[Dtb-talk] FW: Call for Reading System Accessibility Testing Moderators

Fri Sep 5 21:42:54 UTC 2014

Good afternoon everyone,

	I just read what my husband sent to this list, and I totally agree
that moderators should be compensated for their time. What happened to
fund-raising so their could be funding to pay moderators? This funding could
provide a source of income for these people. I proofread Braille items full
time, and will not proofread anything on a volunteer basis. One person asked
me to at the end of May, and I had to turn her down. I will not even teach
Braille without charging.

	I strongly suggest that you re-think asking for volunteers and
consider a source of funding so these moderators can be compensated.

	Thank you for your time and attention.

Mary Donahue

-----Original Message-----
From: Dtb-talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mary
Donahue via Dtb-talk
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2014 11:56 AM
To: 'Andrews, David B (DEED)'; 'Discussion of Digital Talking Books'
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] FW: Call for Reading System Accessibility Testing
Moderators

Good morning everyone,

	It would sure be nice if these folks sought funds to pay
participants for their time and commitment given the amount of work
involved. They just might keep someone from being forced to seek work at the
local lighthouse for the blind. It's one thing to blame the Government for
the conditions at many of these shops but quite another to prevent blind
individuals many of which have the computer knowledge necessary to fill
positions such as those being sought by this organization to be paid so they
won't have to seek work in a sheltered workshop in the first place. If you
want people to do this type of testing for God sakes find ways to pay them
for their services! This is a bitter pill to swallow considering that I was
one individual forced to seek work at the San Antonio Lighthouse for the
Blind last month and couldn't stand the place after just three days. Given
the amount of computer skills I and others have on this list something needs
to be done to help us become employed and receive a stable income in our
field of choice. My wife Mary will have more to say about this matter.

Peter Donahue

-----Original Message-----
From: Dtb-talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Andrews,
David B (DEED) via Dtb-talk
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2014 11:21 AM
To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books
Subject: [Dtb-talk] FW: Call for Reading System Accessibility Testing
Moderators

Subject: Call for Reading System Accessibility Testing Moderators

DearDAISY Community,

We are starting to roll out our crowd sourcing approach for the testing of
reading systems. Please forward the announcement below to those you feel
would be qualified and interested. We will be distributing this more broadly
as time goes on.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or to volunteer.

Best
George
Email: Kerscher at montana.com<mailto:Kerscher at montana.com>

***

Qualified, enthusiastic testers are needed to make sure all reading systems
used for presentation of digital publishing of books, journals, magazines,
coursework, and all other types of digital publications are fully accessible
to persons with disabilities.

Visit: http://www.epubtest.org to review the work being done by the
International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the Book Industry Study Group
(BISG), and the DAISY Consortium. The column titled "accessibility" is the
focus of this call for moderators.

A moderator will be identified for each reading system on a specific
platform (OS) and that moderator will help other volunteer evaluators to
test and report findings using the Assistive Technology (AT) at their
disposal.

Individuals should be independent, have accessibility experience including
familiarity and knowledge of assistive technology and should understand the
Daisy Reading System standards
http://www.daisy.org/accessibility-screening-methodology-guidelines-and-chec
klist.html  This will be a demanding volunteer job that requires doing 1-2
tests first and then supervising the completion of several tests per week.
Initial responsibilities include recruiting evaluators, coordinating
credentials and evaluating the evaluators, monitoring progress and being
willing to verify results.

Example: Reading system HappyReader (fictional name) running on Windows 7
will have a moderator that manages volunteers to test Happy reader with the
wide range of AT used on Windows 7. The screen reader JFW using TTS as
output would be one evaluation performed; another volunteer evaluator would
test HappyReader with NVDA using braille output; another tester would use
screen magnification ZoomText and report the results, etc.  Because of the
wide range of AT used by persons with disabilities, a crowd source approach
is going to be used. We encourage organizations to sponsor the testing by
having people assigned to specific reading systems and technology, e.g. a
university using specific AT and specific reading systems should assign
people to work on the testing and share their findings with the world.

Qualifications of moderators
- Independent, self-motivated person
- Experience with testing of the accessibility of software, websites, or
reading systems.
- Good knowledge of assistive technology

Duties of Moderators

-Identify documentation for Reading Systems, e.g. user manual, getting
started, use with Assistive Technology (AT),
- Verify the qualification of evaluators
- Approve or assign the reading system configuration to the evaluators.
- Get the test forms completed by evaluators
- Facilitate the crowd sourcing for recruiting evaluators
- Coordinate with Reading system developer
- Review and approve the test results submitted by the evaluator
- Resolve the conflicts if the same reading system configuration yield
different results when tested by different evaluators.

George Kerscher Ph.D.
-In our Information Age, access to information is a fundamental human right.
Secretary General, DAISY Consortium
http://www.daisy.org
Senior Officer, Accessible Technology Learning Ally Together It's Possible
http://www.LearningAlly.org President, International Digital Publishing
Forum (IDPF) http://www.idpf.org Member of the National Museum and Library
Services  Board (IMLS) http://www.imls.gov Chair Steering Council Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a division of the W3C http://www.w3c.org/wai
Phone: +1 406/549-4687
Cell:+1 406/544-2466
Email: kerscher at montana.com<mailto:kerscher at montana.com>

_______________________________________________
Dtb-talk mailing list
Dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Dtb-talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org/braille%40satx.rr.com

_______________________________________________
Dtb-talk mailing list
Dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Dtb-talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/dtb-talk_nfbnet.org/braille%40satx.rr.com