[BlindMath] Godel Escher Bach

Wed Apr 18 01:00:14 UTC 2018

To the best of my knowledge, Bookshare is not a producer. It's better regarded as a distribution service for books obtained from publishers and from scanned materials. There is a provision for volunteers to assist in correcting errors (including accessibility problems) found in books.

Most of my (admittedly non-mathematical) reading comes from Bookshare these days, apart from the journal literature. It's an excellent service, but it isn't the same kind of service as a conventional braille or audio book producer.

The only strategy likely to work in the short term, and Bookshare is probably pursuing it already, is to try to reach agreements with publishers to obtain source files in an XML/MathML-based format, or LaTeX, or even Microsoft Word - depending on what the publisher has in each case. I would accept LaTeX as a delivery format in preference to something that is completely inaccessible, although screen readers nowadays offer enough support for MathML potentially to make that viable as well.

On 4/17/18, 17:04, "BlindMath on behalf of Peter Donahue via BlindMath" <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org on behalf of blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

    Hello Amanda and everyone,

    This is what happens when Braille producers don't proofread their
    transcriptions. Bookshare.org is one of the worst offenders! My wife reads
    lots of books in their collection and has been appalled whenever she reads
    books riddled with errors. She's an NLS Braille Proofreader and appreciates
    the value of good clean Braille transcriptions. Some would say that
    poorly-produced Braille is better than none at all. Both of us would say
    "Not when it comes to blind students being able to complete class
    assignments on time or fail tests due to inaccurate Braille transcriptions."
    Assuming you got those books from Bookshare.org complain loudly! Some of us
    have brought other matters to their attention and they have done zilch about
    them. Let's get over feeling greatful for bad Braille transcriptions and
    demand a higher standard of performance from these outfits!

    Peter Donahue

    -----Original Message-----
    From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Amanda
    Lacy via BlindMath
    Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2018 12:59 PM
    To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
    Cc: Amanda Lacy
    Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Godel Escher Bach

    Missing exponents (2 squared becomes 22), missing parens, etc.

    I'm also trying to read Artificial Intelligence, a Modern Approach
    where I'm encountering these same (tiring) issues.
    My sighted friend can't even read the Bookshare version that well, so
    it's more than a screenreader issue.

    And 2 squared isn't 22 no matter how much they might like it to be!

    On 4/17/18, Sabra Ewing via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
    > They were not fantastic about it with me. Every time I try to get a math
    > textbook from them, it was not accessible. The equations we're not exactly
    > removed, but it is hard to describe what they are like. Amanda was there
    > though. She can tell you what they were like. Book share never fixed it.
    >
    > Sabra Ewing
    >
    >> On Apr 17, 2018, at 11:32 AM, Sina Bahram via BlindMath
    >> <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
    >>
    >> If you let bookshare know through the form on their website, they are
    >> fantastic about rescanning/correcting the book.
    >>
    >> President, Prime Access Consulting, Inc.
    >> Twitter: @SinaBahram
    >> Company Website: https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pac.bz&data=02%7C01%7Cjjwhite%40ets.org%7Cbab81a069720455285a808d5a4a6be44%7C0ba6e9b760b34fae92f37e6ddd9e9b65%7C0%7C0%7C636595958424080270&sdata=kgfSyye8f5VLcthj5NsZoUUoUu9ugNEwMFYd186PdpY%3D&reserved=0
    >> Personal Website: https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sinabahram.com&data=02%7C01%7Cjjwhite%40ets.org%7Cbab81a069720455285a808d5a4a6be44%7C0ba6e9b760b34fae92f37e6ddd9e9b65%7C0%7C0%7C636595958424080270&sdata=H0oQStcuDBipdRj9fxUXeCsqee7LEYFPZ8xyJsicDyY%3D&reserved=0
    >> Blog: https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.SinaBahram.com&data=02%7C01%7Cjjwhite%40ets.org%7Cbab81a069720455285a808d5a4a6be44%7C0ba6e9b760b34fae92f37e6ddd9e9b65%7C0%7C0%7C636595958424080270&sdata=cdcKymRzP5nQfvjpiFZB0%2FIkqFWZ%2FfLJVRlUhQsSOGY%3D&reserved=0
    >>
    >> -----Original Message-----
    >> From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Amanda Lacy
    >> via
    >> BlindMath
    >> Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2018 1:12 PM
    >> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
    >> <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
    >> Cc: Amanda Lacy <lacy925 at gmail.com>
    >> Subject: [BlindMath] Godel Escher Bach
    >>
    >> Does anyone know where to get an accessible version of this book?
    >>
    >> I was enjoying it until around the chapter on recursion. At that point
    >> the
    >> text version I found contained gibberish where the theorems should be.
    >> The Bookshare version was just as useless; it left them out altogether.
    >> How'd you like to read, "...and when you combine theorem removed with
    >> theorem removed..."
    >>
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