SamuraiLibrarian

Twittering

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:26:00 +0000

I haven't been blogging much lately, but I have been micro-blogging over on Twitter. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/RyanLibrarian.

Librarians Sourced for Search

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:08:00 +0000

This press release came across my desk today:

Researchers and developers from OCLC... today announced their participation in a new international effort to explore the creation of a more credible Web search experience based on input from librarians around the globe. Called the "Reference Extract," the planning phase of this project is funded through a $100,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation...

Reference Extract is envisioned as a Web search experience similar to those provided by the world’s most popular search engines. However, unlike other search engines, Reference Extract will be built for maximum credibility of search results by relying on the expertise of librarians. Users will enter a search term and receive results weighted toward sites most often used by librarians at institutions such as the Library of Congress, the University of Washington, the State Library of Maryland, and over 2,000 other libraries worldwide.

I'm really excited about this, and if it comes to fruition I plan on contributing. Still, $100,000 seams like peanuts for startup... The capital invested into Cuil exceeds this small sum by several orders of magnitude, yet it's still flopped dramatically. Still, I think the idea is gold, so long as the web platform can be effectively developed, a decent user base can be established, and links really are quality.

The utility of crowd sourcing is perhaps over-rated, but given that contributors are drawn from a clearly defined group, a group that's professionally compelled to take part in this sort of activity, it just could work.

There's more on the official ReferenceExtract site.

Information Policy

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 04:15:00 +0000

Yesterday I attended Jumpstarting the Public Sphere: Information Policy Issues for the 21st Century, a conference run by BCLA's Info Policy Committee. Apparently they were going to have blog posts from SLAIS students compelled to attend the conference by their instructors, Devon and Heather, who are members of the committee, on the bcinfopolicy.ca blog, but there's nothing yet. I can only assume that this will be forthcoming, seeing as marks likely hang in the balance. Apparently sessions were recorded and will be available via SFU campus radio online, but I don't think there's anything up yet.

The conference was excellent and was kicked off by Canadian copyfight celebrity, Michael Geist. Really, it was par for the course for Michael, and I get the impression this a talk he's given before--a lot. The main new insight I took away from his speech was that the now dead bill C-61 (Canadian DMCA) was engendered not by outright pressure from the music/movie lobby, but from the American government. We've been leaned on, and the Canadian Government is only too happy to comply like a bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys. This has been a theme with Harper, that sweater wearing, media avoiding, pudgy, cold eyed Conservative patriarch. I think it's not a stretch to say that this is an issue of sovereignty.

Anyway, all the speakers were fantastic. It was nice to see David Loukidelis, the BC Privacy Commissioner, who gave an excellent talk on the regulatory climate in BC as it pertains to privacy and policy. Unfortunately, during the question period I could hear the distinct sound of an axe grinding, but these things happen.

It was also interesting (by which I mean freaking scary) to learn about TILMA (Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement), which is essentially a local version of NAFTA on steroids and crack. The BC Federation of Labour puts it more politely: "a triumph of ideology over common sense, a dubious 'solution' in search of a problem that most British Columbians never knew existed, probably because it didn't" (link).

Finally, Sam Trosow, who is always an interesting speaker, gave the closing speech on developing a critical approach to information policy. It was chewy, and I'm still digesting it.

This is true

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:59:00 +0000

more graph humor and song chart memes

Underwhelmed by Overdrive

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:06:00 +0000

Today I spent the better part of an hour trying to get OverDrive to work. Here in BC, OverDrive has been branded as an extension of BC Libraries: Libraries without walls, and has been licensed by the consortium for all BC public Libraries by the provincial department responsible for libraries: Public Libraries Services Branch (PLSB).

After an hour of playing with the system I was unable to get it working. This is not indicative of my skills, but of a poorly conceived product. My first issue is that client, the OverDrive Console, which I was required to install on my system, delivered error messages instead of content. To be fair, the error was engendered by problems with the Windows Media Player, but the effect was the same: a great big waste of time installing, uninstalling and restarting.

Next, the books I wanted were not in. This is ridiculous. The "books" are digital. They are infinately replicable. They are not scarce physical copies on a shelf, and to treat them as such is the imposition of an artificial limitation and an barrier to access. Surely a better contract could have been negotiated.

Finally, and this is the real deal-breaker, OverDrive does not work on any of my four MP3 players: My tablet (Nokia N800), my iPod Shuffle, my Palm (Tungston) or my phone (Motorola v3t). They've bought a service, that will not work on most hardware because most platforms cant handle the DRM (Digital Rights Management).

