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

[John Gardner]

O'Reilly gives the XML to Bookshare, and they are then easily
machine-converted to DAISY and are quite accessible.  At least the text is.
I've never read an o'Reilly book with math, but my guess is that they will
all have images, not MathML.  If it's MathML, then it will be accessible if
one is using a MathML-knowledgeable DAISY reader.  

My major problem with O'Reilly texts is that many authors put examples into
figures even though they are just text - ie computer software.  I trust that
this practice is dying out, since it is a disservice to everybody - since it
cannot be copied and pasted.

John


-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Richard Baldwin
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 4:24 PM
To: BlindMath Mailing List
Subject: [Blindmath] What is the accessibility level of Safari online books?

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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