Kestrell

Free Daisy and ePUB reader programs for visually impaired readersVia an Australian site comes this

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:29:44 GMT

Via an Australian site comes
this list of free Daisy players
http://www.guidedogswa.org/software/
most notably
Emerson
http://code.google.com/p/emerson-reader/
a cross-platform reader which reads both Daisy and ePUB format ebooks (I haven't tried this one out yet so cannot vouch for how accessible it is).

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4 great Firefox addons for blind users

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:47:09 GMT

Actually, some of these add-ons can also be installed on IE, so it's worth checking the URLs for more info even if you don't use Firefox.

1. Fluffbusting Purity for Facebook
This add-on wil get rid of various extraneous game and quiz messages sent to your Facebook page
go to
http://www.fbpurity.com/

2. ePub reader
I've written about this great epub reader previously
http://kestrell.livejournal.com/585130.html
and the recently updated version is even more accessible than before as the tool bar buttons have been labeled in a way which shows up as real names in screen readers, as opposed to the previous garbled graphic labels, although I find the choice of the phrases "next chapter" and "previous chapter" kind of confusing, as at times the next/previous sections can be something like title or acknowledgement pages.

3. FlashMute,
Gets rid of flash audio which loads automatically.
http://www.indev.no/?p=projects#flashmute
Note on how to use from installation page:
When executed, FlashMute will put a new icon in your systray (which normally can be found at the lower right of your screen). When single-clicking this icon, it will alternate between its normal (unmuted) "F"-state, and the (muted) "F" with a red X across it. When in the normal state, Flash movies will be allowed to use sound output, but when the red X is displayed, Flash will be denied access to your audio hardware.
Pressing CTRL + ALT + M will switch between muted and unmuted mode. This is a hotkey alternative to single-clicking the icon. It also serves as a panic-button if a loud Flash movie jumps up on you.

4. Visum, which can help solve those inaccessible captchas.
http://www.webvisum.com/
download page at
http://www.webvisum.com/en/main/download
Edited later: The site is now loading but you do have to go to register and request an invitation before you can download the add-on.

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ePUBReader add-on for Firefox is accessible

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:29:00 GMT

For our test subject, I used
Cory Doctorow's new novel _For the Win_
http://craphound.com/ftw/download/
but you can also find free ePUB ebooks on archive.org and
http://www.epubbooks.com/

But first I installed the
ePUBReader add-on for Firefox
http://www.epubread.com
by downloading it directly from the
EPUBReader Add-on page at Mozilla.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/45281/

After following the instructions to restart Firefox, you will see a
Welcome to ePUBReader page
chrome://epubreader/locale/welcome.html
which describes how ePUBReader works.

Basically there is a toolbar section located at the bottom of each page from which you go to the individual sections or pages. Using Jaws, it looks like this:

toolbar with 5 buttons
[link] ePub-Catalog [Kes: This is the list of epub ebooks which you have saved, from which you select the one you want to read.]
[link] Save copy
[link] Set bookmark
[button] skin/nav_backwards_enabled Alt+Shift+a [Kes: Guessing this is the button to go back a page.]
[button[ skin/nav_forwards_enabled [Kes: Click on this button to go to the next section or page.]
[button] Decrease font-size
[button] Increase font-size
toolbar end

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The ePub format & why blind readers should care about it

Wed, 19 May 2010 22:29:03 GMT

ePub (Electronic Publication)
Filename extension: .epub
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB

ePub and DAISY share some similarities but they are different standards. ePub is designed to be the format that the trade (Bookstore) community uses for commercial ebooks and is overseen by the IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum). The current standard contains a DAISY book amongst its internal contents but this is typically locked up in the proprietary delivery format that the individual publishers and book distributors use.

To play DAISY materials you need a DAISY player and several of the commercial players play ePub along with several other formats. Unfortunately the eBook reader manufactures have not typically included a DAISY player in their devices or in their software, if they did you could also play DAISY materials on them. However, as there is a Daisy book and html files already in the ePub ebook, conversion software could be developed that could grab these files and extract them to make the ebook accessible (refer farther down this doc to read Arache's description of one of these conversion programs).
( more info about epub )

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