It's a very interesting read. TC James, Lyn, Nash & Twinny On 4 Feb 2010, at 23:32, Jess wrote:
> I will take a look at it. > Thank you very much. > Jes > > On Feb 4, 2010, at 1:56 PM, Carolyn wrote: > >> Jess: >> I was reading a Syndicated Columnists Weekly, and ran across an article I >> think would interest you. >> It is entitled "Justice Department Settles Kindle On-Campus Cases," >> It is by Associated Press. It ran in the Wall Street Journal on January 18, >> 2010. It discusses the use of Ebooks in classrooms, and the charge against >> Amazon.com re the Kindle's lack of accessibility. >> >> >> I could send you the braille copy if you can't find it on line and are >> interested. >> >> Carolyn >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: Jess >> To: [email protected] >> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 11:45 AM >> Subject: Re: A call to action! >> >> Thanks to everyone that has responded so far to my post. >> For those people who suggest that we just scan our books, call me a breaker >> of the old tradition, but scanners are just not practical anymore. More and >> more books are going to be on the electronic internet, and I think that a >> good start is for us to get a following. We should post about this issue on >> blogs, twitter, and anywhere people will listen to us. >> I appreciate those that feel I have a valid complaint, and I think that all >> of us who really care about this should contact the publishers to discuss >> this with them. >> I completely forgot about other print-disabled people sharing my concerns, >> but that just makes my case all the stronger. >> >> On Feb 1, 2010, at 12:05 PM, Carolyn wrote: >> >>> Jes: >>> I'm not currently a student, but you have a vallid complaint. I wound up >>> scanning a print textbook for a friend of mine after he purchased the >>> e-book and found it inaccessible for the reasons you state. >>> I'm not sure where one would start, but I would think about consulting >>> disabled student services at your school, and also contact the NFB in >>> Maryland to check out whether anyone there is addressing this issue. >>> HTH >>> Carolyn >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: Jess >>> To: [email protected] >>> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 5:49 AM >>> Subject: A call to action! >>> >>> First, a question. >>> How many people like to read books? I know I do. How many people were >>> overjoyed that entire text books were going to be put online? I was. >>> However, a lot of EBooks cannot be read by any screen reader we have today. >>> Why? Simply put, the text of the book is contained within an OCR image, and >>> there is a special reader required to read them. These are not your >>> standard PDF files, and the books are protected by DRM, so there is no way >>> to extract the contents into programs like text edit. >>> As a book worm, I tried out the Kindle app for the IPhone, and was >>> delighted to find that a book that I wanted to read was available on the >>> Kindle store. However, my joy turned to bitter disappointment when I >>> realized that while I could navigate the book's table of contents, cover, >>> and chapters to an extent, the text was completely inaccessible. >>> Furthermore, my text books for my classes were not usable. Ladies and >>> gentlemen, I fear that unless we as blind consumers stand up, and demand >>> that these publishers put their text books into standard native file >>> formats, such as pdf or doc, we will lose a lot of access to books, and our >>> chances to succeed at college will be severely diminished. So, >>> anyone have any thoughts of what to do? >>> I thought about starting a petition to ask Amazon to require their >>> publishers to make their books usable, but figured that I would be a >>> laughing stock for doing so, as most publishers probably wouldn't have the >>> time to read, much less consider what I was asking for. >>> My point is, as long as E texts get more and more graphical, our chances to >>> read will be greatly impaired, and as more and more books become >>> exclusively online, we will lose access to the latest editions of books >>> altogether. Thoughts, anyone? >>> You may also skype me at pianomagic88 >>> >>> Jes >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
