The AIM Navigator is an interactive online tool that facilitates the process of decision-making about accessible instructional materials for an individual student. The AIM Navigator guides teams through a step-by-step process and provides just-in-time support with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), resources, and links to other helpful tools at each of four major decision-points.

Read more at the AIM CAST Website.

I’ve always felt that it was shortsighted for eBook readers to merely try to emulate the traditional book experience.  Sure, it’s fun to see the page curl as you swipe the screen, etc., but for eReaders to really take off, they need to leverage their technology and offer advantages that a traditional book cannot.  vBookz, $4.99 from Mindex International, is an attempt to do just that, with an eBook reader that reads out loud, using Text-to-Speech.

vBookz boasts access to an impressive 30,000 books, but don’t expect the latest New York Times bestsellers.  These are public domain texts, typically from Project Gutenberg, including such classics as the Wizard of Oz, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Through the Looking Glass, Frankenstein and Gulliver’s Travels.  Amazon’s Kindle tried to offer text-to-speech capability for their modern eBooks.  As you might imagine, publishers objected since they also sell audiobooks and were afraid of missing out on royalties.

What a great opportunity for kids with print and other learning disabilities. I hope this takes off and becomes more of a standard experience across consumer devices.

Barnes and Noble today announced the release of a PC or Mac software application that can be used with electronic textbooks downloaded at a discount from Barnes & Noble. This marks the beginning of a new movement in textbook sales, and while there may be accessibility issues right off the bat, it can’t hurt to have one of the two major online book publishers pushing electronic textbooks to all.

DAISY Pipeline
http://www.daisy.org/project/pipeline

The DAISY Pipeline is a cross-platform, open source transformation utility, supporting conversion to and from a wide variety of file formats. It provides a comprehensive solution for converting text documents into accessible formats for people with print disabilities.

The DAISY Pipeline FAQ.

The TechAdapt Accessible Media Center (TAMC)
http://accessiblemediacenter.techadapt.com/index.html

Currently, TAMC can produce three different file types from NIMAS or DAISY input:

• Rich Text Format (RTF) files, which can be opened by any of the thousands of applications or hardware devices that understand this file format. RTF has been used in conjunction with screen readers, software magnifiers and other devices for many years, and it remains one of the most widely-used file formats ever. These RTFs can be used in many different ways:
  • with existing braille transcription packages to allow NIMAS or DAISY input to be used in the braille transcription process. This may be important for those companies or agencies which choose not to upgrade their braille transcription software at this time.
  • as input to audio production tools such as NextUp’s TextAloud and NaturalSoft’s Natural Reader.
  • with existing hardware devices that can interpret RTF but may not yet support DAISY
  • with screen readers and software magnifiers
• HTML, the popular file format understood by every Web browser. HTML-formatted books produced with TAMC include not only the content of the book, but navigation panes that allow users to easily find information by heading or page number. In addition, the background color and the font color and size of the content can be adjusted for maximum contrast and readability. TAMC’s HTML books require only a Web browser to read – no network connection or external software or plugins are required. Samples of the TAMC HTML output using the CAST NIMAS Exemplars can be found in our Samples section.
• DAISY, the digital talking book standard in use by libraries and educational institutions around the world. DAISY’s strong navigation facilities and support for synchronized text and audio, combined with the features of DAISY reader software and hardware, can significantly facilitate the reading process for print-impaired individuals.

In the future, TAMC will be extended to allow the production of other media formats, such as audio and braille. Requests from our clients for other functionality are always welcome.

“NIMAS is a technical standard used by publishers to produce source files (in XML) that may be used to develop multiple specialized formats (such as Braille or audio books) for students with print disabilities.

The source files are prepared using eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) to mark up the structure of the original content and provide a means for presenting the content in a variety of ways and styles. For example, once a NIMAS fileset has been produced, the XML and image source files may be used not only for printed materials, but also to create Braille, large print, HTML, DAISY talking books using human voice or text-to-speech, audio files derived from text-to-speech transformations, and more.

The separation of content from presentation is an important feature of the NIMAS approach. In most cases, a human will need to enhance the source files to provide additional features needed by diverse learners.

The various specialized formats created from NIMAS filesets may then be used to support a very diverse group of learners who qualify as students with print disabilities. It is important to note that most elementary and secondary educational publishers do not own all of the electronic rights to their textbooks and related core print materials and a copyright exemption allows them to deliver the electronic content of a textbook and related core print materials to the NIMAC, a national repository which began operations on 12/3/06, as long as the publishers possess the print rights. The NIMAS applies to instructional materials published on or after 7/19/06″

The NIMAS Workflow Graphic

]]> http://akaccessiblemedia.org/?feed=rss2&p=5 0