Archive for May, 2009
ATIA Forum to Focus on Accessibility Business Case
]The 2010 ATIA Leadership Forum on Accessibility will be held January 28-29, 2010 at the Caribe Royale Hotel & Convention Center, Orlando, Florida.
At the Forum, you will find:
- The business case for providing accessible solutions to customer/constituents and employees
- Case studies from today’s leading corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions on successful accessibility integration strategies
- Targeted educational sessions for organization-wide solutions
- Access to 125+ assistive technology exhibitors
- Networking with IT and AT company accessibility executives and your peers.
I think this will be very interesting to see how accessibility is justified at the business case level. I would present the topic from a web technology point of view.
- Simplified software development and productivity through the use of plain text and less dynamic scripts.
- Improved Web Search Engine Optimization and Marketing (SEO and SEM) through plain text
- Enhanced website usability via accessibility fratures.
- Improved traffic from being inclusive to disabled users.
Accessibility makes good busines sence. I am looking forward to next year’s ATIA Leadership Forum
iPhone Trick
I was having a lot of trouble using my iPhone. I could not get close to the phone while on a call. The phone display would be shut off by the sensor. This is a useful feature to keep the touch screen from acidently being pressed while holding the phone close to the head. I had to get close to see the address book or mail applications and every time I did I would be able to read the screen. I had to beat the sensor to get a peak.
I found a work around. When the earbuds are plugged in, the screen sensor will not shut off the display. So if I neeed an address while on a call, I plug in my ear phones. I would rather have a preference setting to turn the sensor on or off. Maybe in iPhone 3.0.
Distance Learning Here to Stay
KITV had a great article on the top 10 aspects of distance learning. The two that struck me were:
- Distance learning will be used by businesses to help market their products.
- Distance learning is here to stay.
I agree with these trends. Businesses will use distance learning to help make their potential customers knowledgeable about their products and services. If a business has a quality product/service, knowledgeable customers will want to know more about what makes the product/service so valuable. Distance learning is a step up from static web pages. Distance learning helps the customer obtain knowledge, not just infromation. Accessible distance learning increases the potential market penetration. Accessibile distance learning is inclussive and should help grow market share. DigitalChalk is trying to be the most rich in content and accessible distance learning platfrom.
The Authors Guild Responds to Amazon
On their web site, The Author’s Guild has responded to the protest over their law suite against Amazon for supporting text-to-speech on the Kindle device. They wrote, “Knowing how difficult the road ahead is for the already fragile economics of authorship, we are particularly troubled at how all this arose, with Amazon attempting to use authors’ audio rights to lengthen its lead in the fledgling e-book industry. We could not allow this rights grab to happen. Audio books are a billion dollar market, the rights for which are packaged separately from — and are far more valuable than — e-book rights.”
The Guild did have a thoughtful solution for their copyright concerns. The Authors Guild suggests, “The first step is to take advantage of a special exception to the Copyright Act known as the Chafee Amendment, which permits the blind and others with certified physical print disabilities access to special versions, including audio versions, of copyrighted books. Technology makes this step easy: certified users of existing Kindles could activate their devices online to enable access to voice-output versions of all e-books. This process could be ready to go within weeks.”
I don’t know about weeks. I don’t know how serious The Authors Guild is about finding a solution when they accuse Amazon of a “rights grab”. My company, DigitalChalk, values its partnership with Amazon and has found them to be very easy to work with and possessing the utmost of integrity. I have some questions for The Authors Guild:
- Does the robotic voice of the Kindle threaten The Authors Guild professional book readers? I would encourage the professional readers to show confidence in their skilled craft and not be afraid of the Kindle robotic voice. No one wanting an audio book would find the Kindle text-to-speech entertaining or enjoyable to listen to. Blind people find it necessary and are used to listening to less than optimal speech technologies. I don’t think sighty would use the feature. Whatever you do keep the Zane Grey westerns coming with your so very talented readers that will entertain generations to come.
- Should assistive technology not be allowed because of The Authors Guild rights? Should all assistive technologies be eliminated because of copyright laws? Amazon is not charging extra for the text-to-speech feature. They are trying to make the text accessible. I don’t see a rights grab.
- Has the Kindle copied the audio books in intent, quality or packaging? Again, I would hope The Authors Guild products would have a higher quality reading for entertainment purposes. If not, I would suggest that The Authors Guild find some new readers and not worry about copyright violations.
- What is the process for certifying vision impaired users to use the text-to-speech feature of the Kindle? Will the Kindle provide a retina scan, (I am being facecious), or force me to electronically sign a legal agreement everytime I listen to a book? Will I need a doctor’s note?
I would like to encourage The Authors Guild to think seriously about their litigation. Please don’t do anything that would take this Amazon Kindle feature from the visually impaired. I finally have a device that I can use to access text. Thank you Amazon for caring about the blind!
Amazon Commits to Kindle Accessibility
Amazon has openly discussed supporting additional accessibility features for low vision users of the Kindle. Some of my requests include:
- Provide low light support – provide a white background for higher contrast.
- Allow for larger font size selections.
- Support font enlargement for lists and menu items.
- Provide text-to-speech support for menu items.
- Ensure that the Author’s Guild does not impact any of the existing text-to-speech features.
I encourage any and all who feel strongly about keeping the text-to-speech feature in Kindle to contact the Author’s Guild via email, or use the below contact information.
The Authors Guild
31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Phone: (212) 563-5904
Fax: (212) 564-5363