DRM is always a barrier to access and essentially breaks our devices, removing otherwise available functionality. For these reasons, as a librarian, I find DRM abhorrent, and I feel that as a profession we say no to DRM. We spend a lot of money on DRM locked products, and if we use our collective economic clout, vendors will listen

Copyright Conversations with Conservatives

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:20:00 +0000

Ever since the new copyright legislation dropped, I've been meaning to post. Trouble is, there's so much wrong with C-61, I didn't know where to start. Today, however, I received a reply to an email I sent to my MP, Nina Grewal. Here's that email, followed by my reply:

Dear Mr. Vernon:

Thank you very much for your recent correspondence concerning Bill C-61.

Last week our government introduced important amendments to the Copyright Act to bring it up-to-date with advances in technology. Our approach is in line with international standards. It should be clear, however, that it is a Made-in-Canada approach that will benefit all Canadians.

For consumers, it allows the recording of webcasts and television and radio programs to be enjoyed at different times; music to be copied on devices such as MP3 players; and the copying of books, newspapers, videos and photos into different formats. It also sets statutory damages at $500 for individuals if they infringe copyright for private use--provided the material is not protected by a digital lock. (Currently, statutory damages could be as high as $20,000 for a single infringement.)

Canadian educators and students stand to benefit from uniquely Canadian reforms that would allow greater use of material posted on the Internet, the legal delivery of course material through the Internet, and electronic delivery of materials loaned between libraries.

For Canadian Internet Service Providers (ISPs), our bill includes a one-of-a-kind "notice and notice" regime. Compared to the "notice and takedown" approach that is used in other markets, it better addresses peer-to-peer file sharing, and clarifies the responsibilities of ISPs online.

Our Made-in-Canada approach strikes a proper balance between all stakeholders. It promotes the protection of creators' rights, and access by students and researchers. It means consumers can enjoy everyday uses of copyright material. And it provides fairness and clarity for industries that operate in the digital environment. Its uniquely Canadian provisions recognize that we all have a stake in fair copyright laws.

I have taken the liberty of forwarding your correspondence on to the Minister of Industry, the Hon. Jim Prentice, whose department is responsible for Bill C-61 and who can better address your specific concerns with this proposed legislation.
Thank you again for writing and please rest assured that your concerns have been duly noted.

Sincerely yours,
Nina Grewal

Member of Parliament
Fleetwood-Port Kells

I tried to maintain an even tone in my response, even though my immediate response was to call bullshit on the clearly false assertion that C-61 is a "Made-in-Canada approach strikes a proper balance between all stakeholders." Here's my response:

Dear Ms. Grewal,

Thank you for responding to my correspondence regarding Bill C-61. I still feel, however, that there are grave deficiencies with this legislation, and I hope you will take the time to personally read and respond to my concerns.

Before I continue, I'd like to explain the context for my professional and personal concern with this bill. I'm faculty at a local college, and one of my graduate degrees is a Master of Library and Information Studies from UBC. The majority of my professional work is with post-secondary students with perceptual disabilities. I am also a father.

As college faculty, C-61 worries me in that it erodes "fair dealing," the copyright tenet on which research and study depends, by restricting the fair use of copyrighted material. Put another way, quoting a paragraph from a digitally locked research study should not be a crime and is indicative of this bill failing to account for dynamic context in which research and study happens. Students and instructors need the freedom provided by a strong "fair dealing" provision to interact with the world of ideas and produce cutting edge research, ideas and products.

C-61 will also turn my colleagues, academic librarians, into copyright police. As the Canadian Library Association states in it’s June 18th press release:

Bill C-61 ignores the fact that the 2004 CCH Supreme Court Judgment already allows Canadian libraries to do desktop delivery of interlibrary loan. Bill C-61 requires libraries to lock up interlibrary loans with DRM tools, something that most libraries would not have the resources to accomplish. Bill C-61 alone would force many libraries back to delivering interlibrary loan via paper copies. "On loaning of digital content, C-61 attempts to move Canada back to the 20th Century," says Mr. Roberts. "This is clearly not workable."

Here too the proposed legislation ignores the reality of the academic process: the research cycle can take years, and researchers must maintain their research sources for this period. It is unreasonable to expect that they will delete digital copies of journal articles within a week, and maintain only paper files, for to do so would be inefficient, environmentally unsound, and unrealistic in a digital work environment.

