Good evening,
As some may remember, a volunteer raised a question last fall about inserting
the word [Chapter] and a number where a book has only a title. For example,
adding [Chapter 1] before the chapter title "Away in a Manger", to aid with
navigation.
I want to thank that volunteer for raising the question at all. This led to
some really interesting conversations and learning for us as a team. We did
come to the conclusion that the word "chapter" or other similar signifiers
should not be added to books where this is missing, even if there is no table
of contents. Concerns were raised about copyright issues and that as always, we
are trying to keep the books as close to the original published file as we
possibly can.
However, they had also raised the issue of accessibility. I met with a few
people on staff who either use refreshable braille displays or taught VI
students to talk this through. They shared that if you use the DAISY file
instead of BRF in the device, that you can then access all of the navigation
options embedded in the file. It was also their opinion that unless they are
embossing braille, there is no reason that a user should need to use the BRF
instead of DAISY file and that the download process should be the same. Based
on that information, we feel that there is a fully accessible option available
without the addition of "chapter."
It sounds like this is an opportunity for us to add this information to the
Help Center and/or training materials to ensure that all users are downloading
the file type that would be the best user experience for them. We do currently
have some information on the BrailleNote Help Center article here:
https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/how-do-i-get-books-my-braille-note, ;
but to my knowledge, need more information about the benefits of using the
different file types.
Please let me know if there are lingering concerns about this and my apologies
for the drawn out nature of this request. I'm sure they did not expect it to
set off a full internal investigation <smile>
Best,
Amanda
Amanda (Brown) Landavazo
Community Champion
Benetech
amandab@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:amandab@xxxxxxxxxxxx>