On the one hand, it is true that the blind are a minority of the general population, and braille readers are a minority of a minority. So it might seem reasonable to assume that braille readers would be the lowest class of readers on Bookshare. I have often thought so myself, and have complained every so often here about the faults of the braille produced by Bookshare.
However, I and some others have recently been doing work on testing some new improvements to the braille output that Bookshare will soon be implementing. There are some problems, but what I saw was already a serious improvement over the current output, which itself has improved in quality over the last year. So, I really don't believe that it is arguable that braille output is an afterthought at Bookshare. For those who spend a lot of time with a particular format for their reading, improvements can seem to never come fast enough; but they do come. In the three-and-a-half years that I have been downloading braille books, I have seen serious improvements over the quality of the braille I got back in 2006. This latest testing has shown me that Bookshare is putting significant resources into continuing that increase in braille quality despite the fact that it serves the minority of a minority that it does.
Evan----- Original Message ----- From: "Donna Goodin" <goodindo@xxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 4:05 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] changes in books and volunteering
Hi all,I have been feeling for some time that the blind/braille community is becoming almost an afterthought here at bookshare. I agree with the person who said that bookshare is getting away from its original mission, perhaps broadening it, but in broadening it, also focusing more on the reading issues of other groups. More and more I find that when I submit a book to bookshare, I have to produce two copies, one for myself, and one for Bookshare. Honestly, I'm not sure how much more of that I am willing to do. I also wonder if it's really realistic to have a one-size-fits-all approach to formatting. It makes total sense that the needs of a user who is sighted like Judy, would be different from the needs of someone like myself who is not. For example, the first thing I do when I pull up a book in MS-Word, is make the font size uniform throughout the document. I find that getting rid of large fonts makes the editing process much easier. Similarly, I don't care about page numbering in fiction books, and I don't want to have to forward my braille display through a line of dashes, another line that says "blank page" and then another line of dashes. Bookshare seems much more willing to ask me to put up with that, than to say that a sighted user should have to live without enlarged chapter headings. I'm not sure what the answer to all this is, but I will say that I've been feeling unhappy for a while now about what I'm seeing coming out of Bookshare.Best, Donna To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput 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.
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