The European Commission has proposed the ratification, on behalf of the European Union, of the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, low vision or otherwise print disabled. The Treaty will ensure that books in formats such as Braille, large print, e-books and audio books with special navigation tools, produced under copyright exceptions, can be exchanged across borders, not only within the EU but also between the EU and third countries.

 

“The Marrakesh Treaty will simplify the lives of millions of people with vision disabilities around the world. The EU can help to improve access to books with equal conditions for all and contribute to the fight against the book famine. The Commission’s proposal is a signal that Europe is ready to support the rapid entry into force of this important Treaty. I count on the Council and the European Parliament to authorize the ratification as soon as possible.” said Michel Barnier, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of Internal Market and Services.

 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 285 million people worldwide have vision impairments: 39 million are blind and 246 million have low vision.

 

The World Blind Union reports that in Europe only 5% of published books are available in an accessible format for people with vision disabilities, while in developing countries this rate is as low as 1%.

 

More information is provided in the official press release.

Bones AG has announced the availability of a new member of the Milestone family, the Milestone M112 Ace.

The Milestone M112 Ace offers the simplicity of the Milestone 112 and shines with two new features:

• Easy to use and precise clock
• With a touch of a button, your Milestone M112 Ace tells you what time it is.

Now you can take notes at any time. It doesn't matter if the Milestone 112 Ace was recently in use or is in power saving mode. Just press the recording button until you hear the recording signal and start taking notes. Available in Europe starting October 20th, 2014. More information is provided on the Bones AG website.

As with other learning disabilities, dyslexia is a lifelong challenge. This language processing disorder can affect reading, writing, spelling and even speaking. Dyslexia is not a sign of poor intelligence. Children and adults with dyslexia simply have a neurological disorder that causes their brains to process and interpret information differently. Dyslexia occurs among people of all economic and ethnic backgrounds.

 

Much of what happens in a classroom is based on reading and writing. It's important to identify dyslexia as early as possible. Using alternate learning methods and materials, including DAISY, people with dyslexia can achieve success. Each October, the International Dyslexia Association aims to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of dyslexia and offer resources to parents, teachers, and individuals with dyslexia. Their 2014 Campaign is dedicated to families. Every dollar raised will help to provide handbooks to families across the world.

 

From October 1-31, 2014 you can make a donation to ensure that the IDA Dyslexia Handbook: What Every Family Should Know, gets into the hands of as many families as humanly possible. A donation of just $10, will get a handbook to ten families. The more parents can be informed, the more kids we can help. Details are provided on the IDA website.

The World Sight Day is held on the second Thursday of every October, making October 9th the day for eye awareness in 2014.

 

It was initiated by the Lions International Club and integrated with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) task force known as Vision 2020, in October 2000.

 

The primary focus of this day is to educate various communities about avoidable blindness. According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), by the year 2020, the number of blind people will increase to 76 million. More information is provided on the IAPB website.

As part of the Department of Education's First in the World program, AMAC Accessibility Solutions & Research Center, a part of the Georgia Tech College of Architecture, was recently awarded $3.8 million over four years to create the Center for Accessible Materials Innovation. This center, which will target students at minority serving institutions (MSIs), will expand access to digital content for students with disabilities, thereby improving their retention and graduation rates. More information is provided on the Georgia Tech, College of Architecture website.

Training workshop on “Inclusive Publishing” was organized September 15 to 17, 2014 at the BASIS Auditorium, Dhaka. This program was conducted by the DAISY Consortium with support from WIPO and Accessible Books Consortium. The partner organizations from Bangladesh were Access to Information program, Prime Minister's Office (A2I), Government of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and YPSA. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid handed over the certificates to the trainees during the closing ceremony at the Prime Minister’s Office on September 18th. Mr. Prashant Ranjan Verma and Mr. Amit Verma facilitated the training program.

 

The objective of this program was to make the publishers aware of the lack of reading material in accessible format for persons with print impairments which include people with blindness, low vision, dyslexia, certain physical disabilities and the illiterate/low literate. The participants learnt how they can adopt inclusive publishing by making eBooks which are for everyone including people with disabilities. The publishing industry is in a transition stage where more and more publishers are coming out with eBook versions of their publications. If publishers take care of the accessibility requirements then all eBooks will be born accessible and there will be no need for further adaption for people with print disabilities. This can dramatically increase the availability of reading material for people with print disabilities. More information is provided on the Global Accessibility News website.

Fee-based Multi-part Series on Creating Accessible EPUB 3 Documents.