Additionally, as someone who works with students with perceptual difficulties (individuals who have difficulty navigating the written word because of a visual impairment, learning or cognitive disability, or physical handicap), I am also particularly troubled by the blanket anti-circumvention provisions included in C-61, which undermine the exemption for people with perceptual disabilities in section 32 of the current version of the Canadian Copyright Act, which states that:

32. (1) It is not an infringement of copyright for a person, at the request of a person with a perceptual disability, or for a non-profit organization acting for his or her benefit, to

1. make a copy or sound recording of a literary, musical, artistic or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability;
2. translate, adapt or reproduce in sign language a literary or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability…

The new blanket prohibition on reformatting locked content will criminalize the reformatting of materials legally purchased by disabled students, which they need not only to study, but to function in society and democracy. This bill unfairly targets people who already have a difficult time in life, making life harder for them.

For the sake of brevity I will list only one more concern for you: as a father I am gravely worried about fines that will be levied in cases of music downloads. Your colleague, Minister Prentice, has claimed that individuals will be fined a maximum of $500 if they are caught downloading copyrighted files. As such, the family of a child who downloads an album of a dozen songs would liable for $6000. Such a fine far outweighs the crime, and serves only to put money into the accounts of big corporations who are unable to change with the technological realities of the current day. Moreover, the usual method of download for copyrighted files, such as music, is via peer-to-peer technology, a system based on simultaneous upload and download. While the proposed fine for downloading is $500, the fine for uploading is $20,000, and as such the fine for acquiring the same twelve song album via a peer-to-peer network could be $240000, a fine that would destroy most Canadian families. I am very disappointed in this punitive and unfair fine structure, and am dismayed that the Conservative Party has privileged corporate interests over their stated commitment to Canadian families.

I hope you agree that the goal of copyright legislation is to facilitate the fair circulation of ideas, to foster the innovation, and therefore develop an educated, aware and engaged citizenry. C-61 will not fulfill these goals, and will instead favor the economic goals of foreign interests over the rights of Canadian citizens. The lack of public consultation on this matter is as deeply troubling to me as the ignoring of the negative example of the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) on which--despite misleading claims to the contrary--is a clear analogue to C-61.

I implore you to encourage your party to remove this bill from the table, and consult with Canadians, for we are not "consumers," as your colleague Minister Prentice so often refers to us, but we are "users" and "creators," and we have the right to a balanced approach which C-61 does not offer.

Sincerely,
Ryan Vernon

CC: Prime Minister Harper
Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry
Josee Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage
James Rajotte, Chair of the House of Commons Industry Committee

I wonder if I'll receive a response... If I do I'll be sure to post it, with commentary.

Imitation is the best form of flattery?

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:58:00 +0000

Oh, the injustice of it all! I've been ripped off by Wired... Here's their post, here's mine.

ETUG wrap up

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:41:00 +0000

ETUG's over. All in all a very positive experience and the most grass-roots of 4 conferences I've attended in the last 4 months. Other sessions I didn't blog about were

Open source content: cultivating a culture of sharing our creativity with Chris Gratham. There was an interesting wiki for this session, but unfortunately the URL hasn't been added to the ETUG site.
Modeling Human Creativity with Steve DiPaola. Very interesting and wide-ranging. The best resource for this one is Steve's website: http://www.dipaola.org.
Mobile Content with David Vogt, Executive Director of the Mobile MUSE Network. We had an interesting discussion about things like citywide wifi, the politics of mobile computing and space as a function of electronically mediated interaction. The MUSE network website is http://mobilemuse.ca.

One other anecdote: I've been carrying around an ASUS Eee PC lately (more about this in a future post) and it generated a fair amount of interest at ETUG, even when I was sitting next to the guy with the mac air. Sucker.

What's on your Horizon?

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:09:00 +0000

Facilitators: Cyprien Lomas and Scott Leslie

Description: A conversation about the 2008 NMC Horizon Report. Each year the New Media Consortium produces The Horizon Report (http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Main_Page), an attempt to forecast some of the emerging technologies and forces that will affect education in the coming years. This year’s report identified grassroots video, collaboration webs, mobile broadband, data mashups, collective intelligence and social operating systems as 6 emerging technologies that will influence higher education over the next 5 years. Join two of the Horizon Report's Advisory Board members for an open discussion about the newly released 2008 report, as well as an opportunity to share your own experiences around a host of innovative and disruptive technologies that are offering both new opportunities and challenges for educators and support staff.

