[Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC

[Stacy L. Smith]

Thanks for sharing, Kevin.  It's nice to hear people say what they
really think.

Just wanted to share that LecShare does have a number of site license
options, and if you email them, I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you
what they are :)

(I keep talking it up around campus and showing it to instructors. 
Every time I show it to an instructor they get excited and jot down the
info.  One of our instructors is now trying to get her dept to purchase
it.)

Stacy




Quoting "Sesock, Kevin A" <kevin.sesock at okstate.edu>:


> I suppose there's no harm in sharing my thoughts about UIUC, since

> I've

> been pretty vocal about them before. I didn't want to start a flame

> war,

> but this list has been very mature in the past so I trust each of you

> to

> overlook my lack of maturity (I jest, I think).

>

> Here's the text of the message I sent to one of the listsers when he

> asked me for the same. If you guys don't want to hear my rant, I

> suppose

> then this message should be immediately diverted to the trash.

>

> Thanks for putting up with my crap.

>

>

> Quoth:

>

> The way that the community was misled was blatantly vile: I've pretty

> much talked the topic to death, about how UIUC pretty much dangled a

> carrot in front of the community, got people to do beta testing, then

> started charging an outrageous price by many people's standards for a

> tool that should be a basic feature of already expensive software

> that

> campuses have already had to spend nonexistent funds on. To top it

> off,

> the older (and significantly more free) versions of the software,

> while

> immature by the standards of the newer, are unsupported, unavailable,

> and treated as though they don't even exist anymore.

>

> I'm a huge proponent of open source software: We've experienced

> vendor

> lock-in before, and it's come back to haunt us when a vendor decides

> to

> remove a feature that our environment finds vital, we have to

> scramble

> around to find an alternative or beg the vendor to reinstate it. In

> effect, we end up having to mold our environment around the software

> we

> purchase, not mold the software into our environment. Open source

> software is not only cheaper, it helps prevent this from happening to

> us.

>

> Instead, what UIUC has done, as a public institution, is decided to

> operate more off the profit model, thinking this is the only way that

> development would ever get done. The open source model has shown, in

> several circumstances, that this is not the only development method,

> that people really are willing to take good products and make them

> better without the need for profit, simply because it needs to be

> done.

> I know that if the Accessible Office Export Plug-In were open source,

> I

> would certainly be willing to help.

>

> We don't have an unlimited budget: UIUC seems to think that $39.95 is

> cheap, but for an institution that produces a huge amount of office

> documents that all need to be published accessibly, the cost goes up

> when you think of the number of licenses that would need to be

> bought.

> I've had a hard enough time justifying the cost of legitimate

> assistive

> technology software that has a direct positive effect on students

> educations. Justifying this is even more difficult. Add on to this

> the

> added cost of supporting yet another piece of software that has to

> have

> our rather rigid environment molded around it, and the actual

> man-hours

> associated with this, and we're talking about something that's just

> plain unconscionable.

>

> There are other reasons why I think UIUC has done a Bad Thing(TM),

> and

> they mostly revolve around the lack of desire to understand these

> issues

> from our perspective, or the locked-in mentality they have that their

> software development methodology is the only one that will work, but

> understanding these are mostly dependent on understanding some of the

> conversations that occurred on a few of the other lists I peruse that

> also happened to contain the director responsible for the Office

> Export

> Wizard.

>

> That's it in a nutshell. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

>

>

> Kevin A. Sesock, A+, Net+, CNA, MCSA

> Assistive Technology Specialist

> Student Disability Services

> Division of Student Affairs

> Oklahoma State University

>

> http://access.it.okstate.edu

>

> "Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he who has

> understood,

> delight to they who have listened." - Odin

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org]

> On

> Behalf Of Cassandra Tex

> Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 10:47 AM

> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network

> Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC

>

> Greetings Kevin,

> There are a handful of folks on our campus who have used LecShare

> Pro.

> We've liked the product and the price does seem reasonable.

>

> However, we're looking for a campus solution and are looking at all

> of

> our options.  I'm interested in your experiences (sounds like they

> weren't positive) with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's

> Office Export Wizard

> plug-in.   LecShare is only for PowerPoint presentations, where it

> looks like the UIUC tool is for PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. The

> additional option of creating accessible Excel worksheets is

> desirable,

> especially if we can get one tool that will serve many functions.

> However, before jumping in, I would like to know why you don't like

> this

> tool.  If you wouldn't mind sharing with me, I would appreciate it.

>

> Thanks.

> Cassandra Tex

> Assistive Technology Specialist

> Humboldt State University

>

> At 06:47 AM 2/9/2007, you wrote:

> >Thanks all, I'll give LecShare a try, but I'm still slightly peeved

> that

> >I'm going to have to find even more money elsewhere just to be able

> to

> >do this.

> >

> >I suppose it's the principle of the thing.

> >

> >Anyone know of any Open Source projects to accomplish this same

> thing?

> >I've asked before elsewhere, but as that was quite some time ago, I

> had

> >hopedthat someone else would have gotten to work on a solution.

> >

> >Anyway, thanks all.

