Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

This includes accessible educational materials, such as e-books that can be used with computers, or mobile devices that display enlarged text or read the book aloud while also highlighting text. Bookshare has grown into the largest online digital library of accessible books and periodicals in the U.S., In September 2007, the U.S.

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Student Accessibility Copyright Library 173

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

We take their files and convert them to the DAISY format which is a digital format designed specifically to create accessible materials for people with print disabilities. We're excited about this trend and the opportunities it creates for the commercial availability of mass market accessible books.

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Accessibility Marketing eBook Files 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 14, 2010

Rich Thesing, a long-time disability activist and fellow Fellow of the American Leadership Forum in Silicon Valley, has been thinking hard on how to make exercise equipment accessible. There are lots of exercycles that are in health clubs and exercise rooms around the world, but they lack minor accessibility features to make them usable.

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Exercise Accessibility Problem Fun 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 5, 2010

The FCC just did a series of four blog posts asking for feedback on their new accessibility plans. Comments on the FCC's Accessibility Plans (June 2010) My main recommendation to the FCC is to be more ambitious about accessibility. Here are my comments on the big picture and a couple of their proposals.

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Accessibility Award Proposal Phase 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 13, 2011

It takes an editor through the entire process of operating and publishing a journal, with a heavy emphasis on open access journals (where the articles are freely available to everybody from the moment they are published). Their largest project is Open Journal Systems, software for running a scholarly journal.

Accessibility 133

Accessibility Project Open Journal 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2009

Brief Comments on Accessibility Concerns on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) The disability community should be concerned about ACTA for two reasons: At its core it’s an anti-piracy agreement. The digital measures designed to defeat piracy usually end up equating accessibility with piracy.

Accessibility 100

Accessibility Adobe Copyright eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 15, 2012

The DIAGRAM Center team has also created an image data content model which will provide standards to define and enhance the efficacy and interoperability of accessible images as the project evolves. DIAGRAM stands for Digital Image and Graphics Resources for Accessible Materials.

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Images Student Accessibility Content 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2010

The Goal The goal is pretty clear: insuring that every person on the planet with a serious print disability has access to the books and other printed material that they need to get an education, make a living and be included in society. So, your lawyer’s opinion may vary, and is likely to be better informed on the legal aspects. law today. •

Accessibility 133

Accessibility Global Copyright Law 133

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 16, 2011

For example, all residents with the qualifying disabilities in Australia, Denmark and Qatar, to pick just three examples, now have free access to Bookshare thanks to our joint efforts with local and national disability groups in these countries.

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Qatar Accessibility People Copyright 154

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

Our new announcement about the Department granting Bookshare supplemental funding to convert open content textbooks to accessible formats went over very well. We're promising to do highly accessible versions of 80 open content textbooks. Since they are open, we can get them and do the adaptations for accessibility.

Accessibility 150

Accessibility Content Open Copyright 150

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 7, 2008

Last year, the National Federation of the Blind took on Amazon.com about the accessibility of their website, which NFB felt at one time had been quite accessible, but which had declined in accessibility. NFB got them to commit to work on accessibility. And, he did!

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Accessibility Dallas Amazon Advocacy 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 5, 2009

We filed the following comments to the Copyright Office's request for comments on issues about access for people with print disabilities. Most of this community doesn’t have access to formal education, most of this community doesn’t have access to jobs and most of this community isn’t recognized by larger society as equals.

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Copyright Comment Proposal Accessibility 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 17, 2008

This is an academic conference on access technology, full of researchers trying out new things that will help people with disabilities. My first day was hanging out at the Young Researchers seminar, which was organized by Professors Paul Blenkhorn (the UK's first professor of access tech) and the ICCHP host Klaus Miesenberger.

Austria 100

Austria Accessibility Conference Portugal 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

HuffPo recently published my first post, Disabled Students Need Accessible Books. The Huffington Post recently invited me to become a guest blogger, based on a connection to Arianna Huffington from the Craigslist Nonprofit Boot Camp.

Student 100

Student Accessibility Blogger Attention 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

We have been helping blind and print disabled people gain access to books for over 17 years. Two recent experiences underscored different parts of this struggle to deliver access. It's great to see someone still using one of our products to access books for this length of time. They face barriers enough without adding more!

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Washington Accessibility Student Library 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2006

Google invited me over last month to talk about accessibility. Of course, when I talk about accessibility, I'm focusing on access for people with disabilities, and Google people are typically talking about access to more material. Universally Accessible Demands Accessibility for All of Humanity.

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Accessibility University Google Video 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 10, 2009

And that is setting back the cause of people with disabilities who need that kind of access. We have an action by Amazon that sets back years of work to make ebooks accessible. A recent example of this was web site accessibility. pointed out that the authors have long supported disability access. Roy Blount Jr.

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Amazon Accessibility eBook Problem 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2008

A related, but slightly different and less recognized issue, is the fact that people with disabilities such as blindness often have limited access to printed materials, even if they are well-educated. There is enormous potential for finding cross-cultural solutions to issues of disability and print access. www.bookshare.org.

