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Presenter(s)
Doug Powles
Colligo Corp
1400 King St
Bellingham WA 98229 USA
360 647-3404
Email: Dougp@colligo.us
BookCrafter, from Colligo, is the solution that converts printed books to accessible digital books (aBook™), complying not only with the many civil rights laws, but retaining visual integrity of the printed book for those whom are not print disabled.
The complete visual integrity of the book is retained, - pictures, color, graphs, reverse type and more… WYSIWYG.
Today's textbooks are rich in graphics and scan to read platforms cannot "lift" the type from the page in order to be accessible.
But yet, aBooks are accessible for folks with print disabilities and/or other reading challenges. This access flexibility produces files for many formats, - text, speech and base files for Braille embossers, Digital Talking Book and DAISY formats.
Audio books, books in Braille, plus DAISY and other formats can be produced in a timely manner, bringing those books to the needed audience in a few hours, -not days, weeks or months.
The BookCrafter process eliminates all the tedious work; the learning curve is minimal. A person should be quite proficient and producing aBooks in a few hours.
BookCrafter encompasses all that is needed to convert an entire library or a single sheet of paper to an accessible format. Push one-button, and up to 12 Software functions are performed, the included scanner scans both sides of the page, at speeds up to thousands per hour. A 150 page "printed" book can be converted to an aBook speedily, which may be accessed by Colligo's ReadText™, other screen readers or Adobe Reader®.
Adobe Reader, the most versatile reader, is free and has been downloaded over half a billion times. It is, and has been, the standard file format used by all manners of business, government and education for several years. The free Adobe Reader has many functions, -speech, enlarge, and search. Additional capabilities may be added with plug-ins from Adobe and third-party developers, such as: form fill in, copy, pasting, editing, word prediction and more. Large type books can be printed.
Adobe Reader supports several screen reader applications and other assistive technologies that enable visually impaired users to interact with computer applications. Navigation is performed by mouse or keyboard.
Existing PDF files may also be converted. Teachers' lesson plans, work sheets can be scanned and disseminated. Picture books may be converted and alt tags added. Scientific and mathematical books can be converted to aBooks. Added encyclopedia look-ups and spelling can be read aloud. File formats further than PDF, including graphics and text, may be converted to accessible files.
BookCrafter's aBooks can be electronically distributed via the Internet or Intranets or portable media. A regular recordable CD holds over 20 300 page, full color "picture" aBooks.
Simply stated, BookCrafter works like a copy machine, but "copies" to an accessible book. This cost effective system allows any entity to prepare aBooks.
Costs to prepare, store and distribute aBooks are 93% less than conventional books. "Business at the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy," by Bill Gates (Time Warner)
The various state laws address the publishing of textbooks in specialized formats, of which, at this time, formats used by publishers cannot be converted to all formats needed. An abook format saves to most requirements.
BookCrafter has shown that it can return its investment cost in less than one day.
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