From the professor’s word processor to the student’s smartphone- practical accessible EPUB using familiar tools

Handouts Media

Presented at 3:30pm in Westminster IV on Wednesday, November 14, 2018.

Speaker(s)

• Richard Orme, Mr, DAISY Consortium
• Erin C. Kirchner-Lucas, RedShelf Digital Accessibility Director, RedShelf
• George Kerscher, Chief Innovations Officer, DAISY Consortium
• Amy Salmon, Senior Accessibility Consultant, TFA Consulting, Inc.

Session Details

• Length of Session: 1-hr
• Format: Lecture
• Expertise Level: Beginner
• Type of session: General Conference

Summary

In addition to published books and journals, learners also need access to accessible documents produced by their own school and professors. This session will demonstrate practical workflows for creating accessible and flexible course materials.

Abstract

EPUB has been extensively been adopted by large and small publishers as modern and accessible format. There are many way to read EPUBs on large and small screen devices, with eyes, ears and fingers- in other ways, to suit the circumstances and abilities of the individual learners. But how easy is it create an EPUB? This session will provide some often requested simple steps so that a busy professor or school admin can use familiar tools to quickly make great EPUBs that can be used by learners with and without disabilities.

Keypoints

1. Making an EPUB isn't rocket science
2. The tools to make an EPUB are familiar and simple to use
3. There are options for various platforms and level of required sophistication

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Mobility, Vision

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Alternate Format, Assistive Technology, EPUB Track, Other, Teaching about Accessibility in Curriculum, Uncategorized, Web/Media/App Access

Speaker Bio(s)

Richard Orme

When teaching in a college in rural England more than 30 years ago, Richard encountered his first blind student, beginning a career in what we now refer to as accessibility. He has worked for local, national and international organizations, with young, old, and very old people, with visual, physical, dual sensory and cognitive disabilities. Having identified a critical lack of accessible curriculum materials in the UK, Richard led an initiative for a national database of accessible textbooks, now grown to become the national Education Collection operating as RNIB Bookshare.

Richard is Chief Executive of the DAISY Consortium, the global organization whose mission is to develop standards and solutions for accessible publishing and reading.He volunteers in his community as a home visitor, providing technology support for people with disabilities. Richard’s brother James has a profound learning disability, and his son Jim has dyslexia and is currently studying aerospace engineering at university.

Erin C. Kirchner-Lucas

George Kerscher

“Access to information is a fundamental human right.” 2003 to the United Nations

George Kerscher began his IT innovations in 1987 and coined the term "print disabled." George is dedicated to developing technologies that make information not only accessible, but also fully functional in the hands of persons who are blind or who have a print disability. He believes properly designed digitally published materials and web pages can make information accessible to all people. George is an advocate for semantically rich content which can be used effectively by everybody. As Chief Innovations Officer of the DAISY Consortium, Senior Advisor, Global Literacy to Benetech, and member of Publishing Groups in the W3C, Kerscher is a recognized international leader in document access. In addition, Kerscher chairs the DAISY/NISO Standards committee, Chairs the Steering Council of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI, and also serves on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Amy Salmon

Amy Salmon has been a Senior Accessibility Consultant for Tech for All, Inc. (TFA) since 2003. TFA is a 17 years old highly regarded international accessibility & universal design consulting firm that serves small to Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, and non profit organizations representing people with disabilities. Amy conducts accessibility analysis and evaluations of websites, software, content, and integrated hardware & software applications.

Legally blind since 1995, Amy combines her knowledge of access technology with training and expertise in accessibility guidelines and best practice to provide TFA clients with a comprehensive analysis of the accessibility and usability of their products. She has worked with variety of industries including airlines, eCommerce, higher education, publishing, retail, and telecommunication. Amy’s goal is to make accessibility for all an integral part of the future.

She has published and presented numerous times at the CSUN International Technology and Persons with Disabilities and at the Accessing Higher Grounds Conferences. She has a Master’s of Science degree in Rehabilitation for the Visually Impaired from Northern Illinois University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.

Handout(s)

• From the professor's word processor to the student's mobile reading experience- practical accessible EPUB using familiar tools
• From the professor's word processor to the student's mobile reading experience- practical accessible EPUB using familiar tools