[Athen] Firefly question related to assisting general education population

[Wink Harner]

Hi all,
Thanks to Teresa for that explanation. I contacted Jon privately and said
the same thing. Thanks for clarifying to the list. It is exactly what I
was thinking.

Wink


-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Teresa
Haven
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 1:47 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Firefly question related to assisting general
education population

I think Wink was referring to the retail "ebooks" many publishers are
selling now rather than the publisher-provided PDF files many of us use.
The commercially available ebooks generally don't work with any tts
technology and often are also unavailable in PDF from the publishers
either.

"Pielaet, Jon" <jon.pielaet at mso.umt.edu> wrote:


Wink,

I wanted to respond to one of your comments and share how we deal with
publisher PDF media.

You said:

"Just an FYI the books in digital format directly from publishers are NOT
pdf reader accessible or compatible and nothing our offices can do can
crack the code to make a screen reader work on them. Sorry to be the
bearer of discouraging news...."

This isn't entirely true. Many of the publisher PDF files we get either
directly from publishers or through the Access Text Network are
"accessible" in the sense that they work with Adobe Reader's Read-Out-loud
feature. In many cases we use Acrobat Pro to convert a PDF to a Word
document, and then convert that Word document into a DAISY Digital Talking
Book. Those DAISY books can not only be read with software like AMIS or
WYNN, but also hardware players like the Victor Reader Stream.

The publisher PDFs fulfill about half of our book requests, and they are
critical for us to provide timely access to materials. They aren't perfect
but we can work with them.

Best of luck with your alt. format program,


Jon



Jon P. Pielaet

Program Assistant for Instructional Materials
Disability Services for Students

Emma B. Lommasson 154
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812

www.umt.edu/dss/

406-243-2243 Voice/Text
406-243-4461 Direct Line
406-243-5330 Fax





From:  Wink Harner <winkharner at mesacc.edu>
Reply-To:  Access Technology Higher Education Network
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Date:  Wed, 9 Nov 2011 08:12:15 -0700
To:  Access Technology Higher Education Network
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject:  Re: [Athen] Firefly question related to assisting general
education population


And I really like Gaier's solution, BTW! Empowerment and self-advocacy are
the key.

Wink


________________________________________
From: "Wink Harner" <winkharner at mesacc.edu>
To: "Access Technology Higher Education Network"
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 6:03:21 PM
Subject: RE: [Athen] Firefly question related to assisting general
education        population

Just an FYI the books in digital format directly from publishers are NOT
pdf reader accessible or compatible and nothing our offices can do can
crack the code to make a screen reader work on them. Sorry to be the
bearer of discouraging news...you've got such a great array of programs
and are so enthusiastic about finding a resource for these undiagnosed low
readers. When students get a CD/DVD format book, all it really allows them
to do is read it on a computer instead of in paper format.


Wink

Ms. Wink Harner
Manager
Disability Resources & Services
Mesa Community College
1833 W. Southern Avenue
Mesa AZ 85202

480-461-7447
Fax: 480-461-7907



-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Dawes,
Brenda
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 5:53 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Firefly question related to assisting general education
population

I'm new to the list - please forgive if the answer has been discussed
already, but the Firefly topic fits along with the current issue I'm
working on which is figuring out how to use literacy software at the
college level to help struggling students that are not diagnosed with a
print disability and not receiving services from university student
disability services. Do you have advice on what the best steps are for
obtaining their textbook in digital format since they won't be eligible
for Bookshare? Can one successfully use "fair use" to scan chapters of the
textbook and convert it to use in one of these literacy software tools? We
have WYNN, Kurzweil, Read Write Gold, and Read Outloud, Cowriter, Write
Outloud, Draft Builder, and just learned about University Read Ou loud and
Cowriter today. Is it best to have the student request the book store
request the publisher's digital format - i.e. PDF, Html, etc. ? Any advice
on what the favorite software tools are for students who can benefit from
these literacy support products?

Brenda Dawes, Oklahoma ABLE Tech
Program Manager
1514 W. Hall of Fame Stillwater, OK  74078
405.744.5170 or 800.257.1705
brenda.dawes at okstate.edu
http://okabletech.okstate.edu
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