I actually took copious notes for this session, but the session wiki and the horizon document itself pretty much cover it. Both of these links contain a lot of useful information, and the wiki particularly has links to several very interesting online apps / tools.

ETUG: Pachyderm

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:46:00 +0000

Session: Pachyderm: Rich media presentations (2 hr hands-on lab)

Facilitators: Negin Mirriahi and Angela Lam

Description: No technical skills required! This hands-on workshop will introduce Pachyderm, an easy-to-use open source flash based multimedia authoring tool designed for instructors, instructional designers, and students who have little or no skills in multimedia development. Participants will be shown samples of finished Pachyderm presentations and guided through creating their own sample presentation that could be uploaded on any website or imported into a Course Management System. Arts ISIT within the Faculty of Arts at UBC has been one of the initial developers of Pachyderm and currently supports the use of Pachyderm at UBC for both face-to-face and online distance classes.

Pachyderm 2.0

Open source rich media web publishing tool.

Flash based. Requires no local install.

Templates available—seems largely template based, but it's difficult to edit existing templates.

End constant can be uploaded to server or CMS.

Not really accessible... no default alt tag... difficult to parse with a screen reader.

Advantages:

Easy to use
Instructors will not require a lot of support

Limitations:

highly visual.
Limited number of template
hard to change the templates
templates must be build in flash, and therefore requires programming experience to modify.
Totally inaccessible.
Hard to make changes on the fly: requires storyboarding.

Bottom line: A good session, but this is not a useful tool, not only because of its lack of accessibility, but also because it lacks flexibility and an intuitive interface.

ETUG: Educational Technology Users Group

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:32:00 +0000

I'm at the ETUG conference right now:

The Educational Technology Users Group (ETUG) is a community of BC post-secondary educational practitioners focused on the ways in which learning and teaching can be enhanced through technology.

I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of this little conference. It's very grassroots and the right kind of nerdy. Perhaps next year I'll submit a request to speak.

In any case, notes from the conference floor will follow.

A note for conference organizers: recently I also attended the BCLA and CLA conferences, but they didn't offer free WIFI for participants, so they merited no blogging on my part.

Influential reads

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:30:00 +0000

In January I wrote, "It would be interesting to take a bunch of really smart individuals and ask them what book made them the smartest..." It seems that the New Scientist has done much the same thing. Here's the list:

1. Farthest North - Steve Jones, geneticist
2. The Art of the Soluble - V. S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist
3. Animal Liberation - Jane Goodall, primatologist
4. The Foundation trilogy - Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist
5. Alice in Wonderland - Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist
6. One, Two, Three... Infinity - Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist
7. The Idea of a Social Science - Harry Collins, sociologist of science
8. Handbook of Mathematical Functions - Peter Atkins, chemist
9. The Mind of a Mnemonist - Oliver Sacks, neurologist
10. A Mathematician's Apology - Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician
11. The Leopard - Susan Greenfield, neurophysiologist
12. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior - Frans de Waal, psychologist and ethologist
13. Catch-22 / The First Three Minutes - Lawrence Krauss, physicist
14. William James, Writings 1878-1910 - Daniel Everett, linguist
15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Chris Frith, neuroscientist
16. The Naked Ape - Elaine Morgan, author of The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
17. King Solomon's Ring - Marion Stamp Dawkins, Zoologist

(via boing boing)

Lame

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:18:00 +0000

So I just spent my Saturday evening in front of my computer. Lame ass.

Anyway, I added a link to this blog's RSS feed, added a blogger profile pic, and updated my online resume. It's not that I'm looking for a job--I'm enjoying my new job very much, thank you--but if you want to steal me away by showering me with fat wads of cash, send me an email and we can discuss it.

Family

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:04:00 +0000

The family is coming along nicely... You'll notice the literal hierarchy:

Dress Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:46:00 +0000

LibrarianDressUp.com

I wish they had a male version of this.

CSUN: An accessible approach to usability testing

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Elizabeth Neil
Web Content Manager
AFB

Use research: benchmark for effectiveness.

Remote usability testing helps recruit a good mix.

Define user group.
Is there special equipment required?
Access criterion is more important than disability in their experience is more a function access method than disability.

Sampling techniques:
Snowballing, find one person and then use their contacts.
Random sampling, good but more suited to a lager population.
Quota sampling, fill specific criteria until defined number is met.
Opportunity sampling, finding folks who are at particular place, like a conference. Might be biased.

Recruitment strategies:
Organizations
lists
personal connections
programs

Types of research
Focus groups: more informal; usually most useful as a starting place. What people think they need.

