DEAR DOT

The following information appeared in the Spring 2001 American Foundation for the Blind's "DOTS for Braille Literacy" newsletter, Volume 5, Number 2, and is used with permission.

Dear DOT,

I keep hearing people talk about electronic books, but I don't understand what they are. Can you explain them? What do they have to do with putting a book into braille? How can I use them with my students?

Signed, Victoria

Dear Victoria,

Your letter came at a time when many exciting things are happening in the world of publishing and technology. You are no doubt familiar with creating simple documents on your word processor, turning it into braille with translation software, and then printing it out with an electronic braille embosser. Nowadays, books are produced on the computer, and the publisher creates an electronic file that contains all the information needed to print the textbook (such as page numbers, headings, subheadings, captions, etc.). However, the formats currently used by publishers are not as easy to translate into braille as a simple word-processing document. Streamlining the use of publisher files to produce braille textbooks is an important issue, and is a critical element addressed by the AFB Textbooks and Instructional Materials Solutions Forum.

Have you ever had to wait months to receive a braille textbook for a student? The Solutions Forum is a national collaborative effort initiated in 1998 by AFB to eliminate the barriers faced by students who are blind or visually impaired who do not receive their textbooks at the same time as their peers. Approximately 40 organizations are working together to combat this problem including publishers of educational materials; technology specialists; braille, large-print and audio production specialists; parents, educators, and consumers. Representatives from these organizations make up five working groups: Electronic Files/Research & Development; Legislative and Policy-Making; Production Issues; Training and Other Needs; and Communication and Collaboration. To understand more about how the Solutions Forum and its members are changing how you can get your braille textbooks, we have to go into some background details.

The publishing industry has embraced new technologies such as the Internet, digital talking books (not on tape anymore!), and "electronic book" or "eBook" technology. A number of publishers were creating eBooks in different ways, so the Open E-Book Forum was created in 1999 to streamline and standardize the process. At the same time, an international effort was underway between two other groups--the Digital Audio-Based Information System (DAISY) Consortium and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) - to create a standard "markup" language to create digital talking books, and to facilitate the production of braille from digital talking book files. The hope is that these overlapping efforts and technologies will meet, and that a single format can be created that will allow publishers to create a variety of books- so braille, print, and electronic books can all be created from one file! At present, the file format that has the most promise is called the DAISY/NISO XML format.

Currently, most braille transcribers are creating braille textbooks by scanning the print pages with an optical character recognition (OCR) scanner, or by entering the information in by hand, and by using braille translation software (such as Duxbury or MegaDots) to "translate" computer information into braille. If you have ever done this yourself, you know how much work goes into preparing the file, "cleaning up" the file, and formatting the braille so that the material is error-free when it is embossed. Just think how much easier it would be to receive a computer disk from a publisher that includes all the information in the textbook, completely formatted, and as error-free as possible so that the time involved in producing a braille book will be considerably shortened.

While the "human touch" will always be needed to produce braille textbooks (think of the tactile graphics in so many books!), training transcribers to use the new file format is another important goal of the Solutions Forum. Using the DAISY/NISO XML format as a foundation, national organizations are currently creating and testing the file format to refine and improve it. Results of this work are expected in summer of 2001.

While this is exciting news, much of this lies in the future. What can be done in the meantime to get braille books to your students? An important stakeholder of the AFB Solutions Forum is the American Printing House for the Blind (APH), for many years the primary source of braille textbooks for students. APH recently announced they have reached agreements with all the major textbook publishers to open the APH File Repository to "authorized users" as defined under the 1996 Chafee Amendment to the U.S. Copyright Law. This will open the Repository to any "nonprofit organization or a governmental agency that has a primary mission to provide specialized services related to training, education, or adaptive reading or information access needs of blind or other persons with disabilities."

Another resource teachers can draw upon is APH's Louis database, which lists books and materials that are currently available in accessible media. For more information about both of these projects, go to the APH web site, www.aph.org. Many of the AFB Solutions Forum papers, fact sheets, and resources are available online at www.afb.org/education.asp and at www.tsbvi.edu. For more information about eBook issues, visit the following web sites: www.daisy.org and www.openebook.org. If you are interested in becoming actively involved with one of the AFB Solutions Forum work groups, contact Mary Ann Siller, Project Coordinator and AFB National Program Associate in Education at siller@afb.net.

Signed,

DOT