[bksvol-discuss] Press Release: Converting Printed Books intoAccessible Books

"Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> · Mon, 6 Dec 2004 10:05:59 -0500

What do you all think of this system?  A lot of Universities that I am 
familiar with use a flat bed scanner with autofeeder and Fine Reader or Omni 
Page.

Convert Printed Books into Accessible Books for people who are blind or who
have print or learning disabilities.

Colligo Corp. (WWW.Colligo.us), a major developer of assistive digital
technology solutions, announces the release of BookCrafter Publishing
Suite.

Last week,(Nov. 04) the Microsoft Accessible Technology Group (ATG) hosted a
three-day international forum called, "Libraries for the Blind and Print
Disabled: Moving Toward a Digital Future," which attracted library
representatives from around the world and featured a keynote address by Bill
Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect.

Gates talked about the advantages of digital technology over traditional
analog formats, such as audio tapes, explaining how digital technology can
lower the costs of converting and distributing content, enable libraries to
share information more easily, and make more information available to more
people. Gates also pointed out that digital formats often provide a better
user experience for people who are blind or have print disabilities,
allowing many different people to access the same information online
simultaneously and making it easy for individual users to locate specific
information within texts. (www.hardwarezone.com.)

There are not thousands of printed books, but 500 years of printed
information unavailable to millions of people. reports Larry Tingley,
Colligos COO. He further states, Unfortunately, less than 3% of that
information is in accessible formats, and when it is available, it takes
weeks, often months to produce, leaving especially, that disabled child
significantly behind without any required study materials.

BookCrafter provides the tools to schools, libraries and agencies serving
the disabled population allowing them to convert printed books to Accessible
Digital Books (aBook), that comply with the many disability laws and the
several states mandating accessible text books.

For those without a print disability, BookCrafter retains the all of the
elements or the exact visual integrity of the printed book -- WYSIWYG.

BookCrafter, using a high speed duplex scanner, performs up to 12 different
functions by pushing one button. Normally, only an hour is needed to scan
and convert a 300 page text book to many formats that can be read by various
Text to Speech screen readers including Colligos ReadText. The graphic
rich pages (acessible PDF) can also be read with Adobe. Reader..

Additionally, BookCrafter saves to files for further adaptation to large
text and audio books. Extra services include braille transcription, tactile
graphics production, and assistance with XML production, using Open eBook
(OEB), DAISY/NISO.

Many state laws address the publishing of textbooks in specialized formats.
Alternative methods used by publishers at this time, cannot be converted to
all formats needed.

As Internet access increases across the nation, many school districts have
seen the wisdom in adopting online textbooks. Michelle Gamble-Risley 
CONVERGE, November 2004

Introducing new technologies is some times arduous to education as they
have in place assistive technologies for their disabled students. To make
them switch is and relearn is disturbing. Says Doug Powles, CEO of Colligo.
He goes on. Teachers are accustomed to their familiar mode of producing
materials for those students, however, we find that programs such as JAWS,
WYNN, Kurzweil, ReadText and others are enhanced with aBooks, and teachers
time to produce the material is significantly lessened.

BookCrafter has shown that it can return its investment cost in less than
one day.

Colligo Corp Bellingham WA 98229   info@xxxxxxxxxx

360 647-3404                                        www.colligo.us

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