dear all, it is a good news: I’m delighted to share the news that Adobe Digital Editions 1.8 is available on Adobe Labs and that at long last this version provides improved support for accessibility. Digital Editions 1.8 has enhanced keyboard support, provides additional text magnification, support for high-contrast mode color-switching, and interoperability with the UIAutomation accessibility API to allow screen readers to read ebooks.
Some views of Digital Editions 1.8: •Digital Editions 1.8 library •Digital Editions 1.8 book view •Digital Editions 1.8 library in high contrast mode •Digital Editions 1.8 book view in high contrast mode Digital Editions 1.8 will allow users, including screen reader users, to check out books from public libraries that use Adobe Content Server for book Digital Rights Management (DRM). In the United States, many libraries use Overdrive but have needed to direct users to audio books instead of EPUB books. Now, taking out an EPUB book from the library can work for many more people. Buying books at many popular online vendors is also possible. EPUB Books purchased at Barnes and Noble, Kobo Books, ebooks.com, Waterstones, and more can be read with Digital Editions 1.8. Naturally, the book store needs to be accessible also, which is unfortunately not universally true (e.g. at Barnes and Noble the “Buy now” button is not labeled, maddeningly), but some are. A couple of words about screen reader support. Digital Editions 1.8 is built using WPF and utilizes Microsoft’s UIAutomation accessibility API. Currently, JAWS users will be able to read books successfully. Update: JAWS 12 and newer future versions are able to support UIAutomation, so JAWS 12 is required. Earlier versions are not expected to correctly interact with Digital Editions 1.8. Other screen readers that support UIAutomation such as Window-Eyes 7.5 and NVDA are able to successfully read the menus and other aspects of the application, with the exception of the book content. This is a complex control and we are talking with vendors to ensure that the book content is able to be read by more tools than JAWS. Mac users can use VoiceOver to read books on the Mac version of Digital Editions 1.8. There have many people pushing and encouraging us to improve Digital Editions and I thank everyone for their feedback and advice. I’d like to recognize and thank a few people in particular for engaging with us to provide feedback on early builds and patiently waiting for the release of this tool – from the National Federation of the Blind, Dr. Marc Maurer, Anne Taylor, and Tony Olivero; from the Royal National Institute of Blind People, Richard Orme, Steve Griffiths, and several testers; from the American Foundation for the Blind, Paul Schroeder and Darren Burton; and George Kerscher from DAISY and IDPF. I am certain that each of these people will have positive and negative things to say about this version; there is additional work to do to make Digital Additions more accessible to more people, but I believe that this is a solid first step and that is due to the hard work of the development team and the advice and guidance of these people and others. We’d like to give a few people an easy opportunity to try out reading an accessible EPUB book with Digital Editions 1.8, so we are holding a quick drawing for gift cards to online bookstores. You can enter the contest here. We’ll award 30 gift cards on Monday July 25 at noon Eastern US time. We’re interested in your feedback, so enjoy your books and please send feedback! Follow these steps to get started with the Digital Editions 1.8 preview: 1.Download the Digital Editions 1.8 preview › 2.Run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions. 3.Once installed, open the Getting Started eBook for an overview of the application. 4.Adobe Digital Editions 1.8 Preview is compatible with screen reading software JAWS on Windows and VoiceOver on Mac. Those products must be installed/enabled separately. 5.Ask questions and share your feedback in the Digital Editions 1.8 discussion forum › Please note that your submission of comments, ideas, feature requests and techniques on this and other Adobe maintained forums, as well as Adobe's right to use such materials, is governed by the Terms of Use. Community Below you'll find references and links to help you participate in the Digital Editions community. Online ForumAsk questions, discuss, and share feedback with other users and the engineering team in the online forums. Visit the Adobe Labs forum for Digital Editions 1.8 ›Please note that your submission of comments, ideas, feature requests and techniques on this and other Adobe maintained forums, as well as Adobe's right to use such materials, is governed by the Terms of Use. ResourcesIf you want to learn more about releases on Labs as well as other Adobe technologies, visiting a user group or connecting with an Adobe Community Professional is a great place to start. Find a user group ›Find an Adobe Community Professional › Product Details Documentation|FAQ|System Requirements|Release Notes DocumentationThe documentation for the Digital Editions 1.8 preview is in an eBook titled Getting Started with Adobe Digital Editions 1.8 Preview, which comes pre-installed with the application. If you accidentally remove