[access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services
- From: "James O'Dell" <jamesodell@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 18:01:07 +0100
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.
Not for reasons of accessibility though, probably down to a very worthy
preference for unabridged audio and the story being told as the author
intended, which I share.
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.
It becomes an accessibility issue if
it prevents people from accessing the book at all, particularly given the
buildup to its publication and the fact that blind children wouldn't ahve
been able to share the book with sited piers when it was originally
published.
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.
Exactly. The Scottish Braille Press did an admirable job. the reason I
mentioned them having to deal with all of those invoices etc was to point
out that, as a charity, they were overwhelmed with orders for this book, and
that just shows the difference in scale between people like Scottish Braille
Press and the big publishers, and that they can't be expected to manage the
whole book industry for blind people on their own, as so many publishers
seem to expect them to.
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.
Yes, progress is being made, but I doubt much of this is really aimed at
improving access, we are just riding on the back of mainstream provision.
If we can't get the same access, at the same time, at the same price, with
mmaterial as commercially popular as Harry potter, that is guaranteed to
sell well, what hope have we got with lesser-known works? The people who
deserve the real credit are people like Michael Palin, who has worked with
the specialist libraries to make his books accessible. He may be nearing
the end of his travelling career, but I could imagine him recording his
books and making the electronic versions available to NLB even if BBC Audio
Books were to lose interest.
Cheers
James
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