Alternative formats in the real world: Winners and losers

Alternative formats in the real world:

Winners and losers

A story you might know“See,” cried the youngest, “there is another swan come; a new one has arrived.” Then they threw more bread and cake into the water, and said, “The new one is the most beautiful of all.”He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds.Hans Christian Anderson – The Ugly Duckling

A story you might not knowA story with plenty of dramatic ingredients

•Famine and hardship.

•Overlooked actors.

•New opportunities.

•Conflict and confusion.

•The road to wisdom.

•Happy ever after.

The research

• CLAUD - a group of HE librarians in South West England working to help create libraries accessible to users with a disability

• JISC TechDis - a leading UK advisory service on technologies for inclusion. Working with publishers and libraries to minimise barriers for disabled learners.

What we already knew about e-books..

The e-book promise - 1

Magnify Reflow Recolour

The e-book promise - 2Format shift Navigate Interoperate

The beneficiaries

MagnifyEnough to support a wide range of users………………………

ReflowSo that magnified text still fits the page. ………………………..

RecolourSo people who need different contrasts can read easily………Format shift So people can read with ears as well as eyes ………………….NavigateIn using the semantic structure of the text ……………………...InteroperateWith different assistive technologies ……………………………. (text to speech, screen-reader, voice recognition, keyboard/switch).

V.I. Dyslexia Motor control

What we already knew about publishers..

Business culture and customers.

or…..

Bad news? Good news?

A complex business with many players and many rights to consider..

Publishers Association joint statement on e-books and accessibility.

Lack of accessibility awareness in traditional publisher training.

• National Occupational Standards for publishers now incorporate accessibility.

• Enabling Technologies framework guidance.• Joint EDItEUR / JISC TechDis online training

modules.

Technology convergence. • EPUB3 offers high accessibility.• Accessible e-books are more ‘mobile friendly’.• Well tagged text offers micro-business

opportunities.

What we didn’t know about libraries..

Is there a problem?

In the mythical land of average…

•~ 15,000 students in a university

•~ 675 students are ‘Print impaired’

•Assume 3 core texts per learner.

2025 requests/yr actual median value = between 5 and 15

Are mainstream productsdoing the trick? - 1

Was accessibility specified in procurement?

Are mainstream productsdoing the trick? - 2

Which of these features are present on your e-book systems?

Are mainstream productsdoing the trick? - 3

Who could tell you about the accessibility of your mainstream systems?

A checklist for staff and students• Maximum font size? Does text reflow when enlarged?

• How can a user change colours or contrasts?

• Are there keyboard-only equivalents for all mouse actions? Where could I find a list? Are there shortcut keys?

• How many ways can text be navigated? (More is better).

• Can text be selected and read by text-to-speech tools?

• Are text descriptions available for relevant graphics and images?

• Where can I find guidance for all these features?

• Were disabled people involved in user testing? Which technologies and what results?

Who gets supported? - 1

…and how often do they cross your horizon?

Who gets supported? - 2

Curious…

What does best practice look like in theory….

What does best practice look like in practice?Who offers what in libraries supporting more than 25 requests/year?

Disability and Transcription Library

How does less responsive practice compare?Who offers what in libraries supporting less than 5 requests/year?

Library

Proactivity without pain - 1Work smart not hard

Working to correct the mistakes of others?

Proactivity without pain - 2Find out what you can then pass it on.

Proactivity without pain - 3Make DIY assistive technology mainstream

Heather, Stewart, Jess, Jack, Gwyneth, Geraint.

Every organisation, Every workstation, Every learner.

Proactivity without pain - 4Work with teaching staff

Promote responsive publishers for reading lists.The cost of alternative formats from unresponsive publishers can be borne by the curriculum department who put them on the list.

Reading list – what? Reading list – who?

Publisher requests – a half way house?

I find that publishers a very helpful in offering their e-files. This saves us from scanning a printed book - the e-files are clean from graffiti too. We have spent ages erasing graffiti before scanning.

It should be the most efficient way of meeting users' needs, but some publishers are lamentably slow to respond and US publishers often put up barriers, e.g. by insisting that a student buys a personal copy before they will supply the file.

?

Conclusion

Libraries•Number of requests

met.

•How provided.

•Who provided for.

•How scaleable.

•Strategic influence on

• procurement.

• reading lists.

Suppliers•Accessibility of eBook

platforms.

•Guidance available.

•Accessibility of PDFs.

•Speed of response.

• Licensing and costs.

Lots of inconsistencies

Lots of opportunity for transformation of practice for mutual benefit of learners, librarians and publishers.

The duckling could be seriously swan-like….Alistair McNaught

Shirley Evans