Creating Accessible eReader Formats: A How-To Story

A growing number of students are finding that the scalability of text size, integrated dictionary, and text-to-speech options of the Amazon Kindle and Apple's iPad are fantastic features. They also enjoy the speed of purchase, lighter physical load, and (often) lower purchase price, as do their peers. A growing number of textbooks are available in this way.

But what happens when a student with a print disability depends on those formats in order to have access to the text...and it's not available for purchase in that format? Enter Disability Resources! I'm going to focus in this post on how we create those formats in response to some colleague questions. Info on the legalities and suchlike for our students is available elsewhere.

Using Skim to Read PDFs Aloud on Your Mac

This is one of those situations where I went looking for directions to a specific task in order to give them to a student...and couldn't find them. Yet, this is a function I use fairly regularly and refer students to, so, gosh, wouldn't it be helpful to have those instructions available?

Hence, this post.

Skim is a fabulous free program for the Mac. All of the things that I would want to do with a printed PDF I can do with Skim (except perhaps wadding up the file and shooting wastepaper baskets with it). I can highlight, circle, underline, write notes, and put stickies on the page. What's even better, though, I can also search those notes and stickies, or the whole document, quickly and easily. Further, using the Mac's built-in capability to turn text into speech, I can have the document read aloud to me. That read-aloud feature is also built into Acrobat Reader, but using Skim gives me all those annotation tools plus the read-aloud. Here's how.

The Setup

Let's get your Mac ready to read whatever you ask it to.

1. Go to System Preferences
2. Click on Universal Access
3. Check the "Enable access for assistive devices" box in the Seeing tab
4. Go back to System Preferences (Show All)
5. Click on Speech
6. Choose a System Voice that doesn't irritate you. Alex (available with OS 10.5 and later) is dandy. For older systems, Victoria or Vicki are usually good choices. Some of the others will likely drive you 'round the bend. Test them by clicking Play
   
7. Choose a speed that's comfortable by adjusting the Speaking Rate slider about some and then clicking Play
8. Create a shortcut key to read - this will make the reading process much much faster later on. Do this by checking the "Speak selected text when the key is pressed" box and pressing the key (or key combination) you want to use to start reading aloud. I use CTRL+R. Make sure you select something that isn't used for another reason, then click OK
9. Close System Preferences

Using Speech in Skim

There are two ways to read: starting from the beginning and reading straight through, or reading just specifically selected text.
To read straight through:

1. Open Skim, then open the document you want to read (make sure it's a PDF)
   
2. In the Edit menu, select Speech, then Start Speaking
3. To stop, go to the Edit menu, select Speech, then Stop Speaking

Sometimes, though, you'll want to pick up on page 2, or you only really want to read one section aloud. Here's how to do that:

1. Highlight the text you want to read aloud
2. Press the key combination you set up earlier (told you it would come in handy!)
3. To stop, press the key combination again
   

The Catch

Unfortunately, the read-aloud function will only work in PDFs that are text-based rather than image-based. If you can't highlight and select text, you won't be able to read it aloud. You also won't be able to highlight it, but you can use the other annotation tools in Skim. The good news? If you are an SOU student receiving alternate format text (or are eligible to) from us, I can absolutely convert these image-based PDFs for you. Just email them to me and I'll send you back text-based PDFs.

Have you found other great text-to-speech options on the Mac? Let me know about them in the comments!

Desktop Distractions? Block 'Em Out!

So, you're working on a paper. Chugging away, everything's going great... and then, since you have Facebook running in the background, one of those little popups comes up at the bottom of your screen. You stop writing to read it...

(30 minutes later)

Oh, yeah, you were writing a paper. Hmmm... train of thought has not only left the station, but it took all your baggage with it.

There are some ways to deal with desktop distractions. Today, we'll look at some options. If you have other techniques or technology that you find helpful, post it in the comments!

Clear the Visual Clutter with Ghoster or Isolator

Concentrate only on one window at a time and dim the rest of your screen. Both programs work quite similarly, making only the active application clearly visible.

Ghoster (Windows)
Ghoster does a nice job of clearing the background, though it doesn't (as you can see) block all visibility. However, with everything in the dark, I'm much less likely to wander off to it. My favorite part is that it also dims out the Task Bar, which likes to distract me with its flashing lights and popups.






Isolate (Mac)
Isolate can be configured in a few different ways - my favorite is the complete blackout. Because my Mac doesn't pop stuff up at me nearly as often as my Windows machine does, I'm less worried about the fact that the Dock doesn't dim.

Really Distracted? Lock Yourself Out With LeechBlock!

If you know that the siren song of the web will be calling your name (shhh, Facebook, I'll be with you later!), but you still need to use the, well, useful sites to complete your homework, you might want to try LeechBlock.
LeechBlock - Firefox extension (Windows/Mac)

LeechBlock allows you to specify specific sites, like MySpace or Facebook, that tend to be less than productive for you. You choose the sites, you choose the times to block them. You can, of course, choose to unblock them, but generally the extra steps you need to do that will help you remember why you blocked them in the first place.

Speech-to-Text and Vice Versa on the Mac

This week, a colleague on a listserv was asking about AT software for Macs in a college setting. Specifically, he was asking about speech-to-text and text-to-speech programs. With a few cosmetic tweaks here and there, here's my response...

The built-in stuff

• VoiceOver is a screenreader built in to the operating system. Like most screenreaders, there's a lot to learn in using it. For help, check out a tutorial series.
• Speech is a built-in text-to-speech functionality that works really well in TextEdit, though also works in other Mac apps. Go to the TextEdit menu, choose Services, and then Start Speaking. You can customize this in System Preferences. You can also download a script that will make an iTunes-compatible audiobook from a text document.
• Voice control of your computer is also built in to the Mac with Speech Recognition. Lifehacker did a great guide to using Speech Recognition.
  

