I was wondering if members would be willing to share their experiences on how they went about gathering accessible formats of text books from publishers. Any information such as links to websites of publishers who provide accessible formats would be extremely helpful.

Also, in instances when alternative formats were not available what was the easiest method of scanning - (eg., was the document scanned as a PDF to maintain the formatting of the page).

Any "pearls of wisdom" would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Marianne,
Our board uses W. Ross Macdonald Resource Services Library extensively to provide e-text for students with special needs. W. Ross collects curriculum resources from across the province and shares them in a number of accessible formats - eg., Braille, audiotape, pdf, WORD, and Kurzweil. You can request the format you'd like for your student, depending on their need. Students must have a diagnosed disability to qualify for this service.

There is a short description of the Resource Services Library in this month's HUB newsletter. There will also be a presenter from W. Ross at the April 25th ASET meeting at Bishop Reding, who will explain the process and walk participants through the registration process.

Some materials need to be scanned in as needed at the school board level (such as consumable workbooks). The format depends on which program the student is using to read the material - materials can be scanned directly into Kurzweil, or saved to pdf to be opened in Premier's PDF Equalizer. Or, if you have an original document, WORD can be opened directly into Kurzweil or Premier, and text files can be opened in Write:OutLoud. These can also be copied and pasted into your e-text reader although you will then need to insert the pictures.

Hope this helps...