Hi Lou,
Please understand that I was, in no way, suggesting that simply scanning
these materials would suffice. Clean up operations were also mentioned as
being required, noting that this would probably take hundreds of hours of
labor.
I would imagine, however, that most of the Now You're Talking technician
study materials should be easily accomplished. General and Extra require
lots more mathematics and diagrams. They would be a lot more difficult.
All I'm saying is that a higher level of accessibility is needed in order
for a lot of blind people to be able to participate. In the past, I also
got help from my parents and from a lot of other ham friends. I think that
my increasing demands for greater built-in accessibility are coming because
we live in a "brave new world" where fewer and fewer people want to bother
to take the time necessary to work with us on an individual basis. This
has, at least, been my experience as I have observed all the changes taking
place in our society.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Louis Kim Kline" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 9:32 PM
Subject: Re: Revisiting Accessible Amateur Radio Study Materials
> Hi.
>
> I attempted to scan the Extra Class Study materials, and frankly I found
> that going at it with a copy of Open Book and an HP ScanJet 6300 was an
> exercise in futility. Most of the formulas would not scan, and there was
> enough clean up on the text itself to significantly increase the work of
> studying for the exam. I ended up going back to the old fashioned method
> of getting a reader and typing up notes on all of the formulas in my Type
> 'n Speak.
>
> I have to take exception to the remarks that anyone can take a scanner and
> scan these materials because it simply isn't true. While one can ignore
> the figures for the most part (although there was a schematic on my exam
> that I had to deal with), being able to read and understand the formulas
> is
> not only critical, but it is also an equal access issue. Even if they
> would excuse me from doing those questions that involve complex math, it
> is
> no longer about accommodating my visual condition, because I am as capable
> of doing advanced mathematics as the next guy--it is just about getting
> the
> preparation materials in a format that I can digest with a similar level
> of
> effort as my sighted peers.
>
> So, I reject the scanner argument, out of hand.
>
> It seems to me that if someone like the League were going to put this in
> an
> accessible format, that it would require some additional effort/rewriting
> to be able to handle the formulas--just cranking it through a Braille
> translator isn't going to cut it. The only way I could find to express
> formulas like calculating inductive and capacitive reactance, for example
> was to say it with words when I typed it into my Type 'n Speak.
>
> I was fortunate that the guys in RARA were a great bunch of guys and
> really
> went the extra mile to read materials to me and try to bridge the
> accessibility gap, and primarily for that reason, I got through the exam
> with minimal difficulty.
>
> I guess I just think that if this problem is going to be solved, someone
> is
> going to have to take a very deliberate effort to do so, and looking at
> the
> lay of the land, I suspect that the League has enough fish to fry that
> they
> aren't going to do it--that's where organizations like Handi-hams come
> in. While I don't particularly like the bureaucracy, and feeling like a
> client of another agency, I've come full circle in my thinking, and come
> to
> the conclusion that it is probably a necessary evil. Now, I do like the
> suggestion about Bookshare.org, and think that the idea actually has a lot
> of merit. It side-steps a lot of the copyright issues that arise from
> just
> releasing a CD of computer text materials that could be copied ad
> nauseum. But such an effort will only succeed if someone takes the care
> to
> comb through the materials and put critical things like mathematical
> formulas into a format that will be readable with access technology.
>
> 73, de Lou K2LKK
>
>
>
> Louis Kim Kline
> A.R.S. K2LKK
> Home e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Work e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Work Telephone: (585) 697-5753
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