E-books and Accessibility Ugly Duckling or Adolescent Swan?
• Date: 13 Feb 2013
• Start Time: 10:00 am
• Venue: Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, London, WC1E 7HU
Overview
E-books have the potential to significantly benefit the 38,000 learners in Higher Education (and thousands more in FE) with some sort of print impairment.
Unfortunately, up and down the country, disability officers still scan books because:
• the book is not available on the e-book platform;
• the e-book platform does not support the learner’s assistive technologies;
• some publishers are unable to provide a PDF copy in a timely manner.
The thousands of students with specific learning difficulties like dyslexia are seldom offered textbooks in alternative format because the high costs of a scanning service means it has to be targeted at the "most needy" such as the blind or visually impaired.
Why should I go?
Some learning providers offer an excellent and proactive alternative format service to their students. Some publishers and aggregators offer an equally excellent alternative format service - either through their mainstream systems or through an efficient requests system. This conference - run jointly by JISC TechDis, EDItEUR and UCL - pulls together such expertise in order to help delegates understand:
• the kinds of issues faced by disabled learners;
• the state of alternative format provision across the sector based on recent research;
• the different ways proactive library services are rising to the challenge;
• the different ways proactive publishers and aggregators are improving their services;
• how policies, purchasing and communication processes can help save money and improve service at the same time.
With keynotes from Stephen King (RNIB; DAISY consortium) and Dr Alicia Wise (Director of Universal Access, Elsevier) and practical case study input from librarians and publishers this is a key event for anybody involved with e-books or accessibility.
Booking
Bookings are now open, please complete the Booking Form and return to [log in to unmask] as soon as possible. Bookings will close on Wednesday 30th January 2013.
• Download the e-book conference flyer
• Download the conference programme
Alistair McNaught
Senior Advisor
JISC TechDis Service
Higher Education Academy | Innovation Way | York | YO10 5BR
Mobile - +44 (0)7870567659
Skype – alistair_techdis
Twitter - @alistairm
Web – www.jisctechdis.ac.uk | www.scoop.it/t/inclusive-teaching-and-learning
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