[Athen] Screen Reader Accessible version of Building Java Programs

[Susan Kelmer via athen-list]

If you’ve been around any amount of time, you know my concerns about Bookshare files.  Missing information like images and tables, page numbering, headings not marked correctly, or at all, no page numbers in the index, etc.

Even if Bookshare had scanned this book (which it sounds like they did), all of those elements should have been there and in the completed remediated file.  But somehow, they never are.  Bookshare is missing a step in production – an important one.  The are scanning straight to OCR, which only captures text.  That is not how we do it in the remediation world (or at least, I hope not).  We scan to a good quality file that contains images, whether that is PDF or TIFF.  We then have ALL of the information that was in the book, and when we run OCR, we get all of the information out, PLUS have the original image files with which to correct mistakes and add back in anything missing/lost during OCR.

In this case, this file is absolutely useless to you because of the critical things that are missing.  That book should never have been put up for download in Bookshare, if it didn’t have everything in it that it was supposed to.  Quality matters.  I’ll say that again:  QUALITY MATTERS. We are providing students with substandard resources, something we would never do if we were producing the material ourselves.  If I have to remediate a Bookshare file (something I do on the regular), then I’d rather have a scanned or publisher PDF to work with instead.  My OCR of those types of files is much higher right out of the gate than the files that Bookshare continues to provide.

Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
Health and Wellness Services
T 303 735 4836
www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices<http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices>


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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of CentralAccess via athen-list
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2024 3:29 PM
To: Joshua Hori <jhori at ucdavis.edu>; Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>; Herosian, Julia <julia_herosian at fas.harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Screen Reader Accessible version of Building Java Programs

[External email - use caution]

Hi all,
I just want to ask if anyone has looked in depth at the files being provided by Bookshare? I pulled the Word files for this book and, even without having the original publisher PDF to compare to, there are some red flags like images omitted, figure headings listed but no figures included and that was just in looking at the first few pages of this. This is a Pearson book so I would hope if Julia reached out to Pearson and explained the need for screen reader accessibility that they could provide a better copy than this. I had one of my technicians who is a computer science student take a look at this file. She has 6 years of experience with Java and 2 years of document conversion experience working in our office and she was concerned that a student would be given such a poorly converted Word document. We would be happy to help with any conversion needs.
Best regards,
Adrienne

Adrienne Zimny
Client Care Coordinator
Central Access
Central Washington University
400 E University Way
Ellensburg, WA 98926-7541
(509)963-1371
centralaccess at cwu.edu<mailto:centralaccess at cwu.edu>




From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Joshua Hori via athen-list
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2024 10:54 AM
To: Herosian, Julia <julia_herosian at fas.harvard.edu<mailto:julia_herosian at fas.harvard.edu>>; Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Screen Reader Accessible version of Building Java Programs

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It’s on bookshare.org.

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> on behalf of Herosian, Julia via athen-list <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Date: Wednesday, August 14, 2024 at 12:23 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: [Athen] Screen Reader Accessible version of Building Java Programs
Hello all,
Does anyone have access to a screen reader accessible version of “Building Java Programs: A Back to Basics Approach 5th Edition” Author(s): Stuart Reges; Marty Stepp, Publisher: Pearson, ISBN :9780135471944.

Many thanks,
Julia Herosian (she/her)
Access Technology and Digital Accessibility Specialist
Accessibility Services Office
Harvard Division of Continuing Education
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