EASI Free Webinar: The Cutting Edge of E-book Accessibility Friday June 15: 11 PM Pacific, Noon Mountain, 1 PM Central and 2 PM Eastern Presenter: Norm Coombs, Ph.D. CEO EASI, Professor Emeritus RIT The explosion of e-books is changing the face of book publishing and changing the role of book stores. Different vendors of e-books created their unique, proprietary document formats which required their being read in e-readers designed specifically for that format. Imagine having to use different glasses to read print books depending on who was its publisher! Of course, the document format and the specialized e-readers were inaccessible to many people with what used to be called "print disabilities". The DAISY document format opened up a wider and richer reading experience for people with disabilities, but DAISY books were incompatible with commercial e-readers like the Kindle or Nook, and commercial e-book formats were incompatible with DAISY. All this is changing while we ponder these problems. Some software and hardware DAISY players have added the ability to read some books in the epub format, and the next version of that standard will include even more features that will support accessibility for users with disabilities. This promises to open up a new and larger collection of e-books for this population. What will happen to the divergent proprietary e-book document formats? Either all publishers will adopt a common e-document standard or, as is happening already, tools to convert different formats will become common. This Webinar will explore this complicated picture and try to simplify it for the audience. Webinar participants will learn which formats are already accessible to them, and they will be introduced to some tools for document format conversion. Register for this June 15 Webinar :https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEFRVmhpOGFlTVN5T09ScWREeDdsVWc6MQ EASI is sponsoring another free Webinar on June 26 Free Webinar-Accessibility and Usability: Working Together at MIT Tuesday, June 26, 11 Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 Central 2 PM Eastern Presenters: Katherine Wahl and Stephani Roberts from MIT The Usability and Accessibility teams in MIT's Information Services and Technology Department (IS&T) always worked closely together, but were formally merged during a department-wide reorganization in 2009. Our goal in blending the teams was to provide a comprehensive service to clients without diluting our individual practices. After two years, we have strengthened our ability advocate persuasively for both usability and accessibility with clients, have provided more comprehensive services, and have observed standards applied more consistently. This Webinar will share the MIT experience as a model for other institutions to emulate. Register for this free June 26 Webinar: http://bit.ly/JiIYW8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It's never too late to become what you might have been. George Eliot Once you choose hope, anything's possible. Christopher Reeve Norman Coombs [log in to unmask] Making Online Teaching Accessible: Inclusive Course Design for Students with Disabilities by Norman Coombs published by Jossey-Bass Oct 10,2010 http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470499044.html --------------------------- Check out EASI New Synchronous Clinics: http://easi.cc/clinic.htm EASI Home Page http://www.rit.edu/~easi Online courses and Clinics http://easi.cc/workshop.htm Check the EASI Library Web http://www.rit.edu/~easi/lib.htm >>> Error in line 8 of AXSLIB-L.MAILTPL: unknown formatting command <<< -> . . . . . . . . . <-