[guispeak] eBook Accessibility

  • From: "Will Pearson" <will-pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <Programming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 21:42:02 -0000

Hi;

I've just downloaded a few e-books from Amazon, and thought I would notify you 
of the current state of affairs, as books are useful in a range of situations.

Whilst Adobe still allow content publishers to disallow content extraction by 
access technology, meaning screen readers won't be able to read books that have 
had this option disallowed, more publishers are allowing it.  I downloaded 
about three books published by John Wiley and son.  All these had content 
extraction by access technology allowed, which was something Wiley turned off 
in their e-books only six or so months ago.  So, it looks like Wiley books are 
now accessible, as well as those from some smaller publishers.

Whilst persuading publishers to allow access is a difficult task, and one Adobe 
should have taken the lead on by not allowing them to disable content 
extraction by access technology, it does seem as some of the big publishers are 
now gaining social consciences.

Will Pearson
Microsoft MVP

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