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Bringing Millions of Books to Billions of People: Making the Book Truly Accessible

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Today, we are poised at a moment in time where we can transcend the limitations of past book technologies and bring the power of books to all humans. However, as a technology, printed books come with serious challenges for some communities (like blind people) that technology can unlock. Love of the print book. We can do better!

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Join Benetech in the Skoll Foundation’s 2014 Social Entrepreneurs Challenge!

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

“They get frustrated and don’t want to read,” she says, “but access to digital books and reading technologies changed all that for Zach.” Zach Bryant The change happened when Zach was in high school and his Assistive Technology teacher introduced him to Benetech’s Bookshare library. Thank you for your support!

Challenge 144
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Receiving the 2013 Migel Medal

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

The other recipient this year was Kay Ferrell, Professor of Special Education at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, who won the Medal for her tremendous work with and on behalf of children and youth who are blind and visually impaired. I especially want to acknowledge two people who helped make this award possible.

eBook 221
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Benetech’s New Image Description Tool Improves Accessibility of Graphical Content for Students with Print Disabilities

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Poet supports image descriptions for electronic books created in the international DAISY standard for digital talking books and will be compatible with descriptions for ebooks in the EPUB3 format. Books with image descriptions will go back into the Bookshare library for students with print disabilities to use in their coursework.

Images 133
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Digital Divide Data: our Partner in Laos

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

While our activities often creates jobs beyond the core high technology jobs around software development and user support, we don't see it as our core competency. For example, our Bookshare online library for the blind, uses several different social enterprises to do data entry and proofreading work on textbooks.

Laos 235
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On the Future of Braille: Thoughts by Radical Braille Advocates

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Betsy Beaumon I recently had the honor to speak at the first-ever Braille Summit , hosted on June 19-21, 2013 by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) and Perkins School for the Blind. Guest Beneblog by Betsy Beaumon, VP and General Manager, Benetech’s Global Literacy Program.

Literacy 208
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Tribute to My Mentor

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

As the prototypical technology social enterprise, Benetech became one of the first organizations using technology to solve social problems rather than seeking to make maximum financial returns. What if we could scan once, proofread the resulting scan, and share that ebook with tens of thousands of eager readers?

Mentoring 167