[Ct-nfb] E-books

[Justin Salisbury]

Suzanne:

BESB doesn't have to pay for students' Bookshare memberships because all students are given free membership to Bookshare.  Bookshare operates with grant money and is provided free to students.  I would not be surprised if BESB would pay for non-student VR clients' Bookshare memberships.  It's worth taking 60 seconds to call your BESB case manager to ask.

Many books are available for free through the National Library Service (NLS).  The only role BESB has in the process of using NLS is giving you the Certificate of Legal Blindness that you use to register with the NLS.  For more info, visit this link:
http://www.cslib.org/lbph.htm

Some e-books are indeed accessible to the blind.  Others are not.  In the January 2012 edition of the Braille Monitor, there is a beautiful article discussing e-book accessibility.  You may read it here:
https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm12/bm1201/bm120105.htm

I encourage everyone to read the Braille Monitor on a regular basis.  There is a lot of valuable information in the Monitor, and it can help us in so many areas of life.  Navigating the Braille Monitor online is quite simple.  Links to text and audio versions of the articles are provided in the table of contents.

Yours,

Justin Salisbury

Justin M. Salisbury
B.A. in Mathematics
Class of 2012
East Carolina University
president at alumni.ecu.edu

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”    —MARGARET MEAD

________________________________________
From: Ct-nfb [ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Suzanne Westhaver [swesthaver at comcast.net]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 5:39 PM
To: NFB of Connecticut Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] E-books

I think perhaps if you are a student, BESB might pay for membership, but when I was a member, it was $50 annually for membership and access to the collection. I wasn’t a student at the time.




From: Trevor Attenberg<mailto:tattenberg at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 4:12 PM
To: 'NFB of Connecticut Mailing List'<mailto:ct-nfb at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] E-books

Bookshare is an online site that allows blind members and institutions like schools to download accessible textbooks from a fairly decent catalogue. I believe they use the daisy book format—which means a blind person doesn’t need JAWS or a similar program just to read the books; but there are of course portable devices that will play and store such files. I think there’s an IPhone ap for it. A blind person should be able to get free membership through BESB, or should be able to access the catalogue through a school or University with good disability resources. The NFB encourages members to join Bookshare.
Best,
Trevor A

From: Ct-nfb [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Janet Wallans
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 7:10 AM
To: 'NFB of Connecticut Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] E-books

What’s Bookshare?

Janet

From: Ct-nfb [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gary Allen
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 7:32 AM
To: NFB of Connecticut Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] E-books

I don't think they are.  If I need a book I usually use bard, learning ally or bookshare.

On Friday, January 25, 2013, Suzanne Westhaver wrote:
Can anyone tell me if E-books are accessible to the blind?



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