Accessibility
E-Access Bulletin: Issue 111, March 2009
01: Row Brewing Over E-Book Speech Function Removal.
A row has erupted over whether or not publishers should be allowed to disable the text-to-speech function on electronic book readers, after one US reader manufacturer bowed to requests from an authors' rights group and made the speech function optional.
Manufacturer Amazon made the move with respect to its new Kindle 2 e-book reader following representation from the Authors Guild, which had claimed that the automatic allowance of text-to-speech (TTS) conversion effectively created an audiobook device, even though no audio royalties were being paid.
Kindle 2 is marketed in the US (there are no immediate plans for a European release) as a 'wireless reading device', allowing users to read downloaded books, magazines, newspapers and blogs. Until now, all text downloaded to the device could also be read using the TTS function, but Amazon have now allowed the feature to be disabled if a publisher or author so wishes. Though the function is not marketed as an accessibility feature, and the Kindle 2 requires sight to navigate it effectively, blindness groups are pressing for the inclusion of TTS functionality by default.
Richard Orme, Head of Accessibility at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, told E-Access Bulletin this month: "We want manufacturers to make sure that text-to-speech is available for all people who have a legitimate print disability. It is essential for people using speech readers that they can access content which hasn't been blocked. Synthetic speech is not the equivalent to speech by a human. We refute that strongly."
However a spokesperson for Amazon said: "We believe that most authors will decide that leaving text-to-speech enabled on their titles is in their commercial interests, and will choose accordingly. So Kindle 2 will still provide an innovative option for handicapped customers."
In a statement, The Authors Guild says their objection to the audio function is solely a royalties issue, and that they support accessible technology. "[Some people] suggest that challenging Amazon's use of this software challenges accessibility to the visually impaired. It doesn't: Kindle 2 isn't designed for such use. The Guild continues to support efforts to make works truly accessible to the visually impaired."
And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live: http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=244 .
02: ITV Unveils 'Signed Stories' Treasure-House For Deaf Children.
What is intended to become the world's largest online library of contemporary children's books fully accessible in sign language, sound, animation and text has been launched by the British broadcaster ITV, for free use by teachers, parents and carers of deaf children.
Signed Stories ( http://www.signedstories.com) has been created by ITV SignPost, the company's non-profit accessibility agency. Around 25 stories are already available to view in British Sign Language by streaming video alongside the other complementary formats, with a plan to offer 150 stories by the end of the year, and 300 or more by the end of 2010.
According to the site's creators, every major publisher approached has agreed to hand over rights to use their books in this way, with those signed up to date including Macmillan, Penguin, Hachette Children's Books and Walker Books.
Eileen Young, Manager of ITV SignPost, told E-Access Bulletin her team now wants the site to grow and eventually to become more interactive, with possible future features including book reviews by children; forums for deaf kids; and the ability for teenagers to communicate with each other by signing using webcams.
Malcolm Wright, Managing Director of ITV SignPost, said the initiative was born from a sense of deep frustration at a widening inequality between deaf children and hearing children in an area - reading stories - that might seem as if it presented no barrier for the deaf.
"The attainment gap was getting wider, and I was astonished that in a caring, first world country this could be happening," Wright said. An important subsidiary function of the website is its ability to provide other information to those working with deaf kids, he said. "The back end of the site contains a lot of advice and resources for deaf parents, parents with deaf children and teachers of deaf children."
NOTE: For a full report on Signed Stories see Section Three, this issue.
And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live: http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=246
03: Private Sector Slow To Address Access Queries.
A 'mystery shopper' test which sent emails to a range of UK local council and private sector websites requesting information on their accessibility to blind users has uncovered a pattern of poor responses, with around one in five sites not bothering to respond at all.
The exercise, carried out by the local government Society of IT Management as part of its annual 'Better Connected' review of council websites ( http://fastlink.headstar.com/so6 ), found local government websites performed better than sites in other sectors.
The test featured an anonymous email claiming to be from a blind person who was having difficulty using the website, with a request for help in accessing services. The same message was sent to all UK councils, plus a sample of 20 household name companies from the finance, travel and retail sectors.
Some 52% in local government sent back a satisfactory response, compared with just 27% of websites from other sectors. Additionally, in 13% of cases with websites from other sectors, an email address could not even be found, while there were no instances of this with local government sites. However, local government did perform marginally worse or similar to the public sector in some regards: some 20% of council sites failed to reply at all, compared with 18% from other sectors, and 43% of the other websites contacted sent a reply within two days, compared to 42% of council sites.
The report claims that "Generally, the differences in the quality of replies imply a lower level of awareness of website accessibility in other sectors," although the large difference in sample sizes between the two sectors (around 500 compared with just 20) should be taken into account.
Elsewhere in the Socitm report, general accessibility testing found a picture of low compliance with international standards, and little improvement on accessibility levels found a year previously. For a full report see Section Four, this issue.
And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live: http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=249
News in Brief:
04: Standard Slips: The chair of a British Standards Institution committee responsible for drafting a standard on web accessibility, Julie Howell of web design agency Fortune Cookie, has stepped down from the voluntary position. The new acting chair of the committee in charge of developing BS 8878, 'Web Accessibility - Building Accessible Experiences for Disabled People', is BBC head of audience experience and usability Jonathan Hassell. Publication of the standard is now expected to be delayed beyond its original planned date of summer 2009: http://fastlink.headstar.com/bsi3 .
05: Readers' Rights: From April, visually impaired readers will be offered first chapters of bestsellers for free from Read How You Want, an internet bookshop specialising in accessible formats. The chapters will be available from the website of accessible technology leaders HumanWare, who are partners in the project: http://www.humanware.com/en-united_kingdom/home . http://www.readhowyouwant.com/ .
06: Free Sinhala: New software to translate Sri Lankan text into speech for visually impaired people is to be made available to all, free of charge, by the Sri Lanka Council for the Blind. The 'Nuwana Sinhala text to speech' tool, developed by a division of the Sri Lanka Institute of IT, will help users to read documents and type in Sinhala, the most widely spoken language on the island: http://www.sliit.lk .
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When: 7/2/2014