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Accessibility India United States International 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 13, 2009

I think it’s time to write a series of short essays on the struggle for accessible books, starting with this brouhaha. The essence of the Soundproof Book essay was the dueling moral high grounds: author’s rights vs. the right to access. This isn’t a new issue. George Kerscher and I wrote a major essay on the topic seven(!)

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Accessibility eBook Amazon Audio 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 30, 2009

Tags: accessibility volunteer donor gift books Bookshare.

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Gift Accessibility Giving Volunteer 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 29, 2018

Born Accessible: Working with publishers to ensure that any new ebook is accessible to people who read differently - with the goal of one day making Bookshare obsolete. Senate and goes into effect this month. When Benetech began, we didn’t know of any other tech for good social enterprise.

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News Syria Conservancy eBook 189

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 22, 2006

Our big task at Bookshare.org is making sure that we work with everyvbody who provides access technology for text. Good news is that people are motivated, since we're the largest repository of this kind of accessible material! This is the biggest conference of the year, and everybody who's developing adaptive technology will be here.

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Los Angeles Accessibility Advocacy Conference 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 1, 2005

Thursday is World Usability Day, and I'll be giving a on-line session entitled Technology Social Entrepreneurship and Accessibility of Web Services at 20:10 GMT, or 12:10pm PST. I never have done such an event, so I'm looking forward to trying it out!

Accessibility 100

Accessibility Service Web Channel 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 31, 2014

Last September, I wrote a Beneblog post: Objecting to Accessibility Weaseling , about Amazon and other ebook reader makers trying to dodge out on making their devices accessible. The refusal to grant an indefinite waiver is a big deal, because it will keep accessibility on the agenda. This is an update on that fight.

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Amazon eBook Accessibility Grant 199

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 28, 2014

Gerardo’s contributions related to the Benetech Global Literacy Program include: Overseeing the building of the tech infrastructure that has taken Bookshare from serving tens of thousands of members to over 300,000 members, with a rapidly growing collection of 280,000+ accessible ebooks.

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Open Source Literacy eBook Empowerment 184

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

Bookshare: Solving the “Accessible Book Famine” Twelve years ago, we had an idea for recreating the traditional library for people with print disabilities—such as those who are blind, cannot physically turn the pages of a book, or have learning disabilities, like dyslexia—using the then-emerging technologies of digital books and crowdsourcing.

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Copyright Law Accessibility Library 196

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 28, 2013

We have the technology, we have the content, and now we have the legal framework to make it possible for every person with a print disability on the planet to get access to the books they need for education, employment and social inclusion! Together, we can provide equal access to humankind’s knowledge.

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Library Government United States Accessibility 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

In addition, the quality was often not good enough to deliver fully equal access to educational books. And Robin is why we've been able to deliver over 10 million accessible books to readers with disabilities. For the last three years she's been leading the charge for the Born Accessible campaign. That's where Robin came in.

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eBook United States Literacy Library 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 19, 2013

At the core of our library is the electronic book, which can be easily converted into accessible formats for the blind, on computers, tablets, smartphones, electronic braille displays and simple phones and MP3 players, through Braille embossers and presses that create physical Braille books, and through creating large print.

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Library United States Copyright Accessibility 203

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 3, 2013

“As organizations,” Osborne said, “we must liberate spending to focus on the promotion, learning and innovation around braille,” and recognize that we ought to embrace today’s changing economics and technology so that braille can be part of an equation which delivers access to information for all, not just to those who can afford it.

Literacy 208

Literacy eBook Images Accessibility 208

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 13, 2015

Of course, one thing might be that accessibility is put right up top, front and center! Born accessible is a play on the term born digital and is used to convey the idea that materials that are born digital also can and should be born accessible.

Education 100

Education National Technology Student 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

When a Bookshare student member with a print disability needs a book for school that is not yet in the Bookshare collection, the member submits a request and Bookshare creates an accessible digital version of that book. a11y accessibility Bookshare print disabilities proofreading school TeamUp4Textbooks textbook volunteer'

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Student Volunteer Team Help 171

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

have been asking about the Treaty of Marrakesh (formal name: The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities. Ultimately, this community should have equal access to all of the books that are needed for education, employment and social inclusion.

Copyright 158

Copyright Law United States Library 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 26, 2014

One of their main challenges is that they do not have adequate access to educational materials that are necessary to learn and succeed in school. Accessible ebooks and Bookshare have helped sixth grader Kevin Leong overcome his reading challenges.

eBook 203

eBook Accessibility United States Student 203

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Libraries for people who are blind or dyslexic are the primary source of accessible books in audio, large print or braille. Wouldn’t it make more sense to make it easier for people with disabilities to get access to the books they need for education and employment? We don’t have to ask for permission from the publisher or author.

Copyright 100

Copyright United States Library eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 19, 2013

One last important note about our new site is regarding its accessibility. Benetech is committed to making our website accessible to all. a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the independence of people with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology.

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Site Accessibility Press Ideas 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 24, 2017

There is a big controversy in the technical standards area that impacts accessibility of content in web browsers. DRM has been the enemy of accessibility, not to mention the ugly compromise DRM represents to technical excellence and freedom. EME is irrevocably tainted from an accessibility standpoint because of this close association.

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Media Accessibility National Associations 114