[Athen] comic book conversions?

[Heidi Scher]

Thank you all for your great suggestions! I was hoping there would be a
"simple" way to get these converted.  Unfortunately, the C-Pen has trouble
recognizing some of the fonts. (insert frown emoji). And none of our
conversion specialists are familiar with InDesign. Sigh.... Joseph, I
totally agree with your rant and can echo it as well. Good luck convincing
admin! Please keep us posted on how that conversation goes.

Thank you again, one and all! I greatly appreciate your thoughts and
feedback.

KInd regards,
Heidi



+++++++++++++++
Heidi Scher, M.S., CRC
Associate Director
Center for Educational Access
University of Arkansas
ARKU 209
Fayetteville, AR 72701
479.575.3104
479.575.7445 fax
479.575.3646 tdd
+++++++++++++++

On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 5:56 PM, Gaeir Dietrich <gdietrich at htctu.net> wrote:


> Don’t forget Learning Ally. They have Maus I and Maus II.

>

> www.learningally.org

>

> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>

> Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich

> HTCTU Director

> 408-996-6047 <(408)%20996-6047>

>

> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>

>

>

> *From:* athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] *On

> Behalf Of *Nast, Joseph

> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 23, 2018 1:15 PM

> *To:* Access Technology Higher Education Network

> *Subject:* Re: [Athen] comic book conversions?

>

>

>

> Thanks Joseph for this thorough response!

>

>

>

> Heidi, I think there might be something in the water lol. For some reason,

> our ENGL 1301 textbooks are mostly graphic novels this semester too. MAUS

> I, MAUS  II, Ms. Marvel: No Normal, Understanding Comics. (?). None of

> which are available through AccessText (sigh). I suppose we’re fortunate so

> far… we only need to make these accessible to students with print

> disabilities (audio) at the moment. I’d be sunk if we had a student who was

> functionally blind. I’m dubious even raised tactiles would be effective at

> making a graphic novel equally accessible in that circumstance. (Well, not

> the tactiles I’d have to create in less than a week anyway.)

>

>

>

> <rant on> Look, I get it – the department is trying to make the

> instruction “edgy” or “relevant”. And I’m all for academic freedom. But as

> far as I know, academic freedom does not override students’ rights to

> equitable access. <rant off>

>

>

>

> Clearly, graphic novels are inherently inaccessible. Now I’m wondering how

> I can gently but firmly drive that point home with administration.

>

>

>

>

>

> *Joseph M. Nast, *ATAC

>

> Assistive Technology Specialist

>

> Lone Star College Cy Fair, Disability Services

>

> *Office Phone: *(281) 290-3207

>

> *Website URL:* http://www.lonestar.edu/19287.htm

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> *From:* athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu

> <athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu>] *On Behalf Of *Joseph

> Polizzotto

> *Sent:* Monday, January 22, 2018 8:24 PM

> *To:* 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <

> athen-list at u.washington.edu>

> *Subject:* Re: [Athen] comic book conversions?

>

>

>

> I second the C-Pen Reader suggestion.

>

>

>

> In addition, I have one other  solution I have used and another

> experimental workflow I would explore (only if you are familiar with

> InDesign and Sigil).

>

>

>

> When working with a student with Dyslexia years ago, we created a DAISY

> book using MS Word + the Save As DAISY plug-in

> <http://www.daisy.org/project/save-as-daisy-ms-word-add-in>. The student

> was happy with the result.

>

>

>

> Here was our workflow:

>

>

>

> 1.       Save each page as an image file.

>

> 2.       Insert each image file onto its own MS Word page

>

> 3.       Add the captions and narrative of each graphic novel page as ALT

> TEXT for the image.

>

> 4.       Add periods and spaces in the Alt-Text box to try to adjust the

> length of pauses in the generated MP3

>

> 5.       Use the Save As DAISY plug-in for MS Word to export to DAISY

>

> 6.       Use AMIS, Voice of DAISY (mobile) or your favorite DAISY player

> for reading.

>

>

>

> Note: If possible, use a high quality TTS voice for the DAISY conversion.

>

>

>

> Finally, you might explore creating a fixed-layout (FXL) EPUB with media

> overlays using Adobe InDesign, where a text layer (with all the captions

> and narrative) exists as multiple <p> tags and is hidden behind a  image

> layer (with a picture of each page from the graphic novel). You would then

> create media overlays using a combination of Sigil +  a few plug-ins.

>

>

>

> Perhaps it’s a bit time-consuming and challenging, yet it **could** work

> out pretty nicely. The student would see the picture and hear the text that

> goes with it (as in the DAISY book)

>

>

>

> It’s also a free way of doing what Circular Flo

> <https://www.circularflo.com/> seems to do with its Read-Aloud book

> workflow in InDesign. J

>

>

>

> I offer this as an “experimental” workflow:

>

>

>

> 1.       Create separate DOCX files (e.g., p01.docx, p02.docx etc.) for

> each page’s worth of captions/ narrative in the graphic novel. Utilize

> paragraph returns and punctuation to separate caption content and enhance

> mp3 production (e.g., pausing)

>

> 2.       Create MP3 files of each DOCX file (e.g., p01.mp3, p02.mp3

> etc.).  I recommend using Balabolka for this bulk audio file conversion

> process.

>

> 3.       Save each page as a separate image file (e.g., p01.jpg, p02.jpg

> etc.)

>

> 4.       Next, place each DOCX (p01.docx) and image file (p01.jpg) into

> separate InDesign Documents (p01.indd, p02.indd) and make sure you map your

> InDesign paragraph style to an EPUB <p> in the Export Tagging panel of the

> Style menu.

>

> 5.       Use the layers panel to hide the “text layer” behind the Image

> layer of each InDesign document.

>

> 6.       Combine all the InDesign documents into an InDesign book file

> (my_graphic_novel.indb) so that separate XHTML files will be created for

> each page on export.

>

> 7.       Export as FXL EPUB.

>

> 8.       Import the FXL EPUB into Sigil <https://sigil-ebook.com/> and

> use the Icarus Plug in <https://github.com/pettarin/icarus> to add <span

> IDs> for each <p> tag and prepare for an Aeneas job (see Icarus tutorial

> <https://github.com/pettarin/icarus/tree/master/tutorial> for more

> information)

>

> 9.       Execute an Aeneas job (I recommend the Aeneas Web App

> <https://aeneasweb.org/login>) to create the SMIL files for the content

> of each XHTML file’s content (p01.smil, p02.smil etc.)

>

> 10.   Once the SMIL files have been created with Aeneas, you import the

> SMIL files back into Sigil and then export to EPUB 3 using the EPUB3-itizer

> plug-in. <https://github.com/kevinhendricks/ePub3-itizer> See

> documentation.

>

> 11.   Open EPUB with iBooks or other reading system that supports FXL

> EPUB with media overlays (MO).

>

>

>

>

>

> Best of luck,

>

>

>

> ---

>

> Joseph Polizzotto

>

> HTCTU Instructor

>

> 408-996-6044 <(408)%20996-6044>

>

> www.htctu.net

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> *From:* athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu

> <athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu>] *On Behalf Of *Jane Berk

> *Sent:* Monday, January 22, 2018 3:29 PM

> *To:* Access Technology Higher Education Network <

> athen-list at u.washington.edu>

> *Subject:* Re: [Athen] comic book conversions?

>

>

>

> Hi Heidi,

>

> I wish we had a better solution, too.  The ones we’ve done have had to

> basically be written out with a description of the graphics and then the

> text to accompany it.  Lots of work!  Hoping someone out there knows a

> better way!

>

> Best,

>

>

> *Jane Berk*AT Educational Assistant

> Assistive Computer Technology Service

> Services to Students with Disabilities

> MacEwan University

>

> Room 7-198 D3 CCC

>

> 10700 - 104 Avenue

> Edmonton, AB  T5J 4S2

>

> E:  berkj at macewan.ca

>

> T:  780-497-5826 <(780)%20497-5826>

>

> F:  780-497-4018 <(780)%20497-4018>

>

> MacEwan.ca

>

>

>

> [image: cid:KDLTDPQBKAAY.IMAGE_15.jpg]

>

>

>

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>

> *From:* athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu

> <athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu>] *On Behalf Of *Heidi

> Scher

> *Sent:* Monday, January 22, 2018 4:11 PM

> *To:* Access Technology Higher Education Network <

> athen-list at u.washington.edu>

> *Subject:* [Athen] comic book conversions?

>

>

>

> Hello everyone!

>

>

>

> I hope your Monday has been more productive than our has been. Seems to be

> the day for strange issues and computer gremlins!

>

>

>

> We have a student who has requested that the graphic novels (i.e. comic

> books) be converted for her class. The course uses a textbook plus 5

> graphic novels. The student uses text-to-speech software (i.e. is not blind

> but does have a print-related disability).

>

>

>

> Has anyone else had the request for graphic novels to be converted? How

> did you accomplish the task? These are obviously important course

> materials, but just not sure how to accomplish the task. (Hard to believe

> in 13+ years I've not dealt with this topic previously!)  OCR will be a

> mess to attempt.

>

>

>

> Any suggestions would be appreciated!!

>

>

>

> Kind regards,

>

> Heidi

>

>

>

>

> +++++++++++++++

> Heidi Scher, M.S., CRC

> Associate Director

> Center for Educational Access

> University of Arkansas

> ARKU 209

> Fayetteville, AR 72701

> 479.575.3104 <(479)%20575-3104>

> 479.575.7445 <(479)%20575-7445> fax

> 479.575.3646 <(479)%20575-3646> tdd

> +++++++++++++++

>

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