2007 Conference Report
Blood Sugar level drops in North West as EasyConverter whets the appetite!
Steve Bennett's EasyConverter presentation stole the show at all four 2007 altformat conference events. The EasyConverter presentation rounded off a morning of presentations by a diverse range of experts from blindness and low vision, dyslexia, altformat centres, an expert from the USA and some speakers from Dolphin.
Capacity audiences at London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh were treated to a morning of talks dealing with the shortcomings of the current altformat system and an outline of how the system might be developed to provide a better altformat solution.
Rory Cobb from RNIB chaired all four meetings. Overseeing all speaking sessions with the benevolent authority of a kindly uncle, Rory saw to it that each of the conference sessions were relaxed and thought provoking. However, even this failed to impress one Manchester delegate, who having come out without her breakfast, felt a slightly quicker route to lunch was in order.
Rory's own session dealing with 'Problems, Problems' looked at David Mann's excellent report on 'Where's My Book' Rory alluded to the appalling availability of books for low vision students, with less than 4% of books available in alternative formats. He also spoke about the changes needed to the current system and referred to research conducted to find out what teachers and support staff believe ought to be done to bring about improvements in the system.
The supporting research showed:
- The majority of respondents (89 per cent) considered that it would be "very helpful" if electronic versions of all textbooks were easily available from publishers.
- A very high proportion of respondents (82 per cent) also agreed that it would be "very helpful" if there were a central agency that held an accessible version of textbooks in electronic format.
The full report upon which Rory's talk was based is available on the Speaker Notes page.
Steve O'Brien, who is a leading expert in the field of advocacy for adults with dyslexia gave a warm and enlightening account of life as a dyslexic child and adult, including some terrific case studies. Steve's concern at the failure of the school system and the alarming lack of knowledge about dyslexia was magnified further by the comments of Julie Birchall on radio during the conferences. Steve's own academic history was a bit slow coming to the boil - a couple of Ds in his O Levels was followed by ten years out of education. After he discovered he was dyslexic and received adequate support he quickly thrived and got his primary degree, followed by a masters and is now part way through his doctorate. Other cases histories were even more intriguing. The bin man who learnt he might be dyslexic in a chance conversation with his neighbor over a hedge went on to gain a 2:1 in history, narrowly missing a First, then going on to a masters and is currently working towards a PHD. During all of this he is developing a gardening business in pursuit of his other big passion in life.
Paul Nisbett, Paul Jarman and James Risden took it in turns to deliver talks on altformat experiences.
James Risdon spoke about his own experiences at university at a time before Daisy had become widely available. He explained how his first challenge was to have extra shelving put up in his university room to house the mountains of Braille books and hundreds of cassette tapes he would accumulate. His next challenge was to learn enough of the French and German grade 2 Braille codes to understand the books he was able to source from abroad, and to understand some of the poor quality ancient recordings of obscure books. He compared this to the ease with which his friends could peruse the library and even find English translations of some of the more tricky texts!.
He explained the hours of frustration involved with trying to find a particular quote in a book which might span twenty-five cassettes on a tape recorder which destroyed tapes with alarming frequency! He compared this to the way in which a Daisy title can be read, and some of the features which Daisy offers, such as bookmarking, and searching by keyword. He finished by emphasising how having the ability to produce ones own accessible materials with just a scanner and some simple software could not only increase a student's productivity, but also their motivation.
Ron Stewart, having travelled from the States, was able to bring a fresh perspective based on his extensive experience with AHEAD (Association of HE Accessibility and Disability), NIMAS (National Instructional Material Accessibility Standard) and AAP (Association of American Publishers national effort's to identify ways to provide print-disabled postsecondary students.) Ron spoke with great clarity about the US experience including the problems that await the UK when they move to the next stage. Ron set out a preliminary proposal for the future:
- Information Portal/Clearinghouse
- National Distribution Center for Publisher Files
- Network of "Approved" Third Party Clearinghouses
- Normalize, Professionalize and Streamline the Process
- Promote; educate people in the trenches
Ron's more detailed notes are available on the Speaker Notes page.
Noel Duffy focused on the altformat campaign. Noel's campaign message was clear. The altformat campaign is focused on people with visual and print impairments. Supporting Rory Cobb's assessment about students with visual impairments, Noel went on to argue for people with print impairments. He said School goers with literacy problems impacts on at least twenty percent of the school going population. US research shows that child readers in the bottom 10%, take six months to read what children in the top ten percent can read in one day. Research also shows that these children can improve their exam results by 40% if they have curriculum material as combined text and audio.
Noel argued the country needs a national altformat solution based on what Rory and Ron had suggested earlier, which in turn needs parliamentary support. This needs everyone to mount their own campaign with their member of parliament if we're to bring about change. Noel's notes are available on the Speaker Notes page.
Rachel Bagust's enduring love affair with posh Daniel, the male synthetic voice behind EasyProducer and the current man in her life, had the attending single males in the audience polishing up their own accents. Rachel showed Dolphin's DAISY production tool EasyProducer. The delegates thought it so easy and so quick to use that it might make an ideal tool for the teachers and lecturers to prepare accessible DAISY or audio material for both their vision and print impaired students.
For more information on Dolphin's range of educational and altformat products, Rachel would be happy to advise you on rachel.bagust@dolphinuk.co.uk
However, there was no mistaking the real star of the four days. Each time it was unveiled, EasyConverter, with its distinctive mind map interface, created that same hum you might hear at the Motor Show or the Kentucky yearling sales, when the star attraction gets turned out. EasyConverter was put through its paces as delegates watched suspiciously to see it make light work of importing PDFs and pages of text; be edited in Word before being automatically converted into an MP 3 audio, DAISY or large print files. Steve Bennett assured the audience Braille output was also possible if you had, Duxbury, WinBraille or your preferred Braille translation and embosser connected.
James Risdon and Jamie Cuthbertson from RNIB was on hand at lunchtime for delegates to try out a range of Daisy players, including the Milestone Daisy/MP3 player, and the Plextalk PTR2 Daisy player and recorder, which allows recordings to be made directly to a CD or memory card with full Daisy navigation.
RNIB are producing a comprehensive fact sheet explaining what Daisy is, how it compares to MP3 and cassettes, what materials already exist from RNIB and other organisations, and information about the wide range of Daisy players and production tools.
To order a copy, please email technews@rnib.org.uk