The question is, are these textbooks being adapted to the accessible era?
I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has tested these electronic
textbooks with screen readers and such?  The few electronic books I've
tried distributed in this way came with software programs that didn't work
with a screen reader.

The following comes from:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/08/cyber/education/04education.html

August 4, 1999

By PAMELA MENDELS
More Publishers Adapt Textbooks to Digital Era

When students purchase a thick textbook called "Essentials of American
Government," they get 444 pages of information about the American political
system. But they also get something more than the material that appears
between the bindings: access to hundreds of links on the World Wide Web.
Wrapped in every edition of the book, published by the Allyn & Bacon unit
of Pearson Higher Education, is a CD-ROM that contains the entire text of
the book, plus highlighted words that link to appropriate sites on the Web.
In the electronic version of the book, for example, clicking on a reference
to "Thomas Aquinas" leads students to a Web site with a biography of the
religious philosopher, while the word "Reformation" links to a site with
detailed information about the religious movement.

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Experimenting with the digital delivery in an effort to hold on to an
electronic age audience.

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"Essentials of American Government" is one of about 200 college textbooks
issued over the last two years in both print and electronic format, as
Pearson, a major college textbook company, tries to figure out how to adapt
the old-fashioned textbook to the new digital era.

"We've got instructors interested in bringing the Web and interactive
material into the classroom," said Patricia Leonard, senior vice president
and general manager of distributed learning for Pearson Higher Education.
"They are trying to teach the MTV generation. Doing simple 'chalk-and-talk'
and teaching out of textbooks is tried and true, but you've got a new
generation of students quite adept at using technology."

Pearson is hardly alone in its efforts to stake a claim in the digital
world. A number of businesses are experimenting with how to offer
electronic versions of textbooks and other scholarly material usually found
on paper, potentially saving themselves money in the process.

For example, Houghton Mifflin Company, a large publisher, recently launched
a pilot project in which two textbooks, one for English composition
courses, the other for business classes, were converted to CD-ROM format.
The CD-ROM versions were initially made available to summer students at the
State University of New York at Buffalo.

Houghton Mifflin is hoping to find out more about students' electronic
preferences as it continues the pilot. It is also testing technological
methods to prevent unauthorized copying in the cut-and-paste world of
computers -- an issue that is key to publishers as they put copyrighted
material online.

Meanwhile, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Co., a division of an
information services company, plans this month to roll out electronic
versions of "course packs" -- the collections of supplemental articles and
other readings assigned by many professors. Students will be able to buy
the digital packs, in disciplines as diverse as accounting and philosophy,
at the 600 online college bookstores operated by the Follett Corporation, a
large campus bookstore and education company.

Users will be charged to gain access to the material, but will be able to
download it and print it out, said Tina L. Creguer, a spokeswoman for Bell
and Howell. The course packs would range from about 10 to 250 pages if they
were printed out, she said.

Follett hopes to sell the course packs at a significantly cheaper rate than
conventional paper versions, thereby discouraging students from making
copies for classmates, according to William Scharnweber, director of
general books for Follett Higher Education.

Companies are experimenting with the digital delivery of collegiate text
materials in an effort to hold on to their franchise in an electronic age.
But they are also hoping to save money along the way. If students turn
increasingly to bytes, rather than paper, publishers could spend less money
on things like book binding, shipping and warehousing of texts. There could
also be less urgency to come out with new printed editions of textbooks,
because material could be easily updated online, said Gary F. Shapiro,
senior vice president for intellectual property at Follett's Higher
Education Group.

Still, no one knows yet just how receptive college students will be to
electronic versions of text.




Sites
Internet links of interest to readers of the Education column

Forums
Join a Discussion on Technology in the Classroom


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Michael L. Kamil, a Stanford University education professor who studies
technology and literacy, said there is little current research comparing
reading material on screen to reading a printed page. Studies conducted in
the late 1980s, when scrolling down a computer page was slower and screen
resolutions were not as clear, gave the edge to paper, he said. "We don't
know whether new, higher resolution screens and faster processors improve
things," Kamil said.

Even so, he said he has found among his own students a desire for paper.
"The first thing they do is jump off and go to the printer to run off
copies," he said, referring to the course material he posts online. Kamil
added that students want to be able to do things like mark the material
with their own notes.

Publishers, too, are not sure how students will take to electronic
material. As they experiment with electronic text, they are seeking answers
to questions like whether students will prefer printed reading material to
electronic versions, and whether their preferences change depending on the
subject matter.

"The goal is to explore means that will help us answer some tough questions
facing all publishers," said Alison H. Zetterquist, vice president of new
ventures at Houghton Mifflin's college division.


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