kestrell

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I'm finding adding Kindle ebooks to my Amazon wishlist dangerously intoxicating. No, really, I experienced an actual physical sensation which felt kind of fizzy, and then I realized that it was the first time in a decade that I didn't have to worry about the time it would take to scan and edit each individual book. This feels pretty amazing.

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From:

jesse_the_k

Access is so awesome.

I think it's like I felt when all the buses got ramps/lifts. I could go anywhere in my city!!!!! Without planning!

It's especially wonderful when mainstream design works for all of us. Relying on the special case gets old.

Although your scanning skills will never not be fabulous.

Can you read Kindle books -- MOBIs? -- on your Victor? Or do you read them in the Kindle app on your Mac/PC/Toaster?

From:

kestrell

I have read a few Kindle ebooks using the Kindle for PC ap, but I didn't find it entirely accessible, since it doesn't have a high level of accessibility, such as it word by word or character by character. Recently, however, Alexx figured out how to crack the DRM so that he could convert the ebook to formats which I could read on my BookPort Plus. My idea of accessibility is, can I read this while sitting in my comfy reading char?

From:

jesse_the_k

Does Alex's hack travel through Calibre? That app can do 1000 amazing things (sadly I'm 98% puzzled by its interface).

It's infuriating that Adobe Digital Editions does not yet permit people with print impairments access to books -- even if you fucking buy them.

As far as relaxation goes, I'm not quite as fancy free as you with your headphones. But my iPod Touch is less than 6 ounces, so I can hold it at reading level without scrowgling my arm.

From:

kestrell

Yes, the Kindle ebook conversion involves using Calibre; I learned about this from a much younger than me blind person, and she could do it, no problem, whereas I just couldn't figure out how to do it with Jaws (it involves a lot of switching back and forth between the PC cursor and the Jaws cursor). Also, a lot of the younger blind people have no problem using certain versions of the iPod, perhaps the Touch?. I think learning second interface as an adult is much like learning a second language as an adult: you can do it to a certain degree, but it rarely becomes really intuitive.

I'm more peeved at Googlebooks than the Adobe products, which I have gotten pretty used to being inaccessible, but Google goes on and on to the public about how much they care about accessibility, and yet most of their products are completely inaccessible. And Googlebooks is the project which is using many of the university libraries, so if Googlebooks isn't being made accessible, it kind of feels as if the nation's libraries are being kept inaccessible.

Also, the Boston Public Library has a new e-card system which you can supposedly apply for and use online; want to take a guess as to whether that's accessible or not? I spent an hour one day trying to get in contact with the person who is in charge of the e-card, and I just got shuffled around from one person to another, and not one person even pretended to care about the issue.

I cheer myself up by reminding myself that some day soon there will be a tidalwave of visually-impaired baby boomers who have gotten pretty used to expecting things to be available to them. My phrase for this is "Come the revolution...".

Oh, and one of my housemates who recently got an iPad was asking me about public domain and copyright dates, and I said, good luck figuring that out. If you look at archive.org (which includes some, but not all, of the texts available through Googlebooks), it includes scans of books with copyrights in the 1950s, 1960s, and even more recent. I have no clue why this is, what the rationale is, and I've yet to find anyone else who can explain it, either. Is it all just arbitrary?

From:

jesse_the_k

I totally agree with the "interface as a second language." I learned on cursor-oriented word processors, and I often curse as I have to use the fricking mouse. Where's my handy "next sentence" command when I need it? Of course speed is no longer of the essence, so I'm trying to learn to relax and let it take as long as it takes.

Google Books has adopted the Adobe DRM system, so that's a perfect storm of access fail.

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/2010/12/google-ebooks.html

As far as access-talk with no access-provision, I agree Google gets the prize. They just added several more languages to their terrible "auto-captioning." WHY BOTHER! What use is a system that is less than 75% accurate, and that only with a white speaker. Their site CSS suppresses type enlargement -- yes, I ask the browser to enlarge the type and I see it for half a second and then it shrinks back to its original size. Aiiiieeeee.

Not only will there be a tidal wave of baby boomers, but the millenial generation of AT users who grew up with access in schools will -- I hope -- be willing to Make Loud Noises.

I don't have the details re: when a book enters the public domain. In general: each country has its own rules. Thanks to intense pressure from Walt Disney, the length of copyright has been repeatedly extended in the 20th century.

Ooooooh -- thanks for asking. Here is a nifty table summarizing length of copyright in comprehensible detail:

http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm