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

[Birkir R. Gunnarsson]

Hi all

I did some testing with CourseSmart a few months back. Their web site
has some accessibility issues, one of which was fixed shortly after I
pointed it out.
The book I tried was in html format, quite readable and I was happy
with it, even happier with their willingness to accept and act on
feedback.
At that time they did not use MathML for encoding math objects and I
pointed out this was a big problem for students in STEM fields. I
believe they've had further input from guys like Steve Noble (who
subscribes to this list, but may be on well earnt vacation) as part of
the STEPP program (AMAC in Georgia teemed up with them to make
CourseSmart accessible), so I still have hopes that either this has
changed, or will change in the near future.
As always, it will require feedback from actual users wanting to
download and read the books to help push that process along, so
definitely try it, and let them know if the math is still not working
out.
-Birkir

On 7/27/11, Richard Baldwin <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com> wrote:
> Another source of online books for students is CourseSmart. Here is a link
> to their accessibility page:
> http://instructors.coursesmart.com/accessibility
>
> (I was unable to get a link without the word instructor. Apparently they
> have a cookie on my machine that tells them who I am whenever I go to their
> website and forwards me to the instructor side of the website. If that link
> doesn't work for you, just Google them.)
>
> They have a different business model from Safari. As I understand it,
> students rent online books from CourseSmart for 180 days at a price that is
> below the new purchase price of the book. If sufficiently accessible, this
> model might work well for a student that needs only one or two books at any
> given time. For example, the book titled "Intermediate Algebra, Eleventh
> Edition" claims to sell for about $163 and rents online for about $65 for
> 180 days.
>
> I believe that you can create an account and preview lots of online books
> for free, including the one that I mentioned above.
>
> Perhaps someone should take a look at this site and see if it would work for
> blind STEM students.
>
> 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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