Robert Kingett, a witty, gifted writer in Florida, just happens to be a high school student who can barely see.
Tomorrow in the TeleRead blog, he’ll share with us his own personal PDF hell, as well as a partial solution. I invite our friends at Adobe to reply if they’d like. Yes, I know—some of the problem is with the publishers who format and misformat Robert’s e-books. Meanwhile I can at least take heart in Adobe’s advocacy of the reflowable ePub format, which is much, much friendlier to the world’s Kingetts. Perhaps Robert’s words will inspire publishers, retailers and librarians to speed up the switch from PDF to ePub. Hello, OverDrive. I especially hope you’ll pay attention, as a major provider of e-books for public libraries.
Kingett on the Kindle
In the near future, Robert also will be writing up the Kindle. I hope that our readers over at Amazon will pay attention. You really should be willing to go to court if need to be safeguard your customers’ enjoyment of text to speech. It’s not very good PR to knuckle under to publishers and writers’ assault on fair use and accessibility for disabled people. Ideally Robert’s observations will make it worse PR. Hey, guys, read Robert, then do the right thing. Robert’s review, by the way, will cover much more than just the issue of TTS. He is not the biggest fan of the current E Ink, and he’ll explain why. That’s something to ponder amid cries for “A Kindle in every backpack.”
somebody needs to design and implement a pinboard braille reader that will transparently read all of the e-books out there. audio is good; but the blind and low-vision should be able to annotate and highlight just like the rest of us. and they should have more reading material available. not just ya/children’s lit, religious material, and bestsellers. textbooks, too. university press publications. articles downloaded from their university’s aggregator.
the act of reading braille brings about the same brain-changes that the sighted experience when reading with their eyes. audio does not have the same effect on the synapses. kindle’s tts is nice as far as it goes — bookmarking is more possible, for one thing. it is said that ‘perfection is the enemy of the good’. but ‘better than nothing’ is nobody’s special friend.
“Perhaps Robert’s words will inspire publishers, retailers and librarians to speed up the switch from PDF to ePub.”
Maybe they will, but it seems to me that the pdf format wasn’t such a disaster when it was only displayed on desktops and notebooks. Could it be that the pdf format is being falsely accused for the shortcomings of the hardware and software implementations that have tried to bring it to e-readers and the like?
A test — Take any pdf file that gives you problems on an e-reader and try it on a desktop. In the unlikely case that it still has problems, can you fix them by converting to ePub? I doubt it.
Without changing the date, Robert’s picture has been replaced with a picture of a Kindle. If this can happen to a Kindle owner, is there a warning about this in the fine print?
Hi, Don. Robert’s picture is now at the top of the blog. I didn’t want to bore people with images repeated so close together. I may also move up Chris Meadows’ piece on the B&N news–very important to many readers.
As for desktops, not everyone wants to use them. Many want smaller-screen computers. Adobe itself recommends ePub for books without special requirements (such as extra-precise layout).
"There is always something better coming ... sometimes it arrives on time, sometimes its delayed, sometimes it never arrives. (We're still waiting for the iPhone ..."
Robert Kingett, a witty, gifted writer in Florida, just happens to be a high school student who can barely see. 
Previous
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS
Comments:
somebody needs to design and implement a pinboard braille reader that will transparently read all of the e-books out there. audio is good; but the blind and low-vision should be able to annotate and highlight just like the rest of us. and they should have more reading material available. not just ya/children’s lit, religious material, and bestsellers. textbooks, too. university press publications. articles downloaded from their university’s aggregator.
the act of reading braille brings about the same brain-changes that the sighted experience when reading with their eyes. audio does not have the same effect on the synapses. kindle’s tts is nice as far as it goes — bookmarking is more possible, for one thing. it is said that ‘perfection is the enemy of the good’. but ‘better than nothing’ is nobody’s special friend.
Great comment. Will welcome more thoughts from you and others on e-books and Braille.
This is one argument for e-book standards, of course–since ePub should “display” well in Braille.
Thanks,
David
“Perhaps Robert’s words will inspire publishers, retailers and librarians to speed up the switch from PDF to ePub.”
Maybe they will, but it seems to me that the pdf format wasn’t such a disaster when it was only displayed on desktops and notebooks. Could it be that the pdf format is being falsely accused for the shortcomings of the hardware and software implementations that have tried to bring it to e-readers and the like?
A test — Take any pdf file that gives you problems on an e-reader and try it on a desktop. In the unlikely case that it still has problems, can you fix them by converting to ePub? I doubt it.
Regards, Don
Without changing the date, Robert’s picture has been replaced with a picture of a Kindle. If this can happen to a Kindle owner, is there a warning about this in the fine print?
Regards, Don
Hi, Don. Robert’s picture is now at the top of the blog. I didn’t want to bore people with images repeated so close together. I may also move up Chris Meadows’ piece on the B&N news–very important to many readers.
As for desktops, not everyone wants to use them. Many want smaller-screen computers. Adobe itself recommends ePub for books without special requirements (such as extra-precise layout).
Thanks,
David