This 4-part Webinar series is a fee-based series, but it is free for EASI Annual Webinar members. The registration fee for the series is $225.There is also a scholarship available for those unable to obtain the funds for the series: http://easi.cc/scholarship.htm

Week 1: Tobi, how to enhance accessibility of EPUB 3 publications, with synchronized audio and image descriptions

Presenters: Avneesh Singh, Project Manager, DAISY Consortium and Daniel Weck, System Architect, DAISY Consortium

Tuesday, October 7: 11 Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 Central and 2 PM Eastern

In this seminar, speakers will summarize the benefits of EPUB3 for accessible publishing. The presentation will describe how to add audio Media Overlays and image descriptions to existing mainstream e-books. This will be accompanied by live demonstrations, and this webinar will include an open Q&A session.

Week 2: Using Word to Prepare a Document to be Converted into EPUB 3 Format

Presenter: Karen McCall from Canada

Tuesday, October 14: 11 Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 Central and 2 PM Eastern

This week, Karen McCall, provides an overview of the elements of a well-structured Word document that can then be converted to other formats such as EPUB with "relative" ease. Topics include proper use of headings, adding footnotes, end notes, page numbers, lists, tables and providing alternate text and captions for images. It is impossible to overemphasize the importance on clear structure that is accomplished by proper semantic markup. All of this is done behind the scene and is often ignored. Looking good is not enough for a good document.

 

Week 3: Using RoboBraille to Convert Documents into EPUB 3 Format

Presenter: Lars Ballieu Christensen from Denmark

Tuesday, October 21: 11 Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 Central and 2 PM Eastern

RoboBraille is an automated, self-service solution for people who need to convert documents into alternate formats. The service allows users to convert files in most common formats into audio books, digital braille books and ebooks. The service may also be used to convert otherwise inaccessible tricky documents into more accessible formats. At the webinar, Lars will walk you through the service and how it can be used. He will also talk about how universities and other academic institutions can use the SensusAccess interface to RoboBraille to provide a self-service alternate media solution for students, faculty and alumni.

 

Week 4: What is EPUB and How to Create EPUB documents from Open Office

Presenter: Norman Coombs

Tuesday, October 28: 11 Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 Central and 2 PM Eastern

Open Office is a free, open source suite of applications that fill similar functions to Microsoft Office. There are many free extensions to download that will extend the capabilities of Open Office. One of the extensions will let you save a document in the EPUB format. In that regard it has similarities to the Save as DAISY add-in for Word.

 

EASI annual members register from the member-only page at:

http://easi.cc/member/index.htm

Non-members can register and pay online with a PO, credit card or check from the Webinar page: http://easi.cc/clinic.htm#october

Non-members unable to obtain funding for the series should apply for the Dick Banks Memorial scholarship at: http://easi.cc/scholarship.htm

SuperNova 14.03 has been released to expand reading opportunities for blind and partially sighted students.

 

Thousands of books from Load2Learn and other accessible libraries can be read instantly with SuperNova's unique combination of magnification, speech or braille. SuperNova can also transfer books to a portable player for reading on the go.

 

Find out more about reading accessible books with SuperNova by watching Dolphin's short video on YouTube.

Web Accessibility Tutorials on Images and Tables are now available. Additional tutorials will be announced soon. These tutorials show you how to create web content that is accessible to people with disabilities and that improves the user experience for all users. They include general guidance, and specific examples for HTML5 and WAI-ARIA. More information is provided on the W3C website.

The Pacific Rim International Conference, considered one of the most ‘diverse gatherings’ in the world, encourages and respects voices from “diverse” perspective across numerous areas, including: voices from persons representing all disability areas; experiences of family members and supporters across all disability and diversity areas; responsiveness to diverse cultural and language differences; evidence of researchers and academics studying diversity and disability; stories of persons providing powerful lessons; examples of program providers, and; action plans to meet human and social needs in a globalized world.

 

In 2015, new topic areas will promote thoughtful discussion and suggest new ways to integrate education, technology, advocacy, activism and interdisciplinary research. We all strive to strengthen communities and enhance the lives of all human beings. Together, we can harness the tremendous synergy generated by the intermingling and cross-fertilization of diverse perspectives, and ‘spread the word’ as we continue our professional and personal life journey.

 

Take your first steps to the islands by visiting the conference website: www.pacrim.hawaii.edu. Organizers welcome your ideas, suggestions and enthusiasm. You are welcome to Waikiki, Hawaii, May 18 & 19, 2015.