The Disability Skinny on SOU's Gmail Switchover

In December, SOU switched student email accounts from NetMail to Gmail. Hopefully, this is not news to you, dear student, what with the news broadcasts and on big honkin' banners on campus.

The switch affects more than just which email service you use, however. SOU students now have a huge number of tools and resources in the Google Apps for EDU umbrella, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Talk. Personally, I'm thrilled about this development. GoogleApps gives us opportunities to work, organize, study, and communicate in ways we couldn't even begin to do with our older systems. I'm eagerly awaiting the faculty/staff switchover during spring break.

Every change brings both new opportunities and new challenges for people - with and without disabilities. Over a series of blog posts, we'll be taking a look at the opportunities and challenges that GoogleApps present for students with disabilities. Today, we start with Gmail, Google's flagship app.

Making the Switch

There are oodles of great guides to using Gmail out there, so I'm not going to duplicate them. Instead, I'll point you to:

• the GAapps SOU page for some handy how-to-switch and how-to-use resources
• some helpful guidance on using Gmail as a universal inbox
• the Lifehacker guide to controlling your email
• Google's Top 10 Reasons to Use Gmail

For some of you, being able to use the keyboard to access Gmail's functions is critical; for others, it's just darn handy. There is a list of keyboard shortcuts from Gmail help, but I really like the way that HTS Tech Tips' keyboard shortcut list is organized.

The Bottom Line: Gmail Accessibility

Let's face it, nothing has perfect accessibility for all users, and Gmail is no exception. Fortunately, Google employs accessibility rockstar T.V. Ramen, so there is actually some thought put into it! If you're interested (and a little geeky), check out Google's statement about Gmail accessibility. I'm going to hit the highlights here of accessibility barriers and any recommended workarounds.

• AJAX scripting and screenreaders: Some of Gmail's advanced features require scripts that throw screenreaders in a bit of a tizzy. Workarounds: use the plain HTML view, learn to use the standard view with a screenreader, or use a familiar email program to retrieve your email (MS Outlook, for example)
• Color contrast and glare issues: For some students, the white page background creates reading difficulties, and for others, color contrasts need to be set in certain ways to allow students to read the material. Workarounds: Gmail has great customizability. Use Themes to control how Gmail appears and make it easy to read.
  

Unique Ways GMail Benefits Students with Disabilities

• The aforementioned keyboard shortcuts
  
• Simplify your inbox and reduce email clutter - use filters
• Highlight those messages you really need to see! - use labels. You might, for example, create a bright red label with a star for anything from Financial Aid or Disability Resources. Just a thought, y'know.
• Conversation view also reduces email clutter and makes following what's happened so far much, much easier. This is the default view, so you don't need to do anything to make it happen. Follow the link to find out how to turn it off and see individual emails all by their lonesomes again.
• Auto-saving as you write emails means that what you've written will never disappear with a power surge or outage!
  

Gmail Settings & Labs for Accessibility

Settings, like in every other program, allow you to customize how Gmail works. Gmail Labs are experimental features that you can add on without waiting for program updates. I'll highlight some here that have particular interest for students with disabilities.

Settings

• Number of conversations per page: Set this at a low number (25) if you get overwhelmed by the amount of info on a page or scrolling is difficult. Set it at a higher number (50 or 100) if mobility or dexterity impairments make loading another page cumbersome.
• Keyboard shortcuts - sayin' it again! This is where you actually set to allow them.
• Undo send: Do you tend to send without really thinking it through, or without actually attaching the attachment? Enable this to allow you to pull a sent message back if you do it quickly

Labs

• Google Calendar gadget: I'll be discussing the neato-keen benefits of Google Calendar in the next post. Adding this lab puts a small calendar right into your email page, so you always know what's coming up.
• Auto-advance: brings up the next email after you archive, delete, or mute one. Saves a couple of clicks
• Custom keyboard shortcuts: (gahhh, am I bringing up keyboard shortcuts again??) If you find that Google's pre-assigned shortcuts interfere with other assistive tech you've got installed, change the shortcuts to ones that don't cause problems

Stay tuned for the next post, which will give you all you need to know about Google Calendar. In the meantime, if you have questions you'd like answered or features I've missed, please hit up the comments.

