Hi Christine, Amazon is planning to work with OverDrive to implement library ebook downloads. There is an OverDrive app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad that will let you download audiobooks and ebooks from libraries, and other independently purchased sources. I know you're already familiar with this from previous discussions on this list. However, the standard ebook DRM scheme supports Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) as the format for digital rights management. No application on any platform (Mac, Windows, or iOS devices) that supports a screen reader gives accessible means of reading DRM content, as far as I know. On the iOS devices, I believe that only the OverDrive app and another app called BlueFire currently supports library ebook downloads. Both these apps behave like the Kindle app, and like the Kindle desktop reader for the Mac -- you can navigate and select books, but the actual content is not exposed to the screen reader. The text is there; you could do a screen capture and send the results to an OCR program, page by page. It's just set up so that screen readers can't access the text content. And if you try opening a DRM-free ePub book file, that you can read perfectly well in iBooks, Kobo Books, Stanza, etc. in one of these apps, or in Stanza Desktop, you'll find that you can't read that either. (I checked this out by opening some of these files in BlueFire, for example. and the content is blocked to VoiceOver when it's sent to this app.) Presumably this is because these apps are designed to handle Adobe's ADE formats to protect content, and so as requirement of that DRM they block accessing all text content to screen readers as part of the required support for Adobe ADE digital rights management.
In the U.S. and Canada, OverDrive is one of the two main systems for public library downloads of ebook and audiobook material, the other being NetLibrary. (The original distinction for audiobook downloads was that NetLibrary handled Recorded Books, and OverDrive handled other distributors, but this has changed.) In both cases, these vendors have adopted Adobe's ADE as the digital rights protection format for ebooks. OverDrive is used internationally, as well, and so libraries in the U.K., Australia, etc. that use it for downloadable ebooks are also using Adobe's DRM. Sorry not to have better news about this. The only way to get any of these library ebooks, or other ebooks that you've independently purchased that also use Adobe ADE, to display on your Apple device, is by removing the DRM. This is also true for the Amazon Kindle ebooks, which use a different form of DRM. On the Windows PC side, it's apparently possible to use the Kindle desktop app. Many of the methods of removing DRM involve using Calibre (in various versions for Windows, Mac, etc.), which has accessibility issues for visually impaired individuals. There are some alternative plugins, and AppleScripts, which you can read about if you do a search for "Apprentice Alf's Blog". There's a specific DeDRM AppleScript listed there which I've not tried that is supposed to work on Kindle books and other formats. Also, if it's not obvious, Kindle ebooks are sent to registered devices, and the files encode the serial numbers. So you have to supply a device serial number for the purchased ebooks that matches the serial number of your Kindle. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Apr 21, 2011, at 03:22, Christine Grassman wrote: > This actually does bring up something pertinent, for any Apple devices: I > read yesterday that Amazon is going to make it possible for Kindle owners to > download library e-books. Apparently, there are something like eleven > thousand libraries which provide e-downloads of books. I was completely > unaware of this. Does anyone know whether such downloads are accessible to > us? If so, what format is used, and do we have to do anything beyond what > sighted people have to do to download and read them, whether on a computer or > phone? > Christine > On Apr 21, 2011, at 7:44 AM, Annie Skov Nielsen wrote: > >> Hi all. >> >> I know that kindle app is not accessible, but can we do something to the >> kindle books, so we can read them on IPhone or IPad. >> >> I know it is offtopic on this list, but if anyone can help, I would be glad, >> if you will send me a private email. >> >> I need a lot of books, Which I can not buy anywhere else. >> Best regards Annie. -- 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.
