Well Mark I have been the first to make comment on Open University and to say when things have not been good for me but I first enrolled with the Open University in 1989 and have numerous courses, 1 BSc Hons and hopefully an LLB this year under my belt with brteaks in between I grant you and I have had 95% of course material in an accessable format. It has been the 5% I've had to work hard in getting but it was still a very small percentage. I have even seen improvements in accessability availability over the 2 years when I've battled hard for the additional 5% accessable format.
Eleanor----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Faben" <mark.faben@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 1:58 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: Accessible books
I think, you can, depending what format the immages are in, perform OCR on them.Mind, you might like to ask of the university why they've been so utterly shite and put the books up in an inaccesible format; it sounds like a lack of duty to service on their behalf, as for little extra effort they could have made this accessible and helped meat their dutys under the DDA to ensure they're making reasonable adjustment. Mind, if this is the Open university my hopes wouldn't be high, I've never heard anything but critasism for their comittment, or lack of it, to accessible course design. Mark Faben On 17/09/2010, Mike Moore <mikeis@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Mark, The University have an interactive library; imy library, but having tried the site, the books seem to be in image format. That is, the text is on the screen visible to sighted people, but JFW will not read it. I know a lot of people have had to scan in the books; I am trying to exhaust every avenue first before resorting to this! Take care and thanks for your reply, Mike MikeIs@xxxxxxxxxxxx ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Faben" <mark.faben@xxxxxxxxx> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2010 12:30 AM Subject: [access-uk] Re: Accessible booksHi, Was a while ago now I guess when I was a student, and EBooks were not really an option. 1995 to 1997 I studied my A- levels; all the books were on the RNIB standard four track audio cassette format. Some extracts from other books they didn't carry where I only needed a small bit I either scanned myself, student support at the colege scanned, or in a couple of cases I had someone read onto cassette. 1997 to 2000, my BSc cell and molecular biology; A lot of audio (RNIB four track style), cassettes; some from the RNIB, some through the RNIB from the American printing house for the Blind. A lot of scanning especially towards the beginning of the course, though towards the end all the acccademic papers I was able to get off of the Universitys web subscriptions to EJournals (don't think they all had online versions of the Journals when I started). In every case where I, or the university contacted the publisher, they refused to provide me with electronic copies of any books. On doing my Dissertation I needed one book in particular; the only copy in the UK was in the national library, so we got it on loan and the university scanned it in for me. Still used a few text books from RNIB and the APHB on casette for bits of the course though. The support from the University was good though, so at least everything from the lecturers was provided in an accessible format (mainly electronic documents suited me as I could Braille it out as and when I wanted on my embosser). 2001 My Masters degree (immunology and genetics). I only used a couple of Text books for this, which were on Cassette from RNIB and the american printing house for the blind, most of the matterial I used was from scientific journals and by this point they were all* online; the university had subscriptions and I was able to access them from the intranet. Do any of the publishers in your field your studying produce commercial EBooks of any of the text books you need? Mark Faben. On 15/09/2010, Barry Hill <bbinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Hi Mike I studied psychology/sociology from 2001 to 2005. When I did my degree, I had to scan every book I needed. Now, I know that student support at the university I went to do the scanning for visually impaired students. Cheers Barry _____ From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Moore Sent: 15 September 2010 5:37 PM To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Accessible books Hello, Can I ask all those whom attend/completed degree courses where they found a good source of text books in an accessible format? I am studying Psychology, as I am teaching/mentoring, and would appreciate where these sorts of publications can be found. I know that the publishers sometimes send the PDF of the book, but not all do. Thanks, Mike-- Mark Faben Web: http://www.accessibilitytester.com Music: http://www.music.accessibilitytester.com E-Mail: mark.faben@xxxxxxxxx LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-faben/12/a2/25b ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq-- Mark Faben Web: http://www.accessibilitytester.com Music: http://www.music.accessibilitytester.com E-Mail: mark.faben@xxxxxxxxx LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-faben/12/a2/25b ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq
** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq
