[bksvol-discuss] checking in re. discussion topics
- From: Alisa Moore <alisam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:48:35 -0800
Hi everyone. I've been following the very active discussions over the weekend,
and wanted to connect with you all about a few of the topics.
Regarding Diagram/Poet, it's true that the funding is provided for image
descriptions for textbooks. That said, we have several volunteers writing
descriptions for other books, and we can continue to do this as time and
resources allow. Unfortunately, most images in Bookshare books are stripped
out, so our selection is limited for now. However, I believe that our work
with Poet/Diagram will further the technology to provide image descriptions in
all books in the future. Meanwhile, we were assured by our engineers today
that they are making it a priority to find a way to preserve images in our
Bookshare scanned books which is a step in the right direction.
Regarding the wish list, we currently have many books in process and are
placing a special emphasis on getting wish list books into the collection.
We'll continue to focus on the list, however, it is true that we have limited
resources (beyond our small volunteer proofreading team) to proof books (we
need more proofreading volunteers!). Although Carrie can technically scan any
book, funding to pay vendors for proofreading is prioritized for textbooks.
I'd love suggestions for growing our proofreading volunteer pool, as that will
be a big focus for me this year.
Regarding the question of, "Why provide image descriptions if most of our
members are sighted?"...We have thousands of members who are blind and visually
impaired, and we want books to be accessible to all of our members whenever
possible. This is also true for our student members who are blind/VI.
Textbooks often contain over 1,500 images, and teachers simply don't have the
time to describe individual images to their students. Having images described
in textbooks allows students to study independently, and reduces the need for
each teacher to read each image to each student, one at a time.
Thanks for all your great questions and dialogue.
Alisa K. Moore
Volunteer Program Manager
Benetech
www.bookshare.org<http://www.bookshare.org>
650-352-0087
Alisa K. Moore
Volunteer Program Manager
Benetech
www.bookshare.org
650-352-0087
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