Other software

• MacSpeech Dictate is a speech-to-text program built on the Dragon engine. Works well, though not quite as fully functional as Dragon (yet - it just came out in April).
• Kurzweil's Mac flavor is as fully featured as the Windows program. It does have a problem reading color files that were generated on a Windows Kurzweil machine (ask me how I found this out!), though Kurzweil tells me they are working on this. However, it's got lovely iTunes integration, if you want to take your text on the road.
• GhostReader does a fantastic job of text-to-speech, with some really nice Acapela voices. Cheap, too, at around $30. I blogged GhostReader earlier, along with some other good, inexpensive Mac apps.

If you know of other good text-to-speech (and vice versa) apps for the Mac, yell 'em out in the comments!

An update for you Macaholics out there

Yes, I love the Mac. I've got four of them at home (and a new one coming in as soon!) and my desk in my office sports one, too. With the news that 40% of college students say their next computer purchase will be a Mac, it's apparent that students love them, too!

With that, here's 5 free, cheap or built-in applications on the Mac that you might want to consider.

1. GhostReader: easy text-to-speech I posted back in January 2007 about ConvenienceWare's TextParrot. Since then, they've gone through an overhaul, re-introducing the product with the same great Acapela voices and making it even easier to create iTunes audio tracks from your documents. Fast, clean, and simple to use. Did I mention it's easy?
2. Stop-It!: timer Widget Need someone standing over you to help you keep on track? Tend to get lost in a task and need help getting to class on time? This handy little Dashboard Widget can do that for you in simple, customized ways!
3. TextEdit: language support in a plain brown wrapper Don't be fooled by it's simple interface; TextEdit has some incredibly advanced features that can hugely benefit those who struggle with written language. Even better, TextEdit is built in to every Mac and has been for years and years. It's stable as a rock, too. Need text to speech? TextEdit can Speak your document. Need word prediction? Start typing a word, then press Esc - you'll get a list of words from which to choose. No, it's not flashy... but it's there, all the time.
4. Skim: make PDFs your friend Research shows that most people read 20-40% slower when they read digital text than when they read print. In addition, you read more shallowly, focusing less on the details and reading with less retention capability. Make some changes to that trend with Skim! Annotate, highlight, snapshots, and much, much more. Best of all, it's open source and free.
5. Premier Literacy goes Mac: a plethora of tools The great tools that SOU students have been enjoying on the PC for the past couple of years are now available on the Mac. Previously known as Premier Assistive Technology, Premier Literacy offers Etext Reader, Talking Word Processor, Universal Reader, and all their pals. Fabulous.
   

Insomnia has its benefits - Google Reader & LifeHacker

For some reason, the hours between 3 and 5:30 seem to be a difficult time for me to actually stay asleep. But that’s good news, blog readers, because last night I had a wonderful time prancing around the ‘Net and found great blog fodder!

Some of you may have already found Google Reader, another of the ever-growing number of free applications provided by the advertising geniuses at Google. Google Reader is an RSS feed, which brings updates from websites directly to your desktop (or browser, as in this case). Think of it a bit like a running stock ticker for news, exciting blog entries, or anything else on which you want to keep up to date. Ho-hum, not really blog-worthy news, right?

Well, think again. Google has just announced that its Reader feed is accessible to screen readers! This is news, because most dynamic (constantly updating) content on the web is not screen-reader friendly. Granted, there are limitations… it’s currently only accessible to Firevox, the self-voicing extension for Firefox, and Firefox 3, which is still in beta. However, this is a step in the right direction, making dynamic content usable to people with print disabilities.

The other place I spent a lot of time last night (or morning?) was on LifeHacker. Ok, any site that easily steals an hour from you without you knowing it doesn’t really qualify as saving you time… but in my defense, I was catching up on stuff posted there that had long passed me by! While LifeHacker isn’t really assistive technology per se, I did find a large number of items that would be of especial interest to those with learning disabilities or ADD. Particularly interesting were the items in the “Mind Hacks” category… all kinds of ways you can train your brain to work more efficiently.

Time to get off your duff and take a class

Loyal readers of this blog (there are a couple of you, right?) will know that I really like playing with new technology. Those of you who’ve been in my office will know that I really like explaining how it can work for you. So here’s your opportunity…

Beginning Spring term, I’m teaching a 2 credit class called Technology for Learning. (That’s USEM 199 for those who want to find it in the class schedule right now.) This class is open to everyone and will go through a truly broad range of technology tools that can help you be a better student. Every student has to do some of these things at some point in each class:

• read
• write
• research
• math
• organize
• study
• network with others

This class will help you to do all those things in ways that work best for you! I’m designing this class under a Universal Design for Learning format, which means I’m going to make this class as accessible and usable for the largest number of people possible. (For example, one of the “readings” in the first week is an ASL video on multiple intelligences!)

I’m hugely excited about this class. If you have questions about it, please let me know. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Too blog-worthy to resist - Free reading service

Ever come across a website that you think - wow, this is really innovative? Well, this one crossed my email awhile ago. I ran across it again today, as I was cleaning out the inbox.

ReadThisToMe.org provides a FREE, on-demand reading service for people who are visually impaired. What makes this uniques is that, because it is staffed by humans instead of computers, the service makes available items that would otherwise be inaccessible. Examples include: handwritten notes, labels on cans, diagrams…the list goes on.

So how do you get this great service? Easy! Fax your document to ReadThisToMe.org, and they call you back at the number you list and read it to you.

No fax machine, you say? If you have an internet connection and a scanner, you have a fax! Windows and Mac both have ingenious little applications that make this work.

And yes, the service is free. They do, however, accept donations.