[Athen] My opinion on Bookshare

[Michael Cantino]

I agree with everyone's thoughts on Bookshare so far. I agree that we
should be encouraging publishers to create accessible materials, and we
should be encouraging institutions to adopt accessible materials. That
said, I'm not ready to let Bookshare off the hook.

Bookshare knows that there are major issues with their BRF files, and from
my perspective, their response to address these issues has been inadequate.
A year ago, I sent Bookshare an extensive list of specific issues with
their braille files. We sent a follow up email in December restating the
issues, and I demonstrated how Bookshare has the files and information they
need to automatically produce braille files with significantly better
structure than they're currently providing. After that email, we had a
meeting with Bookshare in January to dig deeper into these issues.
Bookshare assured us that they would work on improving their braille
output. Since then, we've heard virtually nothing from Bookshare, and we
haven't received any information about potential improvements to their
braille output.

Yes, we need to encourage publishers and institutions to do better in terms
of accessibility, but we also need to push Bookshare to do better. Readers
who prefer braille but don't have access to a refreshable braille display
need access to high quality BRFs to emboss. Providing braille files with
zero formatting (or worse, truly awful formatting for things like tables
and math expressions) is not equal access. Asking users to check out 3 or 4
editions of a title, in a non-preferred format, and then settling on the
least-bad option is not equal access. We wouldn't expect sighted users to
tolerate this kind of experience, but Bookshare  has been offering this
sub-standard experience to braille readers for years. Bookshare can and
must do better, and I think it's past time that they buckle down and
address these issues.

Michael Cantino (he/him)
BVIS Technology Professional Development Specialist
Northwest Regional Education Service District
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