Making Textbooks Accessible

to All

http://blog.zamzar.com/tag/convert-ebook/

OverviewOverview

DyslexiaDyslexia• ‘Specific Learning

Difficulty’• Not always recognised • Hard to get a

‘statement of special educational needs’ (SEN)

• Can inclusion and personalisation work?

Technology Currently UsedTechnology Currently Used• School Networks – TTS

and spell checkers

• 85% share computers at home

• Rarely offered alternative formats or the supporting technologies

• Students have gone mobile

http://www.slideshare.net/eadraffan/crosscultural-study-on-mobile-phones

Accessible Resources Project

Some Issues of the DaySome Issues of the Day• Lack of access and the appreciation of the need to

have learning materials in alternative formats at the same time as other students

• Lack of support for personalised technologies that may provide access to e-text in schools and a lack of e-texts.

• Lack of time and training for this type of support• Most teachers make print based

worksheets rather use e-texts

Student’s attitudesStudent’s attitudes• Happy to use

technology when given the equipment, time and skills

• Best when able to take it home – take ownership and control desktop settings

• See improvements and gain confidence. Over 50% make changes to their settings

http://www.lexdis.org.uk

• 2/3 children and young people reading websites every week

•

• ½ children and young people

reading emails and blogs/ networking websites (such as Bebo, MySpace) every week. (National Literacy Trust, 2009)

Children reading onlineChildren reading online

Dyslexic Learners’ NeedsDyslexic Learners’ Needs

Easy access to text that can be adapted to allow for:•Font and colour changes•Text to Speech•Text Highlighting•Line spacing

•When young - look and feel of the books their peers are accessing if possible – PDF an option•Study skill support and right Assistive Technology

Desktop Text to SpeechDesktop Text to Speech

So where are we going?

The i- and The e-The i- and The e-

Student’s Leading the WayStudent’s Leading the Way• Stanza, Blio, Calibre, EasyReader, Adobe

PDF, Google Books• Image to Text, iBooks -ePub and PDF reader

-Supports VoiceOver interactions - iPhone• Moon+ Reader -Supports txt, html, epub,

zip, opds - control of colour, line spacing, font size, orientation etc - Android

iCloudChrome OS

Pros and cons of the e-text Pros and cons of the e-text and the i-worldand the i-world

• Audio poor in classroom• No multitasking• Desktop software tends to do

more within one program• May not be able to combine

such things as TTS, text highlighting, font and line changes as well as annotations.

• Have to remember to synch with one computer and not all apps accept accessible formats

• Light and fast boot up• Can offer font changes and

text to speech• Build a personalised toolkit• Often not so expensive that

you cannot try another app• Many options for similar

strategies

• Long lasting battery for reading at will.

Who am I?Who am I?• I have Cerebral Palsy and Dyslexia• Have worked with computers and Assistive Technology

professionally for more then 20 years• Have worked at a National Upper secondary school for

people with physical disabilities• work at the Community council of Helsingborg as a

computer technician with special responsibility for Assistive Technology

• I am collaborating with developers to get better Assistive Technology (e.g Daisy)

• Local Vice President of a Dyslexia organisation

How do we support How do we support studentsstudents

• Assistive Technology on every student´s and teacher´s computer in schools (primary to adult) e.g. Easy Reader, TTS engines, OCR engines, JDVoicemail etc, 12 programs in all, to date on 7000+ computers

• All schools & public librarys will have Easy Converter A centre to support adult students with Dyslexia and /or Dyscalculia

• Register students to have personal access to the Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille catalogue of over 90,000 Daisy Books

• Register school libraries to the Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille.

DemonstrationDemonstration

Inaccessible

Navigation, text to speech or real audio plus the ability to annotate.

Thank YouThank YouMrs E.A. Draffan, WAIS, ECS, University of Southampton. ead@ecs.soton.ac.ukwww.access.ecs.soton.ac.uk

Joakim Uppsäll-Sjögren, IT-technician for Assistive

TechnologyCommunity Council of

Helsingborg, Sweden joakim.uppsall-

sjogren@helsingborg.sewww.helsingborg.se

The following slides are for your information Do explore the web sites and these slides are

available on Slideshare

www.jisctechdis.ac.uk

Some of the Companies Some of the Companies supporting e-texts supporting e-texts

ReferencesReferences1. The Rose Review (2009) http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/news/rose-

review.html 2. Support and Aspiration: A new approach to special educational

needs and disability - a consultation (2011) https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CM%208027

3. JISC TechDis Guidance and Publisher LookUp http://www.publisherlookup.org.uk/

4. Load2Learn – Department of Education Project http://training.dyslexiaaction.org.uk/load2learn/trainingpilot

5. Books for All – Scotland http://www.books4all.org.uk/Home/6. Access My Studies – http://www.accessmystudies.com/ 7. METALL - http://www.innovateuk.org/content/news/new-research-

to-show-how-advanced-uses-of-metadata.ashx 8. MyDocStore - http://www.mydocstore.org.uk/