> >

> >Kevin A. Sesock, A+, Net+, CNA, MCSA

> >Assistive Technology Specialist

> >Student Disability Services

> >Division of Student Affairs

> >Oklahoma State University

> >

> >http://access.it.okstate.edu

> >

> >"Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he who has

> understood,

> >delight to they who have listened." - Odin

> >

> >-----Original Message-----

> >From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org]

> On

> >Behalf Of Stacy L. Smith

> >Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 8:35 AM

> >To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network; Berkowitz,

> Daniel

> >J

> >Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT

> UIUC

> >

> >I've been using LecShare and love it.  (www.lecshare.com)

> >

> >Doesn't Flash put the captions over the slide itself?  (In other

> words,

> >your captioning may be covering part of the text of the slide.)

> There

> >was a presentation on PPT at the Higher Ground Conference....should

> be

> >on your CD if you purchased one.

> >

> >Stacy

> >

> >Quoting "Berkowitz, Daniel J" <djbrky at bu.edu>:

> >

> > > I'll echo Sean. I saw a demo of LecShare at Accessing Higher

> Ground

> > > and picked up a copy on the spot. Given the price it was worth

> getting

> >

> > > a copy to try out. I have used it to create accessible version of

> > > PPT's for many presentations - including this one:

> > > http://www.colorado.edu/atconference/etext_production.htm

> > > <http://www.colorado.edu/atconference/etext_production.htm>

> > >

> > > It's a good basic program that does what it promises.

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > > =========================

> > > Daniel Berkowitz - Assistant Director

> > > Boston University Office of Disability Services

> > > 19 Deerfield Street, 2nd floor

> > > Boston, MA 02215

> > >

> > > (617) 353-3658 (office)

> > > (617) 353-9646 (fax)

> > > djbrky at bu.edu <mailto:djbrky at bu.edu>  (eMail)

> www.bu.edu/disability

> > >

> > > ________________________________

> > >

> > > From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org on behalf of Sean Keegan

> > > Sent: Thu 2/8/2007 12:46 PM

> > > To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'

> > > Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT

> UIUC

> > >

> > >

> > > Hi Kevin,

> > >

> > > You may want to check out LecShare.  Similar in concept

> (different

> in

> > > technical functionality), LecShare can take a PPT file and

> convert

> it

> > > to several different accessible formats.  Their higher end

> product

> > > LecShare Pro can also support the addition of voice media to

> slides

> > > (and do some basic automated captioning).  Site is:

> > > http://www.lecshare.com

> > >

> > > Take a look at the trial version - it is fully functioning and

> just

> > > embeds a LecShare watermark on each exported format so that you

> do

> not

> >

> > > use the trial version for prime time.  Works for Macs and PCs, so

> that

> >

> > > is a nice feature.  Currently it only works with PowerPoint

> files,

> so

> > > if you are looking for Word or Excel support, then it is the

> Office

> > > Export Wizard (aka Accessible Web Publishing Wizard).

> > >

> > > I have also had a number of faculty approach me regarding the use

> of

> > > Camtasia to deliver PPT content (obviously a more expensive

> solution).

> >

> > > The result is just a Flash video of the presentation with a

> voice-over

> >

> > > narration (this is somewhat similar to one of the exports of

> LecShare

> > > Pro also does).  The current version of Camtasia also provides a

> tool

> > > for captioning the presentation.  It does appear to have many

> > > customization options, but I am looking into this a bit more.

> > > Probably not exactly what you are looking for, but it is

> something

> > > that more faculty appear to be doing.

> > >

> > > Take care,

> > > Sean

> > >

> > >

> > > ________________________________

> > >

> > > From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org

> [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org]

> > > On Behalf Of Sesock, Kevin A

> > > Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 9:10 AM

> > > To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network

> > > Subject: [Athen] Accessible Office Export Plug-In That's NOT UIUC

> > >

> > >

> > > There are a few who have been witness to my complaints about the

> > > University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Office Export Wizard

> > > plug-in. I'm not going to get into that now (if anyone is

> interested,

> > > mail me for a sample tirade off-list), but I do need a good

> > > alternative to convert Powerpoint and other Office documents to

> an

> > > accessible HTML alternative.

> > >

> > > Up until 1.06, the Illinois tool was free and didn't nag or

> annoy,

> and

> >

> > > if anyone has that version, that would be helpful (I have lost my

> > > copy), otherwise, anyone have other recommendations?

> > >

> > > Kevin A. Sesock, A+, Net+, CNA, MCSA

> > > Assistive Technology Specialist

> > > Student Disability Services

> > > Division of Student Affairs

> > > Oklahoma State University

> > >

> > > http://access.it.okstate.edu <http://access.it.okstate.edu/>

> > >

> > > "Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he who has

> > > understood, delight to they who have listened." - Odin

> > >

> > >

> > > _______________________________________________

> > > Athen mailing list

> > > Athen at athenpro.org

> > > http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org

> > >

> > >

> >

> >

> >Stacy Smith

> >Adaptive Technology Specialist

> >Disability Support Services

> >202 Holton Hall

> >Kansas State University

> >Manhattan, KS  66506

> >Phone:  785-532-6441

> >FAX:  785-532-6457

> >Email:  stacylee at ksu.edu

> >

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>



Stacy Smith
Adaptive Technology Specialist, Disability Support Services
532-6441
stacylee at ksu.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~

One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the
Art of
Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place
to
train.

--Morehei Ueshiba