Abstract
Reading is an essential daily living task, and is crucial for school and work. Whether it is sorting the bills, reading a textbook or the daily newspaper, access to reading is critically important to people with disabilities that prevent easy reading of the printed page. Assistive technology has been created to address these needs and bridge the accessibility challenge to print. One of the first challenges is acquiring the text from the printed page. This need is met through optical character recognition that turns an image of the printed page into an accessible digital text file. In this chapter, the fundamentals of OCR technology and reading machines are described. The new international standard for digital talking books, the DAISY standard, is explored. The critically important move to direct digital access to textbooks and newspapers is projected and a discussion of future technological development closes the chapter.
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References
Campbell, N., Sanders, J., Losier, J.P., and Owen, V., 1996, Literacy and technology, AÂ Canadian perspective, The World Blind Union Forum on Literacy, March 26
Kerscher, G., and Fruchterman, J., 2002, The Soundproof Book: Exploration of Rights Conflict and Access to Commercial EBooks for People with Disabilities, FirstMonday
Resources: Library resources for the print disabled
DAISY Consortium http://www.daisy.org/
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) of the Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/nls/
Resources: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) http://www.rfbd.org/
Bookshare.org http://www.bookshare.org/
Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) http://www.rnib.org.uk/
The Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille (TPB) http://www.tpb.se/
Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities http://www.dinf.ne.jp/
American Printing House for the Blind (APH) http://www.aph.org/
The Force Foundation http://www.force-foundation.org.uk/
Resources: Adaptive technology products
Freedom Scientific http://www.freedomscientific.com/
HumanWare (HumanWare) http://www.humanware.com/
Kurzweil Educational Systems http://www.kurzweiledu.com/
Plextor http://www.plextalk.com/in/
Resources: OCR products
ScanSoft http://www.nuance.com/scansoft/
ABBYY http://www.abbyy.com/
Resources: Formats and technology standards (be sure to check for updated versions)
DAISY version 2.02 http://www.daisy.org/publications/specifications/daisy_202.html
ANSI/NISO Z39.86-2002 http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-86-2002.html
NIMAS http://nimas.cast.org/
Braille http://www.brailleauthority.org
Resources: Audio books
Audio Publishers Association http://www.audiopub.org/
Audible.com http://www.audible.com/
Resources: Newspaper links
International Association of Audio Information Services http://www.iaais.org/
Talking Newspaper Association of the UK (TNAUK) http://www.tnauk.org.uk/
NFB-Newsline® http://www.nfb.org/Newspapers_by_Phone.asp
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© 2008 Springer-Verlag London Limited
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Fruchterman, J. (2008). Accessing Books and Documents. In: Hersh, M., Johnson, M. (eds) Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired and Blind People. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-867-8_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-867-8_15
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-84628-866-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-84628-867-8
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