EASI Webinars for March:

There are 3 different Webinar formats: Snapshots are short and focused, 
Webinars are hour-long public presentations and Webinar

series are 4-part, fee-based detailed training running for 4 sequential 
weeks.  You can read more and register online at:
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

Webinar Snapshot: What is an Accessible Vodcast? (March 5)
Webinar Snapshot: FireFox Browser Extensions (March 19)
Webinar: Tips and Tricks for Scanning Text (March 6 hour-long)
Webinar: Updating NLS Library of Congress Uses of Digital Book Formats 
(March 20 hour long)
Webinar 4-part Series: Creating Accessible and Usable PDF Documents 
(starting March 11)

Snapshot: What is an Accessible Vodcast?
Wed. March 5 - 2PM EASTERN (New York) Time
Presenter: Dick Banks
Dick Banks explains what Vodcasts are and what devices will display them. 
He will also explain how to add streaming captions to

them that will display on small hand-held players.
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

Hour-long Webinar: Tips and Tricks for Scanning Text
Thursday, March 6 - 2PM EASTERN (New York) Time
Presenter: Doug Powles
The idea of converting printed materials to text is certainly not new. The 
technology that makes that possible has certainly changed.

This hour long presentation will discuss tips and tricks of scanning 
materials and getting more accurate results. Things like paper

quality, type quality and methods to improve results will be discussed.
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

Snapshot: FireFox Browser Extensions
Wed. March 19 - 2PM EASTERN (New York) Time
Presenter: Dick Banks
Firefox is the browser of choice for more and more people because it is not 
as vulnerable to hacking. Like Internet Explorer, it has

many extensions that enhance its uses including helping developers evaluate 
and test Web pages for Accessibility.
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

Open Webinar: Updating NLS Library of Congress Uses of Digital Book Formats
Thursday, March 20 - 2PM EASTERN (New York) Time
Presenters will include:
Lloyd Rasmussen, Acting Head, Engineering Section
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and 3 
consumers who have been part of the pilot digital book test

group will discuss their experiences with the new audio DAISY format
The Library of Congress National Library Service has been providing book 
sin special formats such as Braille and talking books for

well over half a century. NLS is currently starting to produce new books in 
a digital audio format with DAISY type navigation. During

2007 it has been conducting a pilot trial with a number of users who were 
provided a special player and who have been downloading

books from the Web. NLS will be issuing new players to its regular 
customers this year and opening the new digital books for general

use.
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

Webinar Series: Creating Accessible and Usable PDF Documents
Tuesday March 11, 18, 25 and April 1 (2PM EASTERN)
(This fee-based series is free to all EASI annual Webinar members)
PDF or portable document format is a very popular document type. It was 
conceived as an electronic way to produce documents with

the look and feel of a highly designed print document. It gave the page 
designer almost total control over how the page would look on

anyone's computer monitor. It also began as actually being a picture of the 
page rather than containing actual text. This was totally

inaccessible for someone using a screen reader as there was no text as such 
just a picture of the text. Adobe has continually worked

to make the product richer and more flexible. Screen readers can handle it 
for the most part and screen magnification software can

also enlarge the text without distorting it. Because the various creation 
software are so many and so rich, the page creator needs to

know a bit about PDF formatting and about the accessibility issues and 
their solutions.  For anyone wanting to create quality and more

complex PDF documents, there is a need to learn the features provided in 
Acrobat.  Karen McCall has published on PDF accessibility

and is a beta tester for Adobe.
March 11: Week One: Getting Our Bearings
March 18: Week Two: Tagging and Repair Tools
March 25: Week three: Intermediate Techniques
April 1 : Week Four: The Next Step
Full description of these lessons is at:
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

You can also read about EASI annual Webinar membership at:
http://easi.cc/sub.htm

Norman Coombs
CEO EASI
http://easi.cc