[bksvol-discuss] Re: Question on Scan quality for blind vs other types of disabled bookshare readers
- From: Guido Corona <guidoc@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 21:50:10 -0600
Judy, I am writing some answers inline with your text. Look for GDC.
G.
Guido Dante Corona
IBM Research,
Human Ability & Accessibility Center, (HA&AC)
Austin Tx.
Phone: 512. 838. 9735.
Email: guidoc@xxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.ibm.com/able
". . . Maybe it was only those who were most certain they were right who
were guaranteed to be wrong. And that maybe, just maybe, those who
questioned the most were in the end those who came closest to being wise."
[David Poyer, The Command]
"Judy s." <cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
02/01/2008 02:15 PM
Please respond to
bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To
bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
cc
Subject
[bksvol-discuss] Question on Scan quality for blind vs other types of
disabled bookshare readers
I have some general questions regarding what is considered an 'excellent
scan.'
As one of the few sighted bookshare members, I'm realizing that what
constitutes
an "excellent" scan for me may be far different than what is an excellent
scan
for a blind member.
So, here's some very basic questions that I have, and associated thoughts.
smile.
1. Do the screen readers (JAWS, etc) make any distinction between font
sizing,
font type and page alignment (e.g., text aligned left, text aligned right)
in a
book.
GDC. Yes, screen readers are capable of conveying fonts, formatting etc.
. . Those are settings most commonly used when creating/editing
documents. Such settings are usually deactivated for mass reading.
2. Do .brf files code in any of those things (font sizing, font type and
page
alignment)?
GDC. Text Alignment, centering, paging, some font attributes, are
definitely available in BRF. Not sure about font sizes.
3. 2. Do Daisy files (and the associated html files) code in any of those
things
(font sizing, font type and page alignment)?
DAISY file should have page alighnment. Not sure about font info, but I
believe so. Most likely have centering, bolding, etc. . . Do not worry
about HTML: it's only a secondary/backdoor format for our purpose.
Regardless, we should maintain such info also in view of possible future
reprocessing in formats that may support them.
G.
I'm asking because these things do make a huge difference to the
readability of
a scanned book to a sighted member.
In several of the books I've validated that were rated excellent, I've
found
numerous fonting and formating problems that made the book incredibly
difficult
to read for a sighted reader.
If fonting (size and font type) and page alignment are stripped out when
the
files are converted to .brf and daisy files (and the associated html files
created by Daisy), then I'm wasting my time as a validator correcting
those
kinds of problems.
However, if fonting and alignment are carried through, and it isn't
obvious to a
blind validator or member that this is happening, the quality of books
will be
vastly inferior for sighted members, and this will surface as an issue as
Bookshare's member list expands to include more disabled users that are
sighted.
So - that's why I want to know what happens with fonting and page
alignment.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or insight into this. smile.
Judy s.
cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list
of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
Other related posts:
