[Web4lib] RE: Accessibiity of Google Books

[Willett, Perry]

Bill's message sums up our work nicely on accessibility for U-M
students. We're learning a lot about accessibility as we've worked on
this functionality. His proposal for state libraries being the locus of
authentication/authorization for visually impaired endusers is a very
interesting idea. A lot of work would have to happen before this would
become a reality, but it suggests a path forward that we didn't know
about before, so thanks for that. 

There's more about MBooks accessibility with a list of access keys here:
http://sdr.lib.umich.edu/m/mdp/accessibility.html

We've been working with a U-M School of Information student this summer.
She's done an assessment of MBooks using various devices and software
for visually impaired endusers. Based on her recommendations, we're
developing a list of changes to make in our current system. 

Perry Willett
Head, Digital Library Production Service
300 Hatcher North
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1205
Ph: 734-764-8074
Fax: 734-647-6897
Email: pwillett at umich.edu

 

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>Message: 2
>Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:02:34 -0500
>From: "Graczyk, William" <WGracz at milwaukee.gov>
>Subject: [Web4lib] Accessibiity of Google Books
>To: <web4lib at webjunction.org>
>
>Ever since I heard about the Google mass digitization project in
>December, 2004, I have been speculating (and, I admit, boring a lot of
>other people with my speculations) about what it might mean for blind
>people. I thought that in some utopia the project could possibly give
>them universal access to the world's literature. The University of
>Michigan has now digitized over one million of its books. I noticed on
>one of their blogs just now that they have figured out a way to make
all
>million-plus volumes already scanned available to people with visual
>handicaps who can use a screen reader. Here is how they do it:
>"Access for students with visual impairments. For many years, students
>with disabilities could request to have books digitized by the UM
Office
>of Services for Students with Disabilities (OSSD). Many universities
>have similar services. The students could then use the digitized books
>with screen readers such as JAWS. This is explicitly allowed under
>section 121 of U.S. Copyright law:
>http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#121
><http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html> 
>We now have a system in place for students with visual impairments to
>use MBooks [i.e. the digitized collection] in much the same way. Once a
>student registers with OSSD, any time she checks out a book already
>digitized by Google, she will automatically receive an email with a
URL.
>Once the student selects the link, she is asked to login. The system
>checks whether the student is registered with OSSD as part of this
>program, and whether she has checked out this particular book. If the
>student passes both of those tests, she will get access to the entire
>full-text of the book, whether it is in copyright or not, in an
>interface that is optimized for use with screen readers.
>Currently, this system is available to UM students with visual
>impairments. We are investigating the possibility of including students
>with learning disabilities as well." 
>See: http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/blt/
>under the dates of May 20 and May 15, 2008
>If you can expose the content with JAWS, can you make a DAISY digital
>talking book out of it, with synthesized speech? Can you use some of
the
>internal hyperlinks Google sometimes creates to create the navigation
>structure of a DAISY-formatted book?
>If you can allow University of Michigan students to use the collection,
>can you allow others access too, perhaps through a password protection
>system administered by a state library for the blind, as many of them
>administer Overdrive access or access to the National Library Service's
>BARD project that makes available downloadable Braille and digital
>talking books?
>Michigan exposes out-of-copyright titles through an Open Archives
>Interface to record harvesting by the University of Chicago Library.
>Could this be done for works in copyright for students at the
University
>of Chicago, or anywhere else, as it is done for students at the
>University of Michigan? Lots of questions, not many answers, but there
>are now more than a million books that some blind people at the
>University of Michigan have free and instant access to.
>Bill Graczyk
>wgracz at milwaukee.gov
>Wisconsin Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
>http://dpi.wi.gov/rll/wrlbph/index.html