WHAT SHOULD YOU HAVE IN YOUR ALTERNATE FORMAT TOOLBOX?

INTRODUCTION Susan Kelmer Alternate Format Access Coordinator University of Colorado Boulder

INTRODUCTION, CONTINUED… We produce electronic files and tactile graphics/Braille for students with all types of needs We produce approximately 700 pieces each semester – some are textbooks, some are handouts, some are test and testing materials We track requests via a spreadsheet and hard copy system

ACQUISITION OF MATERIALS Hard copy handouts Hard copy textbooks Electronic files from faculty/staff Electronic files from publishers Electronic files from Braille

ACQUISITION OF MATERIALS, CONTINUED… AccessText Network Bibliovault PublisherLookup.org Bookshare Maintained list of publishers ListServs – DSSHE, ATHEN, Alternate Media (California CC System but can be used by anyone)

OVERVIEW OF OUR PROCESSES – ADMINISTRATIVE/TRACKING

OVERVIEW OF OUR PROCESSES - PRODUCTION

HARDWARE High-Speed Duplexing Scanner Copy Machine with Scan function Flatbed Scanner (not recommended) Network-based Storage Space Production PC Braille Embosser Tactile Embosser

THINGS THAT CAN MAKE A SCANNER (AND YOU) GO CRAZY Heavily textured paper Strange or stylistic fonts Paper cut unevenly Poorly copied documents

SOFTWARE – ADOBE ACROBAT PRO For breaking up files into smaller pieces for production – by chapter or just number of pages Run basic OCR Setting reading order Fixing text

WHEN PDF FILES ARE LOCKED OR WATERMARKED Are we legally allowed to crack PDFS? Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust Various OCR cases country-wide Civil rights trump copyrights, every single time. PDF Unlock Tools (password removal) Small PDF ( Free My PDF ( Watermark Removal Watermarks can usually be removed (Tools, Pages, Watermark) after the password has been removed.

WHEN PDF FILES HAVE OTHER DIFFICULTIES PDF won’t scan in OCR PDF won’t extract to Word PDF won’t print

OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION - OMNIPAGE Runs basic and complex OCR Allows you to set zones and re-use for later documents Allows you to cut out certain places, or add text recognition to certain places in the document Exports to text or other formats for further editing I like it best because it’s the one I’ve used for the last 10 years or so, i.e. it is a personal preference

OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION - ABBYY FINEREADER Seems to work best with foreign language or mixed language documents Allows selection of editing fields and a re-scan Saves as a text-based document for further editing Does very well with tables

SOFTWARE – TEXT EDITING Microsoft Word (standard) OpenOffice Edit out or in graphics Add alternate text to graphics as needed Recreate or reformat tables for readability Add in or remove page breaks, page numbering, and header information Add styles/headings as appropriate Spell check Recreate footnotes

SOFTWARE – MATH MathType Enter/correct math equations Output to html, Output to Word with Equations Lean Creates easily-readable equations for all screen readers (Jaws, WindowEyes, NVDA)

SOFTWARE – BRAILLE TRANSLATION SOFTWARE Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT) Turns Word (doc, docx) files into Braille Turns LaTex files (when coded properly) into Braille Turns html files (when coded properly) into Braille Save as.brf (Braille Ready File) for use with refreshable displays or Jaws Emboss to hard-copy Braille

SOFTWARE - TACTILES Adobe Illustrator

DISTRIBUTION OF FILES On-campus solution (if possible) Dropbox HighTail (formerly YouSendIt) Google Drive In-person Flash drive CD External hard drive

HOW YOU CAN CONTACT ME Susan Kelmer Alternate Format Access Coordinator University of Colorado Boulder