This is a post from Austin Seraphin's Behind the Curtain blog from back in June. It's well worth reading the whole thing: Last Wednesday, my life changed forever. I got an iPhone. I consider it the greatest thing to happen to the blind for a very long time, possibly ever. It offers unparalleled access to properly made applications, and changed my life in twenty-four hours. The iPhone only has one thing holding it back: iTunes. Nevertheless, I have fallen in love. ... I have seen a lot of technology for the blind, and I can safely say that the iPhone represents...

An important article from the Library Journal for anyone interested in people with disabilities. Here's a snippet: If digital literacy is exploding, the visually disabled are taking the shrapnel. I would wager that most librarians consider ourselves committed to accessibility and make individual and organizational efforts to comply with (and often exceed) the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in our buildings and the Rehabilitation Act Section 508 standards on our websites. We may not, however, have had the sobering experience of trying to access an ebook or e-journal using screen-reading software or other assistive technology. Despite our best intentions,...

From the Tools of Change blog comes important information for those with disabilities: For years we've supplied our digital files to Bookshare, a non-profit that provides accessible reading material to the print disabled. For qualifying readers, our books are made available worldwide, and we've really enjoyed working with Jim Fruchterman and the Bookshare team along the way (I'm also on their Advisory Board).   Although the DRM-free EPUB files in our ebook bundles are compatible with many reading systems for print disabled customers, many readers prefer the DAISY format that Bookshare provides, and either don't qualify...

Eric Taub reviews Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy on the NY Times website today. He says: that brings to it what the publisher, iStoryTime, says is a first: an iPad book complete with sign language for deaf children. The $3 app offers three versions of this charmingly illustrated work: one that children can read themselves, one that would be read to them and one signed by a woman who stands off to the side of the screen, with the reduced-size book running next to her. The signed version is actually a QuickTime movie, which can be paused by the user. The woman...

From the press release: CourseSmart, the world’s largest digital course materials provider, today announced a partnership with AccessText Network (ATN), a national organization that facilitates and supports the delivery of alternative electronic textbooks to the Disabled Student Services offices of colleges and universities nationwide and the Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC), an initiative of the Georgia University System and operating under Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute Department to improve national services for students with print-related disabilities. In collaboration with ATN and AMAC, CourseSmart is optimizing its eTextbook versions of the most popular textbooks in higher education to increase functionality with accessible...

Ars Technica has an overview article about current ereaders and accessibility - the Kindle and the iPad lead and the Nook and Sony aren't in the running. We already covered the National Federation of the Blind commending Amazon on the new accessibility features of the 3rd generation Kindle. Here's what Ars has to day about the iPad: Similarly, the iPad excels in this area, thanks largely to its sort-of-computer status and Apple's accessibility support in the OS. Screen reading is not a setting within the iBooks app, but the iPad itself—users can turn on VoiceOver so that every object, menu item,...

From the press release: Don Johnston just announced its new Read:OutLoud University Edition eBook Reader at the AHEAD Conference in Denver, Colorado. (Association on Higher Education and Disability) The Read:OutLoud University Edition eBook reader is accessible reading software to help individuals and postsecondary students with disabilities navigate the latest eBooks and textbooks and hear text read aloud. Thousands of college students, transitioning high school seniors and veterans (wounded warriors) have reading and physical disabilities that make it difficult to read standard print. These individuals will find Read:OutLoud to be a versatile reading tool that includes an accessible web browser and helpful...

More information available in the Engadget article this is taken from....

From their press release: Bookshare, the world’s largest online accessible library of copyrighted content for individuals with print disabilities, today announced a milestone event – surpassing 100,000 qualified members around the world. Bookshare’s Publisher program also crossed a substantial milestone, with more than 60 publishers from a wide range of publishing sectors agreeing to contribute digital files to Bookshare for worldwide distribution. These files expand Bookshare’s library with current popular fiction and nonfiction titles, academic and scholarly works, textbooks, and educational materials. The University Partners Program has grown substantially and has over 20 university partners regularly contributing books...

From the joint letter sent out by both Departments: Dear College or University President: We write to express concern on the part of the Department of Justice and the Department of Education that colleges and universities are using electronic book readers that are not accessible to students who are blind or have low vision and to seek your help in ensuring that this emerging technology is used in classroom settings in a manner that is permissible under federal law. A serious problem with some of these devices is that they lack an accessible text-to-speech function. Requiring use of an emerging technology in...

It turns out that the iPad is not just good for consuming media for the average person—parents of autistic children are finding it has a considerable impact on their childrens’ communication patterns and abilities. Shannon Des Roches Rosa, the mother of an autistic 9-year-old, has written a blog post documenting how an iPad she won in a raffle is proving to be a great tool for bringing out greater independence and new skills in her son Leo. After Leo spent five minutes with his iPad, I realized that any assumptions I had about it being...

That is what The Telegraph is reporting today. According to the article: "When it comes to embedding accessibility, Apple has set the standard in recent years," said Robin Spinks, principal manager of digital accessibility at the RNIB. "It is now up to other manufacturers to follow their lead." The features cited include the ability to increase the size of text, option to change the color of the screen background and text and the ability to read out the words on the screen....