Valerie, you're bringing up some very good points. I'm not sure how to
help.
I know our scanning software makes mistakes with fonts and the positioning
of text sometimes. I can see how confusing it would be to find an item in
the table of contents in our books, especially the older ones. Does the
Don
Johnston software have a go to page function of some kind? That's how I
find
chapters in my daisy reader. Still, that would be difficult for someone
with
a cognitive or communication disability. I hear where you are coming from,
and I want to help Nicole enjoy her books. So my note here is written in
the
hope that we can find some middle ground somewhere.
Until recently, we had very few sighted members or volunteers. We are
growing as a community, not only in size but in our understanding of print
and what sighted members need. Like many in our community, I was born
blind
and raised on reading Braille. All of my reading has been either in
Braille
or in an audio form. Until last year, I didn't know what a font was, let
alone bold or italicized text. I didn't know why it was important to watch
for font changes and such. Judy patiently explained it so that I finally
internalized enough of it to change my proofreading habits. I have been
learning to change the font size for my chapter headings and make them
bold
so they're easier to find.
Most of our books have been prepared by people working in the dark with no
reference to what a sighted member needs. Is there something we can do
when
submitting books to make reading with sight easier? I need something
concrete that I can do because this isn't intuitive to me. I can't look
and
see what's wrong and why it's not working. Your family matters to me very
much, and I'm willing to learn.
Monica Willyard
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Valerie Maples
Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2009 9:12 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Feeling like a fool!
Try #2; first one vanished into cyberspace. Frowns.
And here-in lies a huge problem. if I am not a member, how would I
know it had not kept my italics and bold? there should be a way for
us to see the final product if we choose to view it for errors in the
"stripping process. How do you begin to report a problem when it is
massive amounts of text altered. In this case I was the proofreader
and I have looked at my text and TONS of italics were stripped.
I have to get Nichole to bed, but I must say one of my biggest gripes
is that there appears no way to preserve a table of contents for
sighted readers. Accessible to all is not remotely accessible to
kids with visual discrimination problems. Kids who need the most
support in developing their literacy skills like the very early skill
of locating something on a TOC are never going to find page numbers
with the number only one space after the chapter title. It is easy
to say your software makes adjustments, but the two tools for
students, Don Johnston Read Out Loud BookShare edition or XML are not
configurable to these ends, not to mention communication device users
like Nichole. These kids cannot search and find independently,
especially not more cognitively impaired or severely physically
handicapped kids.
I like that XML has some kind of page delimiter, But neither format
appears to retain our bracketed text alerting the reader that pictures
are missing or a page is blank. Only a number with no space or
notification. Very confusing to kids who are already struggling
readers...
Enough for now... I will lick my wounds and know little of what i
have submitted remotely resembles the finished product.
Valerie
On 11 01, 2009, at 7:13 PM, Mayrie ReNae wrote:
Hi Valerie,
Your italics should have been preserved. This particular issue
needs to be reported.
I'm sorry that you didn't know that everything would be left
justified. I thought you knew that. The paragraph set up is
supposed to be
determined by the reader of the book and his or her chosen adaptive
software. XML files will have a blank line between paragraphs, but
if you
want that blank line to be noted in the daisy or braille file, it
needs to
be replased with three asterisks.
Italics should be kept by bookshare's tools, and reported if they
haven't been. Bold should be kept by bookshare's conversion tools,
and
reported if it hasn't been. But page set up adaptations have always
disappeared. I wish we'd somehow been more clear in explaining that
to you.
I'm sorry you wasted time and energy. I'm so sorry.
Mayrie
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Valerie
Maples
Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2009 4:55 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Pavi Mehta
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Feeling like a fool!
Okay, I admit, I am a jump in kind of gal and try really hard to
absorb
everything I can and learn as I go how to get better. Because i am
not a
member, I had never seen what my proofs or scans look like after
they leave
me. After comments this week that finally sunk in, I asked Nichole
if she
minded if we downloaded a book I had proofed so we could compare the
two
versions.
We chose Mosaic by Amy Grant because of the heavy formatting due to
lyrics, interjected reflections and other strong visual elements.
Well, let me tell you, all those hours of formatting were all for
naught and
there is no way someone can tell what are lyrics, where chorus and
refrain
switch or anything else. It did not even retain many of my italic
sections.
Why is this? A child with visual discrimination issues will be
totally lost
because paragraphing is not apparent and without style transitions you
cannot differentiate form.
My heart is broken that all my work was wasted and I want to know why
virtually everything is lost, all is left justified, and even if a
whole
page I submit is appropriately in italics, maybe only one or two lines
appeared in italics. There is no rhyme or reason I can see to the
capricious application and want to know how to present so visual
readers
are not lost in endless, non-differentiated text. why even bother
with RTF
then?
A very disappointed Valerie
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