I am sure that people will find that article very useful.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ray's Home" <rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 10:06 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: More Sight Village
OK, I'll come in latish on this, and pick up on Carol's comment:
"There are also plenty of other items in the exhibition which are not specifically hi-tech and it's these that they certainly ought to be talking about."
So, I'll talk about some of these things, at a little length, and largely eschew the Hi Tech stuff, especially from the large well established suppliers who are all too happy to exclude me through hyped up Uk pricing.
I didn't really fancy going to SV at all this time around, and while I
wasn't forced at knife point into the exhibition I got in there after
avoiding getting run down by one of our affluent S U V driving SV
attendees... I went mostly to take a look at reading and reading equipment,
with some emphasis, for business reasons, on Dolphin Producer, which I'll
come back to briefly later on.
RNIB, Calibre, Torch Trust, PIA and a few other reading matter producers
were neatly gathered up together on the second floor. AS usual I had much
difficulty knowing what I was gazing at with most stands because, as is
standard, no one gives any heed to the fact that many, if not most attendees
are, err, visually impaired. Still, you ask, as of course you have too, and
first off I found myself talking to a polite young woman promoting larger
print books. These weren't your plain two colour cover things from the
likes of ulviscroft, reminiscent of the old Penguin paperbacks in cover
design. I think this was something called Lightening Digital Press and the
format was around a larger standard dimension book often used for academic
mainstream publications. What was eye-catching was the colourful, but not
over arty, but normal looking, cover designs which managed larger print to
display author title etc while maintaining readability. I was drawn into
the marketing questionnaire which included such details as font size,
background page colour, line spacing and more. I was asked to think of a
general trade name for such books, and all I could come up with was 'Clear
Read'. Well, someone must have thought that a good idea, because when I
went the next day with a seeing friend, there was a nicely produced poster
with 'Clear Read' on it! I don't take the credit, because I imagine someone
had thought of it already, but maybe I've missed my vocation.
Calibre had a pretty meaty MP3 book catalogue for public inspection, and I
understand that they've 1,500 titles in this format so far, and some are
imported commercial readings of unabridged books, such as you might find at
your local library on cassette or standard audio CD. These aren't DAISY
formatted books though; standard MP3 tracks, which works well enough.
Haven't been to Calibre's website but I understand the full listing is
there.
Next door to Calibre was Torch Trust, again accidentally discovered to be
'Torch Trust' after a bit of perusing. What attracted me as a non-believer?
A CD that I took at first to be a sort of guide to the Divinci Code, but of
course I should have known better. It was a refutation of that most popular
book. Religious folk are, by and large, not taken with Dan Browne's
writing, and, from another standpoint, neither am I. It was revealed to me
though that Torch Trust is producing the New Testament in DAISY format and
it is being indexed at verse level. I was surprised to learn that they've
had to resolve copyright issues with the publisher of the modern version of
the bible they are working from. I thought this was unproblematic these
days with the passing of the new copyright laws, but I think the devil in
this detail was that Torch is probably including text as well as DAISY audio
navigation in this edition. RNIB seemed to think so too, when I did find
the Talking Book stand. I don't think the books of the bible have made it
intoTB as yet.
I must mention PIA who's hospitality was unstinting with provision of
coffee, biscuits and fairy cakes. PIA aren't a book provider but a
transcription company. They no longer sell hardware and software for
Braille transcription as the guy who did that has amicably parted company,
so to speak, and works with Craggside, I think, these days. I browsed
through there info pack and was surprised that they offer Moon
transcription. Seems its sometimes accomplished with the aid of Coral Draw
and a thermoform embosser. Demand for Moon is very limited, but its
intriguing that someone sees fit to offer it.
NLB was present too - while it does still have an independent identity. A
comment or two was made in passing at the disquiet of some as to the
forthcoming merger with RNIB. Braille users are understandably defensive of
Braille's position in what has become an almost post-Braille world, and seem
to doubt that their interests will be safeguarded, let alone promoted, in a
bigger more amorphous organisation like RNIB.
Amongst others displaying their wares I noticed at least two showing Braille
with pictures and some very colourful tactile books, from someone associated
with Linden Lodge in London, and also a German company. Travel-Eyes would
have interested me as I'm very partial to holidays in Greece, but at
£700-800 a time, out of my price range, although sighted guides get to go
half-price, I think.
I'll leave comments on Dolphin Producer for another message, not least
because they tie in with thoughts that pressed in on me while looking at
book providers and the thought that, if DAISY format production is, at long
last taking off, will there be scope for those with the enterprise and
energy to produce more reading stuff for us in niche markets or sectors?
Certainly Torch would appear to show the way here, although I think they are
a pretty richly endowed organisation. Certainly there was not much comment
fortcoming at RNIB re. progress on a UK 'Bookshare'; indeed the term
'Bookshare' seemed not to mean anything to the couple of guys I spoke to,
and they seemed largely unaware of this US venture which has thousands of
titles now, but they did seem aware something was going on the far side of
the pond.
DAISY formatting is rather less straightforward than many would perhaps like, but I'd like to touch on that in another message focusing more on Dolphins' Producer and Publisher software.
All I'll say on In Touch's coverage is, that the conversation that followed
contained one comment made by Iain Lackey that chimed with my experience now
and in the past. It's very much a fest for the ATW and education markets
and you should always bear in mind that you as an individual, especially if
you are poor and cannot tap into the funding the big boys survive on, then
much of what Sight Village offers is not for you at all.
From RayI can be contacted off-list at: mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx
-----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Carol Pearson
Doris,
I think you may not quite understand what I'm saying here. I'm talking
about those who don't yet know enough about computers and the internet to
even be interested in podcatching. There are also plenty of other items in
the exhibition which are not specifically hi-tech and it's these that they
certainly ought to be talking about.
-- Carol carol.pearson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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