[Athen] AccessText News

[Kimberley Smith via athen-list]

Hello George, Thank you for these details. Do you think schools should reach out in some way to AAP to emphasize how important it is? Maybe they could connect with Bookshare? (I know nothing about how that service is run or funded.)

Our school will really feel the impact of the closure.

Thank you!

My best,

Kimberley J. Smith
Access Specialist
Disabilities Resource Center
352-395-4429 (voice) 352-395-4100 (fax)
she / her / hers

Santa Fe College
Building S, Suite 229
3000 NW 83rd Street
Gainesville, FL 32606
sfcollege.edu/drc/

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: AccessText News (via athen-list)


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Message: 1
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2024 08:07:29 -0600
From: via athen-list <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
To: "'Access Technology Higher Education Network'"
        <athen-list at u.washington.edu>,  "'Ali Steenis'"
        <ali.steenis at bellevuecollege.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] AccessText News
Message-ID: <007701da88f4$ee5b75a0$cb1260e0$@montana.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Dear ATHENS folks,

When the news broke about ATN shutting down, I reached out to my contacts at ATN, but nobody was available.

I have heard that the AAP and publishers are searching for a way to reestablish the service. Here is what I have learned:

The AAP and Georgia Techs CIDI were negotiating the ATN contract. Without warning, Georgia Tech pulled out of negotiations and shut down the site. AAP has attempted to reopen negotiations and Georgia Tech refused. AAP, which has been financially supporting ATN and plans to continue at the request of its Publisher members who were also shocked at this turn of events, is now exploring other hosting options.

Publishers have been relying on ATN for years to help manage the volume of requests we receive for alternative text formats. No one wants to see this go.

George thinks, Hopefully we will hear about developments in the near future.
I know that the AAP has been supporting accessibility for their members.

Best
George


George Kerscher Ph.D.
-In our Information Age, access to information is a fundamental human right.
Chief Innovations Officer, DAISY Consortium  <http://www.daisy.org/> http://www.daisy.org/
Senior Advisor, Global Literacy, Benetech  <http://www.benetech.org/> http://www.benetech.org/
President, International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)  <http://www.idpf.org/> http://www.idpf.org/
Chair Steering Council Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), at W3C  <http://www.w3.org/WAI> http://www.w3.org/WAI
Cell:+1 406/544-2466
Email:  <mailto:kerscher at montana.com> kerscher at montana.com



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