Yay, Benetech! And thanks for the link to the Born Accessible
guidelines so I can email them to the publishers that I buy from!
Misha
On 10/27/2016 2:32 PM, Vanessa Wai wrote:
Benetech, the parent organization of Bookshare, is currently working on an initiative called Born Accessible. We advocate that books need to be accessible from the start. In collaboration with community partners, we published a Quick Start Guide to Accessible Publishing and work closely with the publishing community to adopt these practices. You can learn more about the work on Born Accessible here: http://www.benetech.org/our-programs/literacy/born-accessible/.
We have come a long way with Bookshare and the publishing community. We know there is a lot more work to do be done and we are approaching the work from both sides. Thank you for the work that each of you do to make more books accessible to people through Bookshare. We constantly make updates to improve Bookshare and the books in the collection. I have noted your comments and will share them with our staff to see how we can address these issues.
We are also working on revamping the proofreading guidelines – not changing them, but making them clearer. We are hoping that once it is finished and released, it will help ensure we’re all on the same page for proofreading. We appreciate the support that this community and list-serve provides to each other and Bookshare.
Vanessa Wai
Communities Manager
Benetech Global Literacy
480 S. California Avenue, Suite 201
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 352-1091
volunteers@xxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:vanessaw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
*From:*bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Judy s.
*Sent:* Thursday, October 27, 2016 1:16 PM
*To:* bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [bksvol-discuss] Re: page breaks and blank lines redex
Not to be a contrarian, but the publisher quality books we get are exactly the same that you'd get as a sighted reader if you bought them for a Kindle. It isn't Bookshare. It's the publishing industry and what the publishing industry has failed to do regarding standardization, page numbering and all that stuff for e-books.
Bookshare can't make publishers put in pagination and page numbering that doesn't exist in the publisher's own e-books.
I don't like that most of the PQ books don't have pagination and page numbering and crappy navigation. It's horribly frustrating. It isn't going to change by complaining to Bookshare. It'll change when enough paying customers who buy e-books speak with their dollars to make it known to publishers that they want those features in their ebooks or they won't buy them.
Judy s.
Follow me on Twitter at QuackersNCheese <https://twitter.com/QuackersNCheese>
On 10/27/2016 2:59 PM, Rik James wrote:
Here, here!
I agree, Ann.
I love getting these PQ books so quickly into our reading lists.
But I am very disappointed when I am ready to start reading a book I have
downloaded from Bookshare, to discover and find that the reading experience
is seriously hampered and hindered by no page and section navigation.
I know we can notify about quality. And I do, but often I just either don't
have time or do not remember and I just move on.
If this book that I downloaded and found this, is a high priority for me,
what I do is hunt down the chapter headings and set bookmarks. But what a
pain, and I feel that we at Bookshare should really be past that by now.
Multi-level navigation is a priority for me.
I was at a meeting of blind folks last month, and a number of would be or
past patrons were having a discussion about the problems. None of them were
volunteers, and were just talking about how they were reading and which
services they used and so on.
Some who discussed Bookshare, complained about this very thing. Some
discussed other aspects, which I don't need to mention here, and I don't
even remember.
A number of folks like us, who have been enthused and volunteering time and
effort, not just for credit but for the better part of everyone's reading
experience, may have been sad, as I was, to hear some of those comments
made.
We have achieved great success with Bookshare. So let's advocate for a
completely consistently high product!
And in case I sound like I am whining. I think there is much more good than
there is bad.
Thanks.
Rik James
I have volunteered since, uh, I think like 2002 or so.
-----Original Message-----
From:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ann Parsons
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2016 5:47 AM
To:grandcyn77@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:grandcyn77@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc:bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: page breaks and blank lines redex
Hi all,
Cindy, I admire your thoroughness. It seems to me that the staff ought
to tighten up the rules a bit and make this consistent. This lack of
consistency leads to sloppiness.
Frankly, I'd prefer to see the following
blank line
page break
blank line
number
blank line
text blank line
This would make things consistent across the board. We have enough
trouble with publishers being allow to submit their copy any old way,
including no page numbers and so on.
Ann P.
