TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘disabled’ Category

By Paul Biba

This looks as if it could be of real use to many people. It is from the Freie Universitat Berlin.

The artificial intelligence group at Freie Universität Berlin, under the direction of the computer science professor Raúl Rojas, has developed a new type of information system for blind and visually impaired individuals. Field trials are being carried out to optimize the device for future users. …

“InformA” is a small computer that is connected wirelessly to the Internet. The device is operated like a radio. The user can choose between different information channels. By pressing a button, the time or the weather will be announced, but there are also current newspapers available as audio files (currently Tagesspiegel and taz).

In addition, e-mails can be read aloud by the device. The user can answer e-mails by dictating a message. An integrated camera makes it possible to have printed documents such as letters or package information leaflets read aloud fully automatically. In more complicated cases – such as a statement of account for a heating bill – the user of the device can take a photo of the document and send it to a call center. Persons doing community service instead of military service who work for the Berlin Association for the Education of the Blind and Visually Impaired e.V. then provide further assistance.

Here is the contact information for anyone who wants to get involved in the trial:

Raúl Rojas

Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Computer Science

Artificial Intelligence Group

Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 838 – 75102

E-mail: information-ki@fu-berlin.de

Via Resource Shelf

Technorati Tags:
disabilities, disabled, Paul Biba, TeleRead, blind

By Paul Biba

This is from the Wizcom site. I suspect it could be very useful in a number of situations.

Innovative portable learning tools for students of a second-language and for people with reading difficulties (such as dyslexia). Both the Basic Edition for school-age readers and the Advanced Edition for college level and adult readers provide reading autonomy and fluency, and enhance text comprehension.

Users can scan and insert text using the touch screen and virtual keyboard, hear it spoken aloud and obtain definitions and correct pronunciation within seconds. All looked-up words can be transferred to the PC for further practice. Text can also be uploaded from the PC onto this fully mobile, lightweight Pen, where it can be read aloud wherever you are.

Thanks to The Gadgeteer for the link.

Technorati Tags:
Paul Biba, TeleRead, disabilities, disabled

By Paul Biba

Nokia Beta Labs has released a Braille reader for SMS messages.

The application has been developed in a joint project between Nokia, Tampere University and the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired.

It runs on Nokia devices based on S60 5th Edition, including Nokia N97, 5800 XpressMusic and the newly released N97 mini, 5530, 5230 and X6. Details:

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By Paul Biba

From an article on Abledbody. Thanks to Robert Martinengo for the link.

Amazon’s Director of Kindle Books, Laura Porco, said the company is working with three of the top five textbook publishers — Pearson, Cengage Learning and Wiley, along with more than 75 University Press Publishers to make their educational materials available in the Kindle Store starting this summer. With content accessible in an audio version to everyone — not just to those who can “prove” they have a print disability — Amazon and publishers have taken a big step in breaking down barriers to educational content for people with disabilities. …

But the National Federation of the Blind doesn’t think the Kindle DX goes far enough: The e-book reader’s menus and controls aren’t audio-accessible to the blind and visually impaired. The NFB says deploying this device in college and universities would violate state and federal laws requiring equal access to textbooks and course materials for students with disabilities.

“We are appalled that Amazon is releasing a new Kindle device ostensibly for the use of students that does not contain features that make it accessible to the blind, said Dr. Marc Maurer, president of the NFB. “Amazon [should] introduce a user interface for the Kindle that is accessible to the blind as soon as possible. Until [then], no college or university should deploy this device,” he added.

By Paul Biba

From the Bookshare press release:

Washington, D.C., The National Press Club — Bookshare announced today a University Partnership Program to significantly increase the availability of accessible materials and textbooks on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of U.S. post-secondary students who have a disability that keeps them from effectively reading printed books.

The Bookshare University Partnership will foster the growth of accessible materials for all U.S. students with qualified print disabilities through contributions of books scanned on college and university campuses legally under a copyright exemption in U.S. Copyright Law (17 U.S.C. § 121, often referred to as the Chafee Amendment). Under the Chafee Amendment, Bookshare membership is available to people who provide proof of a print disability, such as blindness or low vision, a reading disability or a physical disability that makes it difficult or impossible to read standard print. Eleven U.S. colleges and universities now participate in the program: Arizona State University, De Anza Community College, CA, Indiana University, Michigan State University, Monterey Peninsula Community College, CA, The Ohio State University, Texas A&M University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Montana, University of Idaho, and The Hadley School for the Blind, IL. (more…)

By Paul Biba

With the permission of Bob Martinengo I’m re-publishing this important article that appeared on his blog today. This is a topic that I haven’t heard enough about and we need to do more on TeleRead. If anyone has any contributions in this area please send them on to me.

The flap over text-to-speech in the Kindle 2 is a reminder that e-books have the potential to level the playing field for people with disabilities. But, as was pointed out by the National Federation of the Blind, ‘the device itself cannot be used independently by a blind reader’ (It is ironic that the e-book market still fails to embrace the one group that actually needs e-books).

Several authors have commented that they have nothing against blind people, pointing out that publishers granted nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies an exemption to convert books to ’specialized formats’ [braille, audio, or digital text] without seeking permission or paying royalties (See the Chafee amendment)

From Roy Blount’s NY Times Op-Ed:

… publishers, authors and American copyright laws have long provided for free audio availability to the blind and the guild is all for technologies that expand that availability …

From Robert J. Sawyer’s blog (a popular science-fiction author):

Authors have ALREADY FOR DECADES NOW waived their rights to income from audio versions of their work made for the blind, whereas Amazon has said nothing about giving away ebooks — let alone Kindles — to blind users. We authors are the ones with the established track record of supporting the rights of the blind; let’s not forget that: we’ve been the good guys for decades when it comes to making our content freely available to the blind.

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