[Web4lib] Google Allows Downloads of out-of-copyright Books

[Deborah Kaplan]

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006, Grace J. Agnew wrote:

> Can you have your computer read it aloud, if these are essentially 
> images, such as JPEGs, wrapped in PDF.  When I read Richard's statement, 
> I wondered how the images wrapped in PDF would affect disability 
> access.  Can/should libraries recommend this Google service, if it 
> doesn't support minimal functionality for the disabled.
> 
> --Or does it?  Intuitively, I would say it doesn't, but I don't have 
> handy access to a screen reader.  Has anybody tested it?

my screen reader doesn't, but my screen reader is primarily
designed for speech to text, not text-to-speech. It's possible
that the underlying OCR which makes the books searchable is in
fact visible to JAWS, but I doubt it. It's possible, though.

As for the poster who pointed out in the books have this same
limitation -- well, as long as we are using computers, we should
be trying to improve on the limitations. Technologically it is
not that difficult.

-Deborah