[Athen] Macmillan publisher

[Karlen Communications]

Acknowledging that sans-serif fonts are the ones promoted for accessibility,
I'm one of those people with a visual disability that depend on the
ligatures of a serif font to be able to read. Without the ligatures on
fonts, I can't tell if dl is a single letter or two.

 

I understand that some conversion tools might have problems with serif
fonts. I wanted to chime in for those of us who have problems reading fonts
without ligatures.

 

I don't think that ligatures on fonts are the entire problem.

 

I didn't intend this to be the start of serif versus sans-serif fonts but
rather just a pointing out that for some of us ligatures do help us read at
a normal pace.

 

Cheers, Karen

 

 

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu> On Behalf
Of chagnon at pubcom.com
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2018 3:45 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
<athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Macmillan publisher

 

For those who use Adobe InDesign, ligatures can be a problem for some A T.

 

They're beautiful (most times) for printed documents so I advise my clients
and students to build their use into their stylesheets for the printed
versions of their publications, aka for the exported press-quality PDFs.

 

But for those InDesigners who also must also make accessible PDFs and EPUBs,
adjust your stylesheets to not use ligatures before exporting your
accessible PDFs and EPUB versions.

 

This isn't tough to do. Hopefully you can catch one of my Sec. 508 +
InDesign classes (at AHG, OK AbleTech, other conferences, and online through
my company) and learn how to do this quickly and efficiently. Not rocket
science, but you do need to learn the tricks.

 

For those in student assistance offices, when students have problems with
ligatures, most can be rectified by updating their A T. Older versions can
stumble on recognizing ligatures and other Unicode glyphs (such as for math,
science, and foreign languages). But the latest versions of screen readers
now recognize most of the commonly used glyphs, including the common Unicode
ligatures.

 

In time, all stakeholders will catch up and this won't be a problem anymore.
Well, hopefully!

 

-Bevi Chagnon

- - -

Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO  |   <mailto:Bevi at PubCom.com> Bevi at PubCom.com 

- - -

PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing

consulting . training . development . design . sec. 508 services

Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes <http://www.PubCom.com/classes>  

- - -

 

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu> > On Behalf Of
Russell Solowoniuk
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2018 3:14 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Macmillan publisher

 

We just ran into the same issue with Macmillan. When I explained to
Christine that the student in question uses Read and Write Gold, and that
RWG does not work well with ePub files in Adobe Digital Editions, Christine
sent me a PDF. Unfortunately, the PDF had issues with ligatures. We often
have this with PDFs, but this one was especially bad. Christine is going to
see if they have a better quality PDF.

 

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

Russell

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Jennifer McDowell
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2018 10:26 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Macmillan publisher

 

I have also run into this problem with Macmillan, though I have actually had
success in getting PDFs from Christine (though it took a little while and
some follow up on my part). My argument/concern was that we have a
Read&Write site license on our campus that a majority of students use for
text-to-speech, and as of now, Read&Write does not read EPUBs.  

 

That worked (though I had to forward the email from TextHelp support proving
what I said was true), and she sent the PDFs to me (through Dropbox I
think). So it is possible, the PDFs do still exist, there are just some
extra hoops to jump through. ;)

 

Good luck, and happy Friday all!

 

Jenny

  

 

 Jennifer McDowell 

Alternative Text Specialist, Disability Services 

978.542.6217 // fax: 978.542.2064

tty: 978.542.7146 // vp: 978.910.0167

 

SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY 

352 Lafayette Street 

Salem, MA 01970 

salemstate.edu <http://salemstate.edu>  

 

 

On Apr 20, 2018, at 11:44 AM, Andrea L. Dietrich <adietrich at cornell.edu
<mailto:adietrich at cornell.edu> > wrote:

 

I've encountered the same thing with some files. The lack of page numbers is
the biggest problem, in my opinion. It's not too hard to convert an epub to
a PDF, if that's what the student needs -- many would probably be fine using
the epub directly, and there are actually some things I personally PREFER
about epubs, but not having page numbers that correspond to the original
text is a big deal breaker, IMO.

 

Does anyone know if there's a way to easily add page numbers to an epub
file?

 

BTW, for conversion, I use Calibre. I think I've seen others mention it on
here, so you probably already know about it, but it's a great program for
converting ebooks between unusual file formats.

 

-Andi :)

 

-------

Andrea Dietrich

Accommodations Specialist

Cornell Health, Level 5

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY 14853-3101

t. 607-254-4545

f. 607.255.1562

 <mailto:ald88 at cornell.edu> ald88 at cornell.edu

For more information about Student Disability Services,
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsds.cornell
.edu%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca8009953741e44566c9308d5a6d60997%7C70d32b73b45749d
1950c4f78aeffc21b%7C0%7C0%7C636598360579196799&sdata=HyGgL17PVgzxGTkuxh9Y2Hn
gqkHYemyDK8rpgScp4LQ%3D&reserved=0> sds.cornell.edu

 
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.faceboo
k.com%2FCornellSDS&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca8009953741e44566c9308d5a6d60997%7C70d3
2b73b45749d1950c4f78aeffc21b%7C0%7C0%7C636598360579196799&sdata=%2FSGJltbfTQ
%2FVRYkU%2Br1rpbgC3LohMF5IB1TiwW24jyc%3D&reserved=0> <image001.jpg>
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.faceboo
k.com%2FCornellSDS&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca8009953741e44566c9308d5a6d60997%7C70d3
2b73b45749d1950c4f78aeffc21b%7C0%7C0%7C636598360579196799&sdata=%2FSGJltbfTQ
%2FVRYkU%2Br1rpbgC3LohMF5IB1TiwW24jyc%3D&reserved=0> Follow us on Facebook

 

From: athen-list < <mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu>
athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Kluesner, Bryon
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2018 11:00 AM
To:  <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Macmillan publisher

 

Yesterday, I received EPUB3 files from Macmillan instead of PDF files. The
problem with the EPUB3 files, is each individual page of a chapter is a
separate xhtml file and there are no page numbers. When I sent a request
through Access Text for the PDF version of the file, I received the
following response:

 

We are no longer producing accessible PDFs of textbooks because we have
transitioned to EPUB3 format, which is more accessible by nature and also
reduces the risk of piracy. 

Best, 
Christine

 

My reply:

 

Hi Christine, while the EPUB3 may more accessible by nature, there are no
page numbers and the individual files are more difficult to navigate for
students rather than individual chapter PDF files. I think you need to
reconsider not producing accessible PDF files. I expect other Disability
Services providers will most likely have the same opinion as I do.

 

While I understand the reasoning behind Pearson and Macmillan wanting to use
EPUB files, the format they are providing is making it more work for me, and
there are no page numbers!

 

Just my Friday rant.

 

Have a good weekend everyone.

 

Bryon

 

 


Bryon Kluesner, RhD

Adaptive Technology Coordinator

Disability Resource Center

Adjunct Professor

College of Health, Education & Professional Studies


	
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga 
103 Frist Hall 
615 McCallie Avenue, Dept. 2953

Chattanooga, TN 37403

 

(423) 425-4006 |
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.utc.edu
%2Fdean-students&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca8009953741e44566c9308d5a6d60997%7C70d32b
73b45749d1950c4f78aeffc21b%7C0%7C0%7C636598360579196799&sdata=liJxrjeGZWcACN
vvNrUlLgC2MfLZncLtZ5LP1NWigyo%3D&reserved=0> utc.edu/drc


 
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.utc.edu
%2Fstudent-development&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca8009953741e44566c9308d5a6d60997%7C
70d32b73b45749d1950c4f78aeffc21b%7C0%7C0%7C636598360579196799&sdata=EMveU4VC
BkzTVodGKFnZPIZNep2FS7PIh6fwcB%2BzEqc%3D&reserved=0> Division of Student
Development

 

_______________________________________________
athen-list mailing list
 <mailto:athen-list at mailman13.u.washington.edu>
athen-list at mailman13.u.washington.edu
 
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmailman13.u
.washington.edu%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fathen-list&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca8009953
741e44566c9308d5a6d60997%7C70d32b73b45749d1950c4f78aeffc21b%7C0%7C0%7C636598
360579196799&sdata=f5FmrHckO0n%2FR6hVjj3Fx87EEDrC7IIVDR6PJg0%2BqkA%3D&reserv
ed=0>
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmailman13.u.
washington.edu%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fathen-list&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca80099537
41e44566c9308d5a6d60997%7C70d32b73b45749d1950c4f78aeffc21b%7C0%7C0%7C6365983
60579196799&sdata=f5FmrHckO0n%2FR6hVjj3Fx87EEDrC7IIVDR6PJg0%2BqkA%3D&reserve
d=0

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20180421/da72aa89/attachment.html>