AIM Archives - Page 6 of 13

Published August 14, 2013

Get Ready for Back-to-School with Bookshare!

Back to School is a time for teachers, parents, and students of all ages to brush off the summer dust and get ready for a brand new school year. How can you be sure that you are ready to make this year a success on day one? By making sure you are prepared with the books, tools, and information that you or your students need before class begins. That way, you can spend more time focusing on teaching and learning and less time getting ready. Bookshare can help! Throughout the fall, we’ll provide you with step-by-step information to set up…

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Published July 29, 2013

Photo Journal: U.S. Official Visits Benetech and High School/College Transition Program Using Bookshare

Michael Yudin, the Acting Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, visited our Benetech headquarters recently. He was on his way to observe a dual-enrollment transition program at Mission Middle College in Santa Clara. This unique collaboration of Santa Clara Unified School District and Mission Middle College offers new opportunities for high school seniors who were not performing well academically to complete high school graduation courses and accumulate college credits. At the technology demonstration, students, parents, and educators shared experiences with Mr. Yudin and Betsy Beaumon, our General Manager and VP. Bookshare student members demonstrated…

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Published July 17, 2013

Anna Martinez Wins Second Place in Technology Olympics for the Visually Impaired

Brenda Szymkowiak, a Teacher of the Visually Impaired for Plano ISD in Texas, is beaming with pride over the accomplishments of her eighth grade student, Anna Martinez. Anna just won second place in the Digital Media Access event at the 2013 Region 10 Technology Olympics. “Anna is quite the reader and competitor,” said Ms. Szymkowiak. The Region 10 Technology Olympics is an annual event held at the Education Service Center in Richardson, Texas. Students in third through twelfth grades compete and demonstrate their skills and knowledge of the latest technology equipment and educational resources for blind or…

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Published July 2, 2013

On the Future of Braille: Thoughts by Radical Braille Advocates… by Betsy Beaumon

On the Future of Braille: Thoughts by Radical Braille Advocates by Betsy Beaumon, VP and General Manager, Benetech’s Global Literacy Program I recently had the honor to speak at the first-ever Braille Summit, hosted on June 19-21, 2013 by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) and Perkins School for the Blind. With the goal of promoting braille literacy, this landmark meeting brought together braille experts from around the world to Perkins’ campus in Watertown, Massachusetts. My biggest takeaway from the summit: the time could not be more urgent, and more hopeful, for the future…

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Published July 1, 2013

Bookshare Celebrates 250,000 Milestone and Members of All Ages!

Bookshare is helping people with print disabilities around the world to read books for school, work, and fun so they can reach their personal goals and more fully participate in society. This summer, we celebrate a very important milestone: we now serve 250,000 members! Did you know that Bookshare members include students, adults, seniors, veterans, and international members in over 40 countries? We could not have achieved this milestone without the help of members, advocates, and partners like you. Your tireless efforts have helped to build Bookshare’s thriving community. And your continued support will help us reach hundreds of millions…

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Published April 8, 2013

K-12 Assistive Tech Specialist Categorizes eBooks with New Bookshelf

When Donna Schneider, an early technology adopter and AT specialist in Brewster, NY, public schools, was asked to beta test Bookshare’s new Bookshelf feature, she jumped at the opportunity! “I love to try out new resources and technologies,” she said. “I knew that this tool could potentially save me a lot of time and eliminate redundant searches. Bookshelf makes it easy to organize and categorize books by students, grade, subject, textbook, summer literature, and even student-preferred formats.” Donna is a three-year Bookshare Mentor Teacher and was just elected to the 2013 Bookshare Advisory Board. She works with children in grades…

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Published March 11, 2013

BYU Peery Entrepreneurship Program and Bookshare Partnership

Bookshare has developed innovative technology to make textbooks more accessible to blind and visually impaired students. Before now, blind and visually impaired students missed out on thousands of images in their textbooks. Imagine studying science without being able to see the charts, graphs or diagrams in your textbook! Using a simple on-line tool we call Poet, our volunteers write vital descriptions for textbook images. On March 4, Brigham Young University students sponsored a competition among campus-based church groups to write image descriptions in textbooks for Bookshare members. Dozens of students participated in the two-hour challenge, writing over 600 descriptions…

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Published March 6, 2013

10 Tips for Creating Accessible EPUB 3 Files

The goal of the DIAGRAM Center at Benetech is to impact how image and graphic content for accessible instructional materials (AIM) is produced and accessed throughout the country. The DIAGRAM Center, WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), and the U.S. Fund for DAISY are collaborating to identify challenges within the technologies, standards and production practices used to produce and display accessible images and graphic content within AIM, and develop technologies, tools, recommended practices and training materials that address them. In support of this goal, the DIAGRAM Center has produced this document with 10 tips for creating accessible EPUB 3…

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Published February 4, 2013

First Reactions: Educators and Members Talk about the Bookshelf and Web Reader

You probably saw that Bookshare just released two new pieces of functionality, the Bookshelf and Web Reader. If you haven’t heard the news, our website has lots of information, including links to training, videos, and webinars. You can also read the announcement. Both tools are going to make it quicker and easier to get books to Bookshare students, saving time and effort. The Bookshelf will help individual members organize their books. Several educators and members have already tested and used the tools and have agreed to share their feedback. We encourage you to try the tools too! Here’s what they…

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Published January 31, 2013

The Year That Was and the New Year Ahead

2012 was a year of titanic shifts in the fields of consumer technology, education, and publishing, along with the requisite challenges brought about by such rapid change. At Benetech, where innovation is the engine behind our mission, we did our best to make the most of it and help lead the charge into the future. Bookshare and our other Access to Literacy initiatives, including the DIAGRAM Center and Route 66 Literacy, all made big strides this year through the significant dedication of the community that makes it all happen. We celebrated the tenth anniversary of Bookshare—both online and with in…

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Category: AIM