I agree, champions we must be. However that said, I must point out that we
still deal with excessive expense for that brave new world, which keeps it
from the majority. We are also still talking technologies which are
excessively complex, and when all is said and done, not necessarily
completely accessible. Listening to synthetic speech for pleasure reading
is still not my idea of a good time.
But, I am not disagreeing with you. I am merely stating that in our zeal to
call ourselves independent, we must remember the millions of people who do
not have the money, nor the expertise, nor the unreasonable patience needed
to fully utilize these solutions in there current form. We must champion
universal design. We must champion reasonable economic equality. We must
champion true equal information access. For, to fail to do so means we, as
a population of people with visual impairments, ultimately have nothing.
So, lead on there Kelly, we're with you!
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: VICUG-L: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kelly Pierce
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 7:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Digital Books for Visually Impaired Persons: New Blog launched
I have a different take on the digitization of communications. yes, there
will be some turbulence in the transition from analog to digital recordings
of library books for the blind, which is not unusual in any kind of change
on this scale. yet, for the first time in human history, blind people can
now access almost any book in the nation's libraries with the only sighted
assistance needed being help to find it on a library shelf. with optical
character recognition scanning software such as Open Book and the K1000,
blind people no longer need to wait around for sighted persons to read
something to them. We can read it ourselves! to a certain degree, it is a
matter of attitude. We can think of ourselves as champions, master of our
environment and the information around us, or we can view ourselves as
victims, helpless to change our situation and dependent on the efforts and
decisions of others whose work product we consume. personally, I'm a
champion, creating solutions, innovating approaches to meet my needs, and
generating access for myself and others. I invite others to join me to
create and produce the accessible future now.
Kelly
----- Original Message -----
From: "Judi Piscitello" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 11:41 AM
Subject: Digital Books for Visually Impaired Persons: New Blog launched
> Digital Books for Visually Impaired Persons (Blog) Monday, November
> 07, 2005
>
> Digital Books for Visually Impaired Persons: New Blog launched
>
> By Shrikant=20
>
> Hi! I am starting this blog with a view to collect and disseminate =
> information, views, adeas and approaches on making reading material =
> available to the visually impaired community. There are technologies,
> and = standards such as DTB and DAISY in place and the amount of
> content that is = transformed to these technologies is increasing.
> However as a proportion, = the percent of content available in
> accessible formats is abysmally small.
>
> One of the hurdles faced in growing this percent is a high cost of =
> transformation of the content to accessible formats. Ideas,
> information on = technologies that can help and approaches to help
> increase the content = availability are welcome.
>
> In my future posts I will talk about some of the other challenges
> faced in = this endeavor.
>
> about Digital Books for Visually Impaired Persons=20
>
> The focus of this blog is on exploring, aggregating information on the
> = technology, approaches and solutions available to improve the
> availability = of content to the visually impaired community.
>
>
> http://shrikantdtb.blogspot.com/2005/11/digital-books-for-visually-imp
> aired=
> .html=20
>
>
> VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
> To join or leave the list, send a message to
> [log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply
> type "subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
> VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
> http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
>
>
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to [log in to unmask]
In the body of the message, simply type "subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe
vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
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