[Athen] RE: RoboBraille

[Brian Richwine]

Can anyone comment on the quality of the materials produced by the
Robobraille/SensusAccess portal? Our students are used to having our
editing staff produce fully edited accessible word documents (with
appropriate heading structures, page number matching, described images,
linearized/described tables, etc.).

What kind of student satisfaction feedback are you getting?

Sincerely,
  Brian


On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 7:35 PM, Sean Keegan <skeegan at stanford.edu> wrote:


> To follow-up on Joshua's comment - the SCRIBE system uses Abbyy FineReader

> Corporate Edition and the reason for this is because we manage the system

> on-campus vs. the hosted solution other institutions are

> implementing. Overall, it works okay, but Recognition Server is far more

> robust in terms of speed and recovery from corrupted PDF documents.

>

> When we built SCRIBE, FineReader Corporate Edition was the only viable

> option for us as Recognition Server was too expensive. Every so often I do

> have to go and restart the Abbyy Corporate Edition application on our

> system as a corrupted PDF file will stop the automatic processing and, from

> what I can tell, this does not happen with Recognition Server (on the other

> hand, you don't suffer quite as many heart attacks from the RS

> pricing). Getting access to Recognition Server is far better for overall

> reliability.

>

> I am not too concerned about the future of the Robobraille/SensusAccess

> portal as there is too much investment by other entities around the world

> to let it expire. As Joshua mentioned, I also suggest the system for users

> once they leave the institutional environment and believe this resource

> will continue until something better comes along.

>

> Take care,

> sean

>

>

> On Nov 19, 2013, at 4:06 PM, Joshua Hori <jhori at ucdavis.edu> wrote:

>

> Hello everyone!

>

>

>

> Along with UC Irvine, UC Davis has also purchased a hosted license of

> SensusAccess to be used by faculty, students, or staff using a UCDavis

> email addresses. This is to ensure that our students can provide their own

> conversions if needed and to support development. Currently, SensusAccess

> is paid by European governments for European students. When the

> SensusAccess group came to the US Government for funding, they were told to

> request funds from institutions instead.

>

>

>

> *So, what do I get with my license?*

>

> I get an iframe to add to one of my web pages which allows students to

> submit a file from their computer (default on SA’s main page), or I have

> the ability to post a file via URL (non-authentication), or I can copy and

> paste text into a textbox for conversion.

>

>

>

> I also get the ability to request features to be implemented. One feature

> that was implemented at our request was the ability to have files available

> as download links instead of being attached to emails. This was due to some

> documents being too large (over 30M) for some email systems, to which they

> added code to recognize file size limitations and send users a link instead

> of an attachment. Technical issues are usually resolved via email within an

> hour as well.

>

>

>

> A benefit is that I don’t have to pay for that outrageous pricetag that

> ABBYY recognition server was requesting, which increased depending on how

> many cores you plan on using within your processor (look underneath my

> signature for the quotes I was given…). I also don’t have to pay, or

> maintain, a server, or have to worry about the setup, licensing, or

> maintenance of all the programs needed for the conversion process. (MS

> Office, *OpenOffice*, *Calibre*, *DAISY Pipeline*, NeoSpeech voices,

> Mailserver, FTP, RoboBraille, and all the plug-ins and specialized

> software). There is a slight difference between ABBYY Pro, which I believe

> SCRIBE is using, and ABBYY recognition server, which is what SA is using.

>

>

>

> I instruct our students on how to use the UC Davis hosted service for

> their needs, and that they can continue to use the open SensusAccess portal

> for conversions after higher ed. If this service dies after a few years,

> then all my plans to support my students after higher ed vanishes as well.

> NOT GOOD.

>

>

>

> Sorry, I went full nerd on everyone. I know…I’m not supposed to go full

> nerd, but…I did.

>

>

>

> *TL;DR – Yeah, we pay for the service…and it has its’ ups and downs, but

> yet…it’s beautiful.*

>

> Joshua Hori

> Accessible Technology Analyst

> University of California, Davis

> Student Disability Center

>

>

> ABBYY Recognition Server (OCR support)

> ·         $3,366 for 1 million page conversions, $1,346 annual

> maintenance (locked to a single core)

> ·         $2,993 for 300k page conversions, $1,197 annual maintenance

> (locked to a single core)

> ·         $1,850 for 100k page conversions, $740 annual maintenance

> (locked to a single core)

> ·         Dual core license: $12k, $4,800 annual maintenance

> ·         Quad core license:  $18k

>

> o   Has the ability to convert 100k pages per night

>

> Remember…this is just for the OCR software.

>

>

> *From:* athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:athen-

> list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] *On Behalf Of *James Bailey

> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 19, 2013 9:56 AM

> *To:* athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu;

> athen-list at u.washington.edu

> *Subject:* [Athen] RoboBraille

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Hello all:

>

> I think the RoboBraille service is great and I tell our Alt-format users

> about it. I particularly recommend it for those study sessions when a

> picture-only PDF comes off of BlackBoard etc. and a the student needs it

> converted quickly to keep working.

>

> I have received an e-mail or two from them suggesting we (U Oregon) need

> an agreement with them. We do not use it at all in our production process.

> I simply make students aware of it and the students then use it or not as

> individuals.

>

>

>

> This is from their web site (it’s cut and paste so any typos are theirs):

>

> “RoboBraille is available 24/7 as a self-service solution, it is free of

> charge to all individual, non-commercial users and users need not register

> in order to use the service. The objective is to support and promote

> self-sufficiency of people with special needs socially, throughout the

> educational system and on the labour market. As an additional benefit,

> RoboBraille helps to protect the privacy of of those who need material in

> alternate formats.”

>

> This seems pretty cut and dried to me.

>

> If you have a take on this, please share it.

>

>

>

> Oh it gets better!

>

>

>

> From: Tanja Stevns <tanja at sensus.dk>

>

> Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 9:10 AM

>

> To: James Bailey

>

> Subject: SV: Document conversion

>

> James,

>

> The users go through our SensusAccess engine. The requests is coming from

> University of Oregon. I am not talking about

>

> personal private use of individuals using RoboBraille as you are referring

> to in this mail.

>

> Now I have tried to approach this in the best way possible but we will

> take action on further ongoing use from

>

> universities who do not wish to make an agreement with us.

>

> Have a nice day,

>

> Tanja

>

>

>

> My take on this is that they are seeing our student e-mail accounts as

> being the University of Oregon.

>

>

>

> As Tanja says, “Have a nice day”

>

>

>

> James

>

>

>

>

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