Card sorting: How people sort information. Provide cards and see how people sort them. May need to be done creatively for his to be accessible, ie with Braille or large print.

Prototyping: can be useful early.

Heuristic review: use preexisting standards. Don't reinvent the wheel.

User's experience interviews: what are the user's expectations based on design.

Quantitative testing: time spent on task, keystrokes, etc.

Benefits of remote testing: real world testing, reduces burden on the user.

Links to web design standards cited on presentation slides.

Continue to ask for comments after a product is live.

CSUN: Riding the wave: Electronic gaming for persons with disabilities

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:06:00 +0000

Head mouse: for PC Mac, pointing device.

Coplaying: where one person playing a game with the direction of another. Showed a father son playing a FPS.

Leads to productive learning and work.

Unbelievable vid of a kid who can only use move his thumb. Plays fps and war craft.

Neither presenter has expertise with gaming for folks with visual impairment.

CSUN: DAISY Production from a Text Source

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:21:00 +0000

Ron Stewart, Peter Proscia, Dennis Leas, Reed Shaffner and George Kerscher

Starting in MS Word adding in headings and alt tags.
Using DAISY Converter to convert the doc to daisy.
Requires TTS: Text To Speech, for audio output.

Eclipse Wizard: another DAISY production tool. Eclipse has other tools as well. Seems like a good tool.
Uses DNA file format: Small file which contains text and structure information. DNA can export to a wide range of devices.

MS Word export to DAISY.
Goals: -reduce barriers to baseline production.
-Clean up what people consume.
-Bring DAISY to mainstream population.
New beta available on source forge on May 21.

gh, LLC
Service: media conversion.
Product: gh Player
quick ad dirty text to DAISY with minimal heading information.

DAISY pipeline
Open source / accessible
Adequate for larger production.

A few notes here: DAISY Pipeline is a tool that CILS currently uses as part of our DAISY production process. I was particularly impressed with Eclipse, and I think we’ll demo it once we’re back in the office. The other useful tool will be the MS Word export to DAISY tool, which should significantly lower the barrier to basic DAISY production for many people. It seems to me that this will be useful for professors and other instructors who need to make materials available to students.

We also met with George Kerscher while at CSUN… He moderated this session. He's a man who really seems to understand the things, and he’s a strong advocate for DAISY. A little while ago I posted a YouTube vid of him discussing DAISY.

CSUN: Best Practices in Accessibility: An IT Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:09:00 +0000

IT Industry Council, Accessibility committee.
Members on this panel: Nokia, Cannon, RIM, AOL and HP.
Moderated by Ken Salaets.

Nokia: making accessible mobile devices. Also accessible software such as readers.
Open architecture that allows others to develop accessibly apps.

Cannon: now making accessible copying / multifunction device. Universal design approach. Offering audio and speech recognition.
Import of AT as part of brand image.
Focus on preparing to serve the aging population.

RIM: Canadian! Formalized accessibility processes within product development and customer interactions. Universal design approach.
Focus on industry collaboration.
Develop customers for life, ie ageing boomers.

AOL: Awareness, responsibility, collaboration. Working on captioning on the web.
Accessible webmail product. 4.5% AOL webmail views through accessible streams.

HP: Good term: coopitition.
Also looking at age related disabilities... Good business case here.
Good question to ask yourself: Accessible to whom, doing what, in what environment.
HP.com/accessibility

Overview:
Import of developing corporate culture.
Cooperation.
Dedicated staff resources (advocates) with other people on-board.

NB: Although it wasn’t explicitly stated, the business case underpinning this session was that companies are incorporating assistive technology more and more, but nit because it’s the right thing to do: a legislated mandate to accommodate and an aging population make assistive tech both legally necessary and potentially profitable.

CSUN: Improving access to web interaction at Google

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:42:00 +0000

Charles L Chen and T.V. Raman

Content and interaction underpin the web.
Content accessibility is well addressed, interaction not so much.

Presentation notes posted at Google accessibility group.

Web 1.0 static web controls
Web 2.0 dynamic websites, usually not standard controls or HTML.

WAI-ARIA maps between 2.0 widgets and 1.0
Also interprets dynamic / updating content.
Web apps with WAI-ARIA: you need your web app to include WAI-ARIA as well as a WAI-ARIA enabled browser.

Design principles Web Development Tool kit
ARIA automatically included
keyboard support
widgets accessible by default

Gap analysis
script enhanced as tool to allow assistive technology to access dynamic content currently not available.

