[blindkid] Bookshare - NIMAC News!

Mike Freeman k7uij at panix.com
Sat Jan 31 04:03:15 UTC 2009


I agree with Steve's concerns. Moreover, according to some tech gurus whom I trust, Bookshare's DAISY offerings aren't truly DAISY-compliant and this causes headaches for purveyors of access devices such as the Victor Reader Stream and BrailleNote. It seems to me that if Benetech is receiving Federal funds, it should do its level-best to conform to all standards.

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, \(for parents of blind chn\(was <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Date: Friday, Jan 30, 2009 19:35:27
Subject: Re: [blkid] Bookshare — NIMAC News!

>
>
> There are elements of this effort that hold out some real promise.  One concern that I and many others have is what sort 
> of quality control will there be on braille formatting.  As an adult, I can live with poorly formatted materials, but I believe 
> that the formatting is more important when dealing with education of kids.  What I have learned from listening to people 
> in DSS offices is that there is a wide variation of quality in e-texts that come from the publisher.  Even though there 
> should be more consistency here, poorly formatted tables and missing tactile drawings put our kids at a great 
> disadvantage.  My fear is that getting texts that can be read in braille quickly and cheaply may cause school districts to 
> not be all that concerned about such things as the tactile drawings that were often created as part of the transcribing 
> process, and the tendency is going to blame the child for not figuring out a poorly formatted table.  
> 
> This isn't a reason not to move forward with this, but I would like to see BookShare address this aspect of producing 
> these materials.  They may have an answer or at least a plan, but I have not seen it addressed.  We should be happy 
> about this but also watchful.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Steve Jacobson
> >ar
> >>----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Jaquiss" 
> >><rjaquiss at earthlink.net>
> >arTo: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing Listeaggfor parents of blind children)" 
> >><blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> >arSent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 9:59 AM
> >arSubject: Re: [blkid] Bookshare — NIMAC News!
> >ar
> >ar
> >arHello Eric and list:
> >ar
> >ar     I believe you are correct. The braille files could be read on a
> >arBrailleNote or other device, or used to emboss a braille copy. It will be
> >arinteresting to see how well this actually works.
> >ar
> >arRegards,
> >ar
> >arRobert
> >ar
> >>----- Original Message ----- From: "DrV" <icdx at earthlink.net>
> >arTo: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing Listeaggfor parents of blind children)"
> >><blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> >arSent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 9:21 PM
> >arSubject: Re: [blkid] Bookshare — NIMAC News!
> >ar
> >ar
> >arDoes this mean that Middle & High School textbooks will be available for
> >ardownloading to a braille noting device?
> >arEric
> >arggPS: Sorry, about the misfired messages.)
> >ar
> >ar
> >>----- Original Message ----- From: "Bookshare.org (by way of David 
> >>Andrews<dandrews at visi.com>)"
> >><Bookshare.org at mail.vresp.com>
> >arTo: <david.andrews at nfbnet.org>
> >arSent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 16:36
> >arSubject: [blkid] Bookshare — NIMAC News!
> >ar
> >ar
> >><http://cts.vresp.com/c/?Benetech/5d787704f2/0ae99e823c/f8a1a1dc74>
> >arBookshare: Books Without Barriers
> >ar
> >ar
> >arBookshare and NIMAC Announcement
> >ar
> >arNIMAC books:
> >ar
> >arTo find NIMAC books, go to:
> >><http://cts.vresp.com/c/?Benetech/5d787704f2/0ae99e823c/8cec87bc2a>http://nimac.us
> >ar
> >ar
> >><mailto:nimacrequest at bookshare.org>Then email us
> >arto request the book be added to Bookshare
> >ar
> >arDear David Andrews:
> >ar
> >arHave you heard the good news? There is a simple
> >arnew NIMAC process that will enable Bookshare to
> >arprovide NIMAC books to your students in a week or
> >arless at no cost, thanks to funding from the U.S.
> >arDepartment of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
> >ar
> >arYou can now name Bookshare as one of your
> >arAuthorized Users (AU) at the NIMAC. You need to
> >arsign an updated NIMAC coordination agreement,
> >arwhich the NIMAC recently sent directly to all
> >arNIMAC state coordinators, and then appoint
> >arBookshare as an AU. The new coordination
> >aragreement is available online at the NIMAC's
> >arwebsite at:
> >><http://cts.vresp.com/c/?Benetech/5d787704f2/0ae99e823c/07a24a3dec>http://www.nimac.us/2009
> _NIMAC_COORD.DOC.
> >ar
> >ar
> >arThen, when one of your students needs a book:
> >ar    * Any public school staff person (including
> >arclassroom teachers, special educators and
> >arlibrarians) can send an email to
> >><mailto:nimacrequest at bookshare.org>nimacrequest at bookshare.org
> >arrequesting the book after confirming that it's in
> >arthe NIMAC at:
> >><http://cts.vresp.com/c/?Benetech/5d787704f2/0ae99e823c/64f515c348>http://nimac.us.
> >arWe just need to know the title, author, publisher and/or ISBN number.
> >ar    * We'll download the book, convert it into
> >araccessible digital text formats (DAISY and BRF)
> >arwithin a week and let the requestor know the book is in Bookshare.
> >ar    * The requestor logs into their Bookshare
> >araccount and downloads the book for a qualified
> >arstudent with an IEP. Two different accessible
> >arsoftware packages that read the books are also
> >aravailable free for download, as well as high quality synthetic speech.
> >ar
> >arAfter you send the AU request to the NIMAC, we
> >arwill inform those educators in your jurisdiction
> >arwho are Bookshare Members about the process and
> >arwe'll include the information in communications
> >arto appropriate personnel in all districts, regardless of Bookshare
> >armembership.
> >ar
> >arTogether, let's get accessible textbooks flowing
> >arsmoothly from the NIMAC to students in a timely manner!
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar
> >arBest regards,
> >ar
> >arThe Bookshare Team
> >><http://cts.vresp.com/c/?Benetech/5d787704f2/0ae99e823c/1303295a4d>
> >arIdeas That Work
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar© Copyright 2008, Beneficent Technology, Inc. (The Benetech Initiative)
> >><http://cts.vresp.com/c/?Benetech/5d787704f2/0ae99e823c/b2c9e7bf48>Benetech
> >aris a California nonprofit organization.
> >ar
> >arYour responses will be kept strictly confidential
> >arac to Bookshare.org's privacy policy. This
> >aremail was sent out by our market services
> >arprovider. Bookshare.org does not keep a copy of
> >aryour email address. For inquiries about upcoming
> >arevents such as webinars, please email us at
> >><mailto:events at bookshare.org>events at bookshare.org.
> >arIf you have further questions or encounter any
> >arproblems, please email us at
> >><mailto:info at bookshare.org>info at bookshare.org or call us at
> >ar1-800-833-2753.
> >ar
> >ar
> >>----------
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> >>----------
> >arBenetech480 California Ave., Suite 201Palo Alto, California 94306US
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar
> >ar
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