[Blindmath] What is the accessibility level of Safari online books?

Birkir R. Gunnarsson birkir.gunnarsson at gmail.com
Tue Jul 26 23:53:22 UTC 2011


Hello

I'll try this tomorrow and report back. I used these books for coding
when I was writing Java apps for work, and the accessibility was great
(after all the code is justplain text).
O'reilly were one of the first publisher to care about accessibility,
and they contribute very generously to Bookshare. I believe they would
be at least as receptive as anyone regarding better accessibility to
math in their books.
If someone else knows more about the math books, please post. If not,
I'll go out and give it a try.
Thanks
-B

On 7/26/11, Richard Baldwin <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com> wrote:
> I'm wondering about the accessibility level of online books at Safari.
>
> There is some information about their accessibility, including screen reader
> compatibility, at http://my.safaribooksonline.com/508compliance
>
> I am currently working with an online version of an XML book there (45-day
> free trial with purchase of book) and I have been happy with the
> presentation as a sighted user.
>
> My XML book is available in either a PDF-like format or an HTML-like format.
> I prefer the HTML presentation format.
>
> If I understand it correctly, a subscription that includes any ten books in
> their library costs about $23 per month and you can check one book in and
> another book out after 30 days. That would be expensive if the student only
> needed access to one book, but would be reasonable if they need access to
> five books for a typical semester. In fact, that would probably cost less
> than purchasing five technical books that can only be used for one semester.
>
> Has anyone looked into this?
>
> I'm particularly curious as to how the equations in a physics or math book
> might appear to a blind reader on the Safari site. Other that a few images
> in the XML book, everything else seems to be very accessible, but that is
> because XML is plain text, and plain text works well with screen readers and
> Braille displays.
>
> I think they have a 10-day free trial if anyone would like to give it a try.
>
> Dick Baldwin
>
> --
> Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
> Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
> http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>
> Professor of Computer Information Technology
> Austin Community College
> (512) 223-4758
> mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
> http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
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