When you open the program, it appears as a small floating window on the side of your screen. This window will allow you to read text from almost any program. You can drag this window to another part of your screen, if you prefer. 3. Open the file you would like to listen to – for example, a PDF eBook or a course assignment saved as a Word file. Highlight the text you would like to hear aloud, such as a paragraph or column. Click the red PLAY arrow on the Natural Readers window to listen to the text. 4. To change the speed of the reading or to change the voice, click the SETTINGS button on the Natural Readers window (it looks like a gear). Many students find the “VW Paul” voice to be the most realistic.

Determining Commonly Requested Accommodations: Applying Best Practices to Complex Cases in Decision- Making – workshop at AHEAD 7/2011 The information about Audio Book Matching Profile for Students (AMPS) borrowed from Banerjee and Brinckerhoff. Manju Banerjee, Ph.D. Associate Director Center for Students with Disabilities University of Connecticut Loring Brinckerhoff, Ph.D. Director Office of Disability Policy Educational Testing Service

Acapela Group, the leading voice expert, invents text to speech solutions to give your content a voice, in up to 30 languages. Acapela solutions Acapela solutions allow you to turn any written text into natural speech files, using any of our 60 High quality standard voices or your own synthesized voice talent. Our solutions offer perfect vocalization whether for voice integration and development, online and on demand use, audio files production or personal accessibility use. Already chosen by over a thousand companies and adopted by millions of users throughout the world, Acapela bespoke solutions give our customers a powerful voice, helping them successfully take the floor.thousand companies Check out Acapela Group’s sparkling laboratory with over 75 million talking cards created and shared the Acapela on-line service for smart vocalization and to develop talkative apps for easy all-rights-included on demand sound file production

Glossary of Terms E TEXT An e-text (from "electronic text"; sometimes written as etext) is, generally, any text-based information that is available in a digitally encoded human-readable format and read by electronic means, but more specifically it refers to files in the ASCII character encoding. DAISY Digital Accessible Information System assists people who, for different reasons, have problems using regular printed media. DAISY books have the benefits of regular audiobooks, but they are superior because DAISY 2.02 provides up to six embedded "navigation levels" for content (i.e. other objects such as images, graphics, MathML etc.) and for displaying synchronized text to speech. DAISY Multimedia can be a talking book, computerized text or a synchronized presentation of text and audio. [4]audiobooks [4] TEXT READER can read aloud your eBooks, as well as websites, Word documents, websites, etc. like NaturalReader, Read & Write 10 or Kurzweil. PDF Portable Document Format use with Text Readers or enlargement software

Screen Reader: Software used to echo text on a computer screen to audio output, often used by people who are blind, with visual impairments, or with learning disabilities. A refreshable Braille display or Braille terminal is an electro-mechanical device for displaying Braille characters, usually by means of raising dots through holes in a flat surface. Blind computer users, who cannot use a normal computer monitor, use it to read text output. Speech synthesizers are also commonly used for the same task, and a blind user may switch between the two systems or use both at the same time depending on circumstances.BrailleBlindcomputercomputer monitorSpeech synthesizers BRF (Digital Braille) are Grade II Braille Ready Format files -- a widely recognized form of contracted braille. The files can be used with common braille reading devices or braille printers. Glossary con’t

MathML equations can be easily enlarged; font styles, font colors, and foreground colors can be altered; synthetic speech with synchronized highlighting can be used; and Braille output is possible. All of these benefits make MathML the most accessible choice for creating math content within digital textbooks. When creating an accessible electronic version of a textbook, publishers should consider using a digital format that can be universally used by all students, both with and without disabilities. In the case of mathematical content, the best format for universally designed math is MathML [1]. MathML can be used for math equations within standard XHTML or XML content, and unlike image formats, MathML equations can be accessed via standard assistive technology applications, such as synthetic speech or Braille access technologies. Furthermore, when authors are careful to use math formats that can easily be converted to MathML, like LaTeX [2], MathType [3], or Equation Editor [4] formats, further accessible transformation is much easier. This is especially important for faculty who publish their own materials for class use.MathMLLaTeXMathTypeEquation Editor

Digital textbooks containing MathML equations can be provided to students in an online environment, via CD-ROM, or other digital media. Since MathML content is text based, rather than an image format, it can be manipulated in the same ways that text can. For publishers creating math textbook files in compliance with state and district textbook adoption language required under the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) [5], the DAISY Modular Math Extension [6] provides details about proper MathML usage in electronic files.National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)DAISY Modular Math Extension For more information on this topic, consult the following DO-IT Knowledge Base articles: What is MathML? [7], What is the DAISY Modular Math Extension [8], and Are there commercial products designed to make math accessible to students with disabilitiesWhat is MathML?What is the DAISY Modular Math Extension Are there commercial products designed to make math accessible to students with disabilities

Thank you very much for that suggestion but unfortunately, it is a not a solution for our blind student. She told us that the kindle app for the Mac will not work with her screen reader. What we are requesting from you is permission to scan the book and give her access to the book under the Chafee Amendment. In 1999 Congress included that Amendment in the U.S. Copyright Law. The Chafee Amendment states that: “Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 710, it is not an infringement of copyright for an authorized entity to reproduce or to distribute copies or phonorecords of a previously published, nondramatic literary work if such copies or phonorecords are reproduced or distributed in specialized formats exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities. As disability services providers at a public institution, we (as “authorized entities”) are permitted to create accessible texts by converting them into formats that can be used by students with visual impairments. We routinely, get permission from publishers to do this type of activity. If you go to the AccessText Web site you will see how many publisher work with College and Universities to provide access to students under this provision. Please feel free to contact Stephanie if you have questions. Our semester started on Monday and the student has reading to complete. We ask that you grant us permission today to scan the book.

Summary o AccessTextNetwork o Learning Ally Bookshare Best resource your colleagues the listserv at: