Blind Chance: David Faucheux's Audio Web Log
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Lively chat on book accessibility is now downloadable
Today's accessibility chatcast featuring George Kersher is now available as a large WMA file from the Opal-Online archive. Just click here.
I was delighted to hear him talk about a maximum amount of mainstreaming of content from books and other media. Exactly! The blind and others with special needs should be able to download the latest e-books and other goodies without waits. I like the idea of the DAISY standards he's been pushing over the years. Imagine the same book available as text, as synthesized speech, as a dramatic performance from a human reader, as braille--as, you name it! Oh, the wonders of XML and the navigation techniques that Kersher and collegues have been working on.
The sponsor of the chatcasts is the Mid-Illinois Talking Books Center, and the moderator is Tom Peters.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Review: How to Make It in the World of Work
On the Job: How to Make It in the Real World of Work.
RC 54919.
by Stephen Viscusi.
read by Gregory Gorton.
2 cassettes.
The head of a job placement agency and host of a radio show that examines work-related problems addresses the psychology and reality of the day-to-day marketplace. Uses anecdotes to offer practical advice on organizational skills, office relationships, communication, fraternization, and other topics. 2001.
RC 54919.
Historical novels and accessible e-books: Latest topics from Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center
Just a reminder: David Faucheux, the author of the Blind Chance blog hosted on the TeleRead site and praised by Audioblogger, will moderate an audio chatcast at 7 p.m. CDT August 31, Tuesday, on the topic of historical fiction.
As any follower of David's audio blog can vouch, he is unfailingly articulate--and knowledgeable in his book reviews. David is a big fan of Gary Jenning's novels and now has a new enthusiasm, My Antonia, topic of another another forthcoming presentation from the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center--Audio Chatcast Central.
This is "good read" territory. No need for stuffy academic discussion. Dive right in and join David and share your own finds in the historical fiction category. While the chatcasts are sponsored with the blind and visually impaired in mind, anyone can join in. Tom Peters, host of MITBC's Meting of the Minds and eBookWorm, will participate in David's discussion.
Meanwhile, on Aug. 26, this Thursday, from 3 to 4 CDT, the featured guest on eBookWorm "will be George Kersher, Senior Officer for Accessible Information at Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium, Co-Chair of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a division of the W3C, and Chairperson of the Open eBook Forum."
Related: Historical Novel Society.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Monday, August 23, 2004
My Antonia chatcast postponed--so top Cather specialist can participate
Tomorrow's chatcast on Willa Cather's My Antonia has been postponed so that Prof. Susan J. Rosowski from the Cather Project at the University of Nebraska can participate with a panel. Nebraska is prime Cather territory, the setting of Antonia, and we're terribly excited. Details, including the new date in September, will be on the way.Sponsor is the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, and you can e-mail the MITBC's Lori Bell to learn the new date ASAP. While the seminar is for the blind and visually impaired, MITBC welcomes all to its "Meting of the Minds" net.audio seminars (yes, that's the right spelling--a play on "mete," as in "to distribute"). Tom Peters is moderator. See an earlier item.
Details: Prof. Rosowski tells me that, yes, as I suggested in the earlier item, F. Scott Fitzgerald paid much attention to Antonia while he was conceiving The Great Gatsby.
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Vote for your favorite narrators of talking books
Some relevant links:
--Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Awards
--Scourby Ballot Link
--American Printing House for the Blind