Google reader now ARIA accessible. It's the test.

New feature for Google search page: key navigation with reader (JAWS) automatically loads next page when scrolling through results.

CSUN Session: Web accessibility: legal ramifications & awareness within higher education.

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:31:00 +0000

Cynthia Wadell, ICDRI

1 Americans with disabilities act.
2 UK case.
3 UN treaty on rights for persons with disabilities.

1
Defined: impaired abilities.
Protection from discrimination in employment practices... What if inaccessible website?
Import of accessibility officer and complaint procedure.
NB: Exact legal ramifications specific, here, to US
law... ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act.

2
Latif vs. PMI
UK based case.
Applied to US companies operating in the UK.

3
UN treaty on rights of persons with disabilities.
Impacts ~350 million people world wide.
At least 125 countries have signed.
-Process of alignment of laws internationally.

Resources:
Cynthia's book: Web Accessibility. (2006)
cynthiasays.com free online web accessibility checker.
-Not a substitute for human judgment.
Cynthia's digital divide paper available on line. Linked from ICDRI.org website.

CSUN Session: Accessible PDF authoring

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:05:00 +0000

Greg Pisoky and Pete De Vasto
from Adobe

ISO 32000 standard for PDF

Adobe reader: works with screen readers, magnifiers, alternative input devices.
MSAA compliant user interface.
Reader now has ocr, automatic tagging built in, reflow to organize columns & images.

Word processing.
Adobe pdf maker works with MS office.
MS also has a pdf maker as a free download.
OpenOffice writer can export accessible pdf as well.

Content prep:
-Do not apply formats and fonts for editing. Use rather styles and headings.
-Never trust software to do anything.
-Check your work manually.
Automated tool for checking and repair prior to pfd publication. LK4 technology.
Adobe offers tools for postproduction pdf accessibility correction.

Word techniques:
-Apply normal style, global remove tabs, formatting (bold etc).
-Wordwise book =good resource.
-Format picture, web tab can allow you to insert alt text.
-Use headings in word. This is accessibility best practice, and also general design best practice. There are short cuts and tools to make this easier.

Adobe PDF Maker has accessibility options.

NB: print as PDF does not create accessible PDF, rather you must save as a PDF.

-Checking and repair.
New version of acrobat pro has accessibility checking: start with accessibility report.

For handout (not up yet):
Anderw Kirkpatrick’s accessibility blog: blogs.adobe.com/accessibility

CSUN: Keynote notes

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:53:00 +0000

Jonn Williams (Introduction).
Talked about the development of assistive technology.
Referenced two sites:
Assistive technology News: www.atechnews.com
My MS My Way: www.mymsmyway.com

Keynote: Jim Fruchterman

Raising the floor for people with disability.

Former Caltech rocket scientist.
Current social entreprenure: www.benetech.org
Makes software to track social injustice.
Also runs BookShare, providing accessible ebooks: www.bookshare.org

Williams' original idea: pattern recognition app for blind people.

Became involved with ocr to speech systems in 1970s. Projects transitioned into Arkenstone - which was organized as nonprofit.
Arkenstone succeeded through the 90s. Arkenstone bought by freedom scientific. Benetech emerged later with larger mandate, including human-rights.
Software for human rights groups, including who dif what to whom database. Ie Milosevic trial.

Other venture; BookShare. Community scans and proofs and uploads to the book share library.

Current vision for assistive technology
1 drop price by a factor of ten. As with other technology that has penetrated like cellular phones.
2 Cell phone seen as new platform for assistive technology.
3 Open source is third component.
Mentioned also creative commons.

Raising the floor granted 32 million to pursue free e-text and assistive technology.

Weather Relativity.

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:33:00 +0000

I just arrived in LA for CSUN. It's about 22 degrees and sunny here. I mention this because if it were this warm in Canada everyone would be in shorts and tank-tops. Even when it warmed up to about 10 degrees a few weeks ago, far too many people took the opportunity to display their flabby, white Canadian winter flesh. Here, most people have on long shirts and jackets--in the 20+ degrees weather.

It just goes to show that everything is relative: I'm sure that in eastern Canada they'll be in shorts as soon as it warms to zero... poor SOBs.

DAISY

noreply@blogger.com (Samurai Librarian) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Here's a primer for CSUN. It's about Daisy books (Digital Accessible Information SYstem), an accessable electronic book format useful to print-disabled folks.

Here's the vid: