Hi Bryan, You wrote: > The folks at Adobe have released the fourth preview version of Adobe Digital > Editions (ADE) 1.8, which is their attempt at making an accessible epub/PDF > reader that can handle reading materials scrambled using Adobe's DRM > protection scheme.
Thanks for the comments on version 4 of Adobe Digital Editions 1.8 Preview. I believe that version 2 mostly improved the accessibility for JAWS and NVDA users under Windows, and that version 3 let you authorize USB connected devices (i.e., dedicated ereader devices like the Nook and Kobo Reader) and simply migrate books in ADE 1.7 to ADE 1.8 Preview (which must have only worked for low vision or print-impaired readers who could already manage to use the regular version of ADE without any accessibility features). The other feature notes for version 4 state that they added support for printing books with appropriate permissions, and that you can now authorize computers and devices using Vendor ID other than Adobe ID. I assume this means that if ebooks were purchased by a school from a particular vendor, you could authorize their use without making each individual user apply for an Adobe ID. I'm hoping that the Bookle app for reading DRM-free ePub also adds some more navigation options in later versions. It would be useful to move back to the last page of the previous chapter with a single command press, for example, along with better page navigation options. These apps don't do as well for reading textbook material. I was pleasantly surprised to find that books issued by Inkling on the iPad are accessible with VoiceOver. Inkling is one of the developers that is planning a big push into the textbook market, and they released a set of Frommer's travel guides designed to take advantage of the newest iPad's retina graphics. Well, those travel guides, which are optimized for visual presentation of images, are also all accessible with VoiceOver! They're planning to expand heavily in their iOS textbook offerings next fall, and they've come a long way from their first trial releases (where VoiceOver could hardly read any of the controls). There are a number of free eBooks available from O'Reilly press on the future of electronic publishing, and the prospects with new standards of ePub 3 and HTML 5. You can get them either from iBooks or from the O'Reilly site. (The difference being that at the O'Reilly site you'll have access to multiple DRM-free formats, and they will always update the version you can download from your account with the latest information. Also, for an earlier publication, such as the "Breaking the Page" preview, they also have DAISY format). So links are to the O'Reilly site, but you can also find them in iBooks. Here are some of the most highly rated and most topical of those free books: • Publishing with iBooks Author An Introduction to Creating Ebooks for the iPad By Nellie McKesson, Adam Witwer http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025597.do • Accessible EPUB 3 Best Practices for Creating Universally Usable Content By Matt Garrish http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025283.do • HTML5 for Publishers By Sanders Kleinfeld http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920022473.do • Breaking the Page: Preview Edition By Peter Meyers (3 chapter free sampler of full book) http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920020677.do The Preview version of this last ebook has a further description at one of the O'Reilly pages: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/12/breaking-the-page-preview.html HTH. Cheers, Esther <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
