[Athen] help with alternative form of ebook

[Chagnon | PubCom]

First, taking an existing document (whether it’s a PDF, EPUB, or other digital format) and remediating it for accessibility is the most costly solution. And a good deal of STEM information that’s already locked into a PDF or EPUB file can’t be made fully accessible, either.

 

It’s a large financial burden to put on our academic institutions and eventually the cost trickles down to the students who pay tuition, as well as taxpayers who’s taxes subsidize the school.

 

Everyone loses.

 

The easiest, fastest, and most efficient method is to create accessible files from the source files.

 

That means our publishing houses should be making accessible PDFs, EPUBs, and other digital formats directly from their layout files, which usually are created with Adobe InDesign. 

 

Along with selling printed versions of textbooks, publishers also should sell licenses for accessible digital versions.  This should become the norm in academic publishing.

 

It’s not time-consuming or costly for publishers to do this; I just finished a 3-day workshop for a publisher and with minimal retooling of their workflow, they’ll now be able to make the printed versions of their publications as well as accessible PDFs and EPUBs.

 

The small extra cost to the publisher to do the accessible versions will easily be recouped by charging for the digital licensees.

 

This publishing model can have everyone winning…the school, the student, and the publisher. Oh, and us tax payers, too!

 

I strongly urge you to request accessible files from your book vendors. They won’t consider doing this until their customers (a.k.a. you) ask for accessible digital files.

 

--Bevi Chagnon

 

PS: 

For those who use Adobe InDesign, I’ll be teaching a one-day hands-on workshop at the AHG conference in November. See details at http://accessinghigherground.org/accessible-adobe-indesign-layouts-to-produce-accessible-pdfs-and-epubs/  This is an intermediate-to-advanced level class and you should know how to use InDesign before taking it.

 

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Bevi Chagnon |  <http://www.pubcom.com/> www.PubCom.com 

Technologists, Consultants, Trainers, Designers, and Developers

for publishing & communication


| Acrobat PDF | Print | EPUBS | Sec. 508 Accessibility |


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From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Dori Lloyd
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2017 12:45 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] help with alternative form of ebook

 

I am helping my Disability Services Coordinator find an accessible version of an ebook provided by Pearson for a student.  The name of the book is Nursing : A Concept-Based Approach to Learning, Volume I and II.  We got a pdf version through AccessText but it is not accessible.  This particular student is using Natural Reader and the reading order is all messed up.

 

First of all, has anyone, by chance, run into this same issue with this exact book?  If so, I'd love to know how you found an accessible version.

 

Secondly, we are novices when it comes to this scenario.  Does anyone have any recommendations as to what is the next best step for troubleshooting this?  Would you suggest pushing back on Pearson to help us get an accessible version or would we be better served to just find a vendor who would re-mediate this document at a cost?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!


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