Hi Tom,

I am not asking for free access to materials.  I am willing to pay.  I think
people with disabilities should pay as does everyone else.  What I am asking
for is real accessibility.  Recorded materials limit your abilities.  You
must play them on a cassette player or on a device capable of reading MP3
CD's.  More important, you don't have any control over the reading of the
information.  All of this is fine as far as it goes, so long as it remains
unabridged.  Abridging this recorded material in any way is patently
unacceptable.

I think we should be able to do better with the accessibility of amateur
radio study materials.  If I am paying, I should not also be required to go
through an unnecessarily bureaucratic process of becoming a member of an
organization in order to make the purchase.  I should also have the choice
to obtain real, unabridged accessible study materials as are enjoyed by my
sighted peers.  Electronic copies of these study manuals would enable
reading by a computer with a screen reader and speech synthesizer, Braille
display, note taking device such as a BrailleNote or PAC Mate, or a portable
reading device such as the Book Port.  It would enable exact control over
reading the material.  Not sure how a word is spelled?  Ask your reading
device or screen reader for that information.  Need to navigate to a
specific passage or section, use your own device or computer's capabilities
to get the job done.  Want a hardcopy Braille version of all or a portion of
the book?  Send it to your Braille embosser!
Recorded material is nice, but the ability to read this information in a
manner as close as possible to that already enjoyed by our sighted peers is
absolutely critical.

I really hate to give the League any of my valuable money to purchase
something that is inaccessible, but I am strongly considering purchasing Now
You're Talking and submitting it to bookshare.org for inclusion in the
collection.  If anyone else out here has a good scan of the 5th edition of
this manual, please submit it to Bookshare!  It is a terrible idea to
reinvent the wheel, since scanning and editing involves hours of labor.

Amateur radio is an excellent hobby for those of us who are blind.  I'd like
to see it becoming an example of what can be done right in the area of
greater access to information!

From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 5:42 PM
Subject: Re: Revisiting accessible amateur radio study materials.


> The Handi-Ham materials are also available on cd in mp3 format.  In as far
> as
> scanning goes, with todays scanners pretty much anyone can scan materials.
> That
> seems to be a created rather than a real issue as it appears what you're
> wanting
> is free access to the material.  Why not just buy the book and scan it.
> In
> point of fact, the only thing currently not accessible is the figures and
> those
> need not be an issue as they are not required for the FCC exams.  For me,
> thr
> real issue and the reason that I have stopped doing copy work for
> Handi-Hams is
> that the questions for the exams as read in their current book copies
> contain
> the question and correct answer only.  That does not constitute a study
> aid: it
> constitutes a list of questions with correct answers so why bother with
> the rest
> of the book.  When I studied for my exams I did not even use the question
> answers to study but back then Handi-Hams was recording the questions and
> their
> choices.  I have been told by folks at Handi-Hams that the reason for this
> childish question/answer format is that people found having all the
> choices too
> difficult.  I don't believe the tests are given without the choices and if
> looking at all question choices if you just have to use the questions is
> too
> much for you to handle you probably can't handle the responsibilities of
> being
> on the air.  I do like the idea of computer useable materials but because
> I do
> not like being tied to the computer I found the tape and cd format far
> more
> useful for study purposes as I could use that material no matter where I
> was so
> long as I had playback equipment.  I would not attempt to deal with
> braille for
> the same reason that I do not attempt to carry a Bible to church <g>.
>
> Tom
>
>
> Tom Brennan  KD5VIJ, CCC-A/SLP
> web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html