[free-sklyarov] Re: eBooks and the blind.

[Roger Sperberg]

If you have a text-to-speech engine installed in your computer, it works
with version 2 of the Adobe eBook Reader. The Reader itself only claims to
provide Read Aloud features with Win2000, but I have Win 98 on one computer
with the free TTS engine available at Microsoft and the feature works fine
there.

This is the first free Reader that includes TTS capabilities for eBooks (and
all PDFs, which the eBook Reader will render -- and read aloud-- too). The
eBook Reader is currently available only on the Windows platform.

Note that any eBooks issued before last fall did not have the possibility of
setting the Read Aloud feature to Yes, and they default to No (not allowed),
so as not to inadvertently conflict with a publisher's having sold the audio
rights to a title to another publisher. In English: the eBooks only have
Read Aloud permissions if the publisher explicitly set it that way.

Roger Sperberg

-----Original Message-----
From: free-sklyarov-admin at zork.net
[mailto:free-sklyarov-admin at zork.net]On Behalf Of Sam Gray
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 12:10 PM
To: Daniel Richards; free-sklyarov at zork.net
Subject: [free-sklyarov] Re: eBooks and the blind.


> Does anyone know if text-to-speech programs will work with Adobe's
> ebook reader?
> You'd think with all this wizzbang technology that blind people would
> finally be able to read these new ebooks. But if ebook won't let T2S
> programs read the ebooks, well.
> Does anyone know of any blind organisataions that might interested
> in this? After all, if AEBPR does let blind people read ebooks, they
> might want to voice up, so that it's not illegal for blind people to red
> books.
>
> </rant> :P
> It's an idea, anyway. Some proof either way would be nice.

--

I think I read two articles on The Standard about the "this book cannot be
read aloud" provisions of the license to "Alice's Adventures In
Wonderland".  As I understand it, Adobe allows publishers to disable
eBook's internal T2S features.  This was supposedly in response to
publisher concerns that they had different licensing agreements to the
audio reproductions of works to which they hold copyright.  It all sounds
far too silly to work to me, which says to the cynic in me that it must
therefore be true.  YMMV.

ANYWAY, here's one of the articles:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,22377,00.html

I'd be surprised if the eBook reader worked well, if at all, with screen
readers.  Of course, I'm not vision-impaired, so you might want to do a
little footwork.  I've worked with the Rose Resnick Lighthouse for the
Blind in San Francisco (www.lighthouse-sf.org) and know of one in New York
(www.lighthouse.org).  In NZ, there's the Royal NZ Foundation for the Blind
(www.rnzfb.org.nz).

There are a number of public-domain texts available in Adobe's eBook format
that don't cost anything, so a few hours' experimentation with a screen
reader should yield you an answer.  I'd do it myself, but I'm working on
other things... ;>

Hope this helps.

=====
"They want the federal government controlling Social Security
 like it's some kind of federal program."
 - George W. Bush, St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 2, 2000

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