[access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services

  • From: "Tink Watson" <tink@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 10:11:15 +0100

Yusef,

I'm right up there on the soap box with you on this one. I'm just not convinced that the Harry Potter books are the fairest example to be given up as unacceptable.

The situation with the HP books isn't ideal, but it is a positive step in the right direction. I don't know of any other books which are automatically made available in accessible format, via the mainstream high street, and which have not been abridged.

Agreed, the UK audio version timing hasn't been great. It's been expensive. But it *has been made. Compare this to the countless books that never make it into accessible format at all. Compare it against all those books which are abridged so aggressively that it's common to end up with less than a fifth of the original story.

Of all the people we should be targetting, I think those responsible for the HP books are probably the least guilty of preventing our right to read.

Tink.


Tink.
----- Original Message ----- From: "yusuf" <yusufaosman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 2:36 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services



Tink, I 'm afraid I have to disagree with you on this. the delay to the last
Harry Potter book was unacceptable. The fact is publishers do not take
making books available in accessible formats seriously enough because the
law is not strong enough and I'm not merely talking about audio but Braille,
large print and digital. We have known about the print publication date of the next Harry Potter book since December, will we get an audio version at the same time? I doubt it.


When I contacted the Harry Potter publishers I was told that they weren't
responsible for the Braille edition and that I should contact Scottish
Braille Press. But they can only produce the Braille copy when the publisher
gives them a copy to Braille. So the responsibility still lies with the
publicher not Scottish Braille.


The responsibility for providing different formats for a book has to be with the print publisher and the law needs to be strengthened to make that clear.

It shouldn't be up to the author to sort out an unabridged version of a book, the publisher should be ensuring that the book is made available in different formats as a matter of course. I have a bit of sympathy with the smaller publishers but a publisher that makes the money that scholastic does has no excuse whatsoever.

The American edition (audio) was available at exactly the same time as the print because (and I am guessing here) the ADA insists on it. Also it was possible to download the Order of the Phoenix from bookshare within hours of the publication. Why have we not got a similar thing to bookshare in this country? Or even better why doesn't the UN do something useful for once and get an international agreement exepting print handycapped people from copyright laws all over the world so that where ever a person lives they can access things like bookshare?

I get very passionate about this subject because the right to read is a fundamental human right in my opinion. Reading is so much a part of developing the mind and the soul and we're being denied that right.

Ok I'll get off my soap box and go back to spell checking my work instead.(smile)
Yusuf
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tink Watson" <tink@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 10:30 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services



James,

The Harry Potter books are the only books, to my knowledge, to have
been made available in audio format, unabridged, at the behest of the
author. The delay in the publication of the audio version last time wasn't
an accessibility issue. It was due to problems finding time in Stephen
Fry's schedule. The American audio version was available almost
immediately.


   Problems with the Scottish Braille telephone answering service are not
the responsibility of the author or publishers, even if the initial
responsibility to create accessible format versions is.

   The fact that these books are made available to the mainstream market
is a step forward. The fact that they are unabridged is one step more.
They're still expensive and the timing last time around wasn't ideal, but
let's not waste time bashing one of the few authors/publishers where some
progress is being made.

Cheers,
Tink.
----- Original Message ----- From: "James O'Dell" <jamesodell@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 8:53 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services



Hi Damon

I kind of see what you mean, but how many times have we as visually
impaired people heard companies say 'yes, very nice idea, but there just
isn't the demand...'. They obviously have their own market research and
for whatever reason don't seem to think it's worth making their material
accessible. They probably just look at the current number of people
receiving braille/talking books and decide it's really not worth the
'bother'. I guess there are many blind people in the UK who don't even
receive the services that *are* available due to lack of awareness or
because they don't think they deserve 'charity'. There isn't any
evidence to suggest that these people would be willing and able to adopt
an accessible solution, should it be developed. This, unfortunately, is
why we need the DDA - because commercial organisations with no sense of
social responsibility will always see disability and disabled people as a
problem/no concern of theirs; the medical model is alive and kicking. In
the short-to-medium term, I don't see how publishers could really benefit
from providing their own accessible solution once cost of security and
implementation are taken into account - the demographic of the blind
community is hardly attractive to them. If they were really going to
make huge profits from disabled people, don't you think they would have
done something by now? Time for less carrot, more stick?


And while we're here, does anyone know what the arrangements will be for
getting hold of the next Harry Potter book in an accessible format when
it comes out?  Are the publishers still being as intransigent as ever,
saying 'shan't!' and 'We'll thcream and thcream and thcream until We're
thick!'? Is the audio version coming out any soonner this time, or will
it be a case of ordering it from Scottish Braille Press and hanging on
the phone for half an hour while they try to locate your invoice in the
huge pile?

James
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