Creating DAISY Files - A Beginner's Overview

This post is thanks to another colleague question. She asked:
"I have a student who has a DAISY player and needs his books in DAISY format. I checked with Bookshare and RFB&D and neither one of them has his needed books. Is there a simple process to convert a PDF into DAISY format?"

Is there a simple process to convert PDF to DAISY? Yup - outsource it!

I'm only partially kidding. Creating DAISY is a time-consuming process. Here's an overview of a process using whatever optical character recognition (OCR) software you already use, free DAISY conversion software, and any text-to-speech voices you already have installed:

1. Run the PDF through Abbyy FineReader or Omnipage to create a Word document
2. Use the Save As DAISY add-in for Word
3. Use DAISY Pipeline to create a full DAISY book

The links above will take you to wiki pages that will tell you more about these programs, where to download them, and how to use them. Keep in mind that minimum markup for a simple DAISY book is title information, language markup, chapter headers, and page numbers. You will need some rudimentary HTML skills in order to do this.

Other options:

• Dolphin's EasyConverter or EasyProducer software can help automate much of the process
• Don't create DAISY files - create mp3s instead. This does not duplicate the superior navigability of DAISY files, but can suffice if the student needs the text fast
• Send RTF files to Bookshare and they will convert to DAISY

Hope this is helpful in getting you started!

Good News / Bad News

There's been a couple of developments I've been tracking in the alternate format text world that bear sharing today.

The Good News

O'Reilly Books, prolific and well-respected publisher of tech books often used for computer science courses, has for some time been providing all of their texts to Bookshare to create accessible versions. Today, O'Reilly announced that they will add text DAISY formats of their books to their lineup of formating options. O'Reilly joins startup publisher FlatWorld Knowledge in the small cadre of publishers who offer books in formats that anyone, regardless of disability, can purchase in the same way, at the same time, and at the same (or lower!) price. Kudos, O'Reilly. We hope the big publishers learn from your example!

The Not-Quite-As-Good News, But Still Better Than It Was Before

The Blind Access Journal has thoroughly reviewed the Kindle 3's new accessibility features. If this is of interest to you, I highly recommend reading Larry's review. There's definitely both good news and bad news there. Bottom line - Kindle still has a way to go to get to equal access for their blind customers.

EBSCO Gets Built-In Reader (video post)

Some exciting news on the library front. EBSCO, the company that supplies the article database most commonly used in the SOU Hannon Library, has decided to partner with NextUp. This is good news for students who can benefit from hearing as well as seeing print, as it means you can have articles read aloud to you from wherever you access the EBSCO database. Details are available from EBSCO's press release.

I wanted to see how it worked, though, so here's what I found. Video seemed the best way to capture the experiment. (It does work in both Mac and PC environments, by the way.)

Exciting Development for Notetaking: Livescribe Pulse pens available

I'm always on the lookout for new and better ways to remove barriers. You may remember I posted (read, gushed) before about the Livescribe Pulse pen. We've run a pilot program with some students who replaced the traditional notetaking accommodation with the Pulse pen.

They loved it. If it works, I reasoned, we should try it on a larger scale! So that's what we're doing. We now have 25 Livescribe Pulse pens in inventory to loan to students who would otherwise be receiving notetaking accommodations. Some use it as a simple index to notes, some will use it in conjunction with PowerPoint slides from class... but there are other uses, as well. Rather than writing about it, though, I think I'll just show you!

Pencast description of Pulse pens for notetaking at SOU

Livescribe notetaking accommodations SOU
brought to you by Livescribe

Audio study guide example (from Livescribe)

Creating audio flash cards (from Livescribe)

Just as in everything else, one size does not fit all... the Pulse pen is not right for everyone. Students who are Deaf, have significant vision loss or mobility impairments may not benefit from using it. If you're uncomfortable with technology and that would present an additional barrier for you, this may not be the best choice. However, for some students this is going to be a huge barrier-buster.

Questions? Comments? Shout 'em out in the comments space!