[bksvol-discuss] changes in books and volunteering
- From: Donna Goodin <goodindo@xxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:05:38 -0400
Hi all,
I have been feeling for some time that the blind/braille community is
becoming almost an afterthought here at bookshare. I agree with the
person who said that bookshare is getting away from its original
mission, perhaps broadening it, but in broadening it, also focusing
more on the reading issues of other groups. More and more I find that
when I submit a book to bookshare, I have to produce two copies, one
for myself, and one for Bookshare. Honestly, I'm not sure how much
more of that I am willing to do. I also wonder if it's really
realistic to have a one-size-fits-all approach to formatting. It
makes total sense that the needs of a user who is sighted like Judy,
would be different from the needs of someone like myself who is not.
For example, the first thing I do when I pull up a book in MS-Word, is
make the font size uniform throughout the document. I find that
getting rid of large fonts makes the editing process much easier.
Similarly, I don't care about page numbering in fiction books, and I
don't want to have to forward my braille display through a line of
dashes, another line that says "blank page" and then another line of
dashes. Bookshare seems much more willing to ask me to put up with
that, than to say that a sighted user should have to live without
enlarged chapter headings. I'm not sure what the answer to all this
is, but I will say that I've been feeling unhappy for a while now
about what I'm seeing coming out of Bookshare.
Best,
Donna
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