the eBook you can download it again. back to topFAQ What is Digital Editions 1.8 preview?Digital Editions 1.8 preview is an update to the popular Digital Editions 1.7 application. The focus of this release is support for accessibility.What is a typical use case for Digital Editions 1.8 preview?Digital Editions 1.8 preview can be used to read eBooks you download from library websites or popular booksellers. It may be used in high-contrast mode or with popular screen readers. More information on how to use the application is provided in the Getting Started book included in the application download. After you download, install and run the application, the Getting Started eBook will be listed.When is Digital Editions 1.8 preview available?It is available to download now on Adobe Labs.How do I provide feedback regarding Digital Editions 1.8 preview?Please download the software, explore and provide us with feedback in the Digital Editions 1.8 preview discussion forum. We invite you to share your thoughts on the preview and describe which use cases you find most relevant.What languages are supported?Digital Editions 1.8 preview is currently available in English only. Adobe does not comment on all aspects of the future of its products or technologies.Is it a free download?Yes, Digital Editions 1.8 preview is available as a free download on Adobe Labs.Who should use Digital Editions 1.8 preview?Anyone can use the Digital Editions 1.8 preview, but it is expected to be of particular interest to users who rely on assistive technologies to access electronic books.How is it different from Adobe Digital Editions 1.7?Digital Editions 1.8 preview adds enhanced ePub reading technology (Reader Mobile SDK) and accessibility support. The preview does not include common Digital Editions 1.7 features including: annotations, printing, and device support. We plan to add features to Digital Editions 1.8 preview so it is more on par with Digital Editions 1.7; but, the focus of this release is accessibility.How do I use it with screen reading technology?Digital Editions 1.8 preview is designed to work with JAWS on Windows and VoiceOver on the Mac. You must separately install/enable these applications. Installation instructions can be found on the respective web sites(JAWS on Windows and VoiceOver on Mac). The preview was designed with support for full keyboard controls (tab navigation and shortcuts)and high-contrast. Shortcuts are listed in the Getting Started eBook that gets installed along with the Digital Editions 1.8 preview.Where can I get more information on Digital Editions 1.8 preview?Please refer to the Getting Started eBook included in the Digital Editions 1.8 preview.back to topSystem Requirements The minimum system requirements for the Digital Editions 1.8 preview are as follows: MacintoshIntel Core™ Duo or faster processorMac OS X v10.6 or later512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)75MB of available hard-disk spaceWindowsIntel® Pentium® 4 processor or laterWindows® XP SP 3 or Windows® 7 (32 or 64 bit running in 32-bit mode)512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)40MB of available hard-disk spaceback to topRelease NotesThe Digital Editions 1.8 preview is designed for evaluation purposes only. We do not recommended that this release be used on production systems or for any mission-critical work. Currently, the Digital Editions 1.8 preview does not support 1.7 features for annotations, printing, and device support (the ability to load eBooks to USB-connected eReader hardware). The focus of this release is to add accessibility support. Future releases will incorporate more of the Digital Editions 1.7 features as well as maintain accessibility improvements introduced in Digital Editions 1.8. Known IssuesThe File > Add to Library command does not show ACSM files. To add these files, drag them onto the application icon or open the file.When using Mac OS X's VoiceOver screen reader (for accessibility), press Ctrl+Option+W to read the contents of dialogs.If you have both Adobe Digital Editions 1.7 and Adobe Digital Editions 1.8 preview installed, uninstalling one of them will de-associate the EPUB and ASCM file types with the application. You’ll then need to manually associate file types (see your operating system’s instructions for associating file types).Extremely large images (greater than 50MB) can cause sluggish behavior in the application.Some advanced transparency rendering features (such as knockout, overprint, and non-separable blend modes) are not supported.Native PDF annotations are not supported.In Windows, DE may encounter an error attempting to open an eBook where the full file path but file name is longer than 186 characters; we advise trying shortening the file name and/or file path.When DE returns an error message W_ADEPT_CORE_LOAN_NOT_ONRECORD, it means no record for this loan is found on this machine, which most likely means you are attempting to open a borrowed book that was previously expired or returnedback to topAll Technologies sorce page is http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/2011/07/books-for-everyone-an-accessible-digital-editions-for-windows-and-mac.html Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. 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