<html>
<body>
The accessibility of e-books is almost the hottest topic at
disability-education-disability conferences. Because it is new, most of
us don't know nearly enough about it. We don't know <br><br>
how it impacts our students, and we don't know what re the future
prospects for accessibility. <br>
EASI provided a very popular Webinar on the accessibility of e-book
formats a month ago, and you will want to see its slides and watch its
recording. Go to:<br>
<a href="http://easi.cc/archive/e-readers/resources.htm" eudora="autourl">http://easi.cc/archive/e-readers/resources.htm<br><br>
</a>EASI Webinars can help you with valuable, interesting and exciting
information in our Webinars in the next 2-3 months.<br>
Webinars scheduled during April, May and June will cover how people with
disabilities can read a growing number of e-books and give a good
introduction on how to author accessible <br><br>
e-books. The authoring tools will cover those aimed at a beginning single
person wanting a couple accessible e-books and slightly more complex
authoring tools for creating larger <br><br>
numbers of books and those with more complex format issues.<br><br>
HAVE NO FEAR! YOU TOO CAN DO IT!<br><br>
Three of the 5 Webinars will cover reading and authoring applications for
DAISY books The other 2 Webinars will deal more with the epub format and
with converting some of the <br><br>
specialized document formats used by some commercial providers of e-books
and e-book readers. <br><br>
I can't urge you too strongly to take a serious look at attending these
or at least getting their recordings. We are on the cutting edge of
the coming e-book wave. Grab the wave and take <br><br>
the ride!!!<br><br>
The EASI 4-part, fee-based Series: Better E-books with DAISY EPUB and
More is scheduled for:<br>
April 10 and 17; May 1 and 8<br>
Times all daylight saving: 11 AM Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 PM Central and
2 PM Eastern<br>
Weeks 1-2, (April 10 and 17), will focus on the DAISY authoring and
reading products developed by Dolphin. <br>
Presenter: Jeff Bazer from Dolphin Computer Access in the US.<br>
Jeff will discuss EASY Converter, EASY Producer, and Easy Reader
which now will read both DAISY and EPUB content.<br>
The buzz is that the epub 3 standard will be highly compatible with the
DAISY format. We can expect authoring tools to handle both formats in the
near future. Most hardware DAISY <br><br>
players now will handle books in epub2.<br><br>
Week 3, May 1: Overview of the epub and other e-document formats being
used by publishers of e-books <br>
Presenter: Norm Coombs CEO of EASI, Professor Emeritus from RIT <br>
This Webinar will give an introduction to common document formats
publishers are using for e-books including books for the Kindle, Nook,
Blio and Adobe Digital editions. It will <br><br>
suggest ways that these proprietary formats may be converted to other
formats and avoid being reader specific.<br>
It will point to tools that will enable writers to authorbooks in
the epub format and tools to facilitate changing documents from one
<br><br>
Week 4, May 8: Will demonstrate the add-in which will save Word Documents
as DAISY Content <br>
Presenter: Craig Mill, Assistive Technology Advisor at CALL Scotland
(Communication, Access, Literacy and Learning)<br>
This free add-in for Microsoft Word has been available for a few
years, but it is being constantly simplified and improved. For example,
it now handles accessible Math. The presentation <br><br>
will include YouTube videos Mill created to walk users through the
process of making personal DAISY content.<br><br>
EASI Annual Members can register free for the series from
<a href="http://easi.cc/member/index.htn" eudora="autourl">http://easi.cc/member/index.htn</a>
where you will need your member username and password. We need your registration so we <br><br>
can send participants email updates and log in information<br>
There are some scholarships available at:<br>
<a href="http://easi.cc/scholarship.htm" eudora="autourl">http://easi.cc/scholarship.htm<br><br>
</a>Non-members can register and pay the $225 registration for this 4-part series. You can pay by credit card, check or PO at the link below and select Web conferences and select the date <br><br>
for April 4.<br>
<a href="https://www.secure.servsite.com/easi/enrollment/enrollment_pal.shtml" eudora="autourl">https://www.secure.servsite.com/easi/enrollment/enrollment_pal.shtml<br><br>
</a>EASI Free 1-hour Webinar: The Cutting Edge of E-book Accessibility<br>
June 11: 11 PM Pacific, Noon Mountain, 1 PM Central and 2 PM Eastern daylight<br>
Presenter: Norm Coombs, Ph.D. CEO EASI, Professor Emeritus RIT<br>
The explosion of e-books is changing the face of book publishing and changing the role of book stores. Different vendors of e-books created their unique, proprietary document formats <br><br>
which required their being read in e-readers designed specifically for that format. Imagine having to use different glasses to read print books depending on who was its publisher! Of <br><br>
course, the document format and the specialized e-readers were inaccessible to many people with what used to be called "print disabilities". The DAISY document format opened up a <br><br>
wider and richer reading experience for people with disabilities, but DAISY books were incompatible with commercial e-readers like the Kindle or Nook, and commercial e-book formats <br><br>
were incompatible with DAISY. <br><br>
Webinar participants will learn which formats are already accessible to them, and they will be introduced to some tools for document format conversion.<br>
Everyone can use the link below to register for this free Webinar:<br>
<a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEFRVmhpOGFlTVN5T09ScWREeDdsVWc6MQ" eudora="autourl">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEFRVmhpOGFlTVN5T09ScWREeDdsVWc6MQ</a>"<br><br>
The page with the schedule of all currently scheduled Webinars is at<br>
<a href="http://easi.cc/clinic.htm" eudora="autourl">http://easi.cc/clinic.htm<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
</a> <br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <br>
It's never too late to become what you might have been. George Eliot<br>
Once you choose hope, anything's possible. Christopher Reeve<br>
Norman Coombs norm.coombs@gmail.com<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Making Online Teaching Accessible: Inclusive Course Design for Students with Disabilities by Norman Coombs published by Jossey-Bass Oct 10,2010<br>
</font><font face="Calibri" size=3 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470499044.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470499044.html<br><br>
</a></font></u></body>
</html>