Transcript E-Book Readers and Accessibility Ron Bissessar, Baruch College Carlos M. Herrera, Queensborough Community College CUNY Assistive Technology Services.

E-Book Readers and
Accessibility
Ron Bissessar, Baruch College
Carlos M. Herrera, Queensborough
Community College
CUNY Assistive Technology Services
Our purpose today
• Inform SSD providers about emerging ebook reader technology and trends.
• Evaluate most popular e-book readers.
• Identify benefits and shortcomings of
current e-book readers.
• Assess usability by students with
disabilities.
• Peer into the future.
Definitions
• E-books:
electronic (potentially inter-active) versions of printed
materials including books, journals and other media.
• E-book readers:
hardware or software tools that allow the reading of e-books.
• Accessibility:
allow people with sensory or physical disabilities to locate,
identify, and operate the input, control and mechanical
functions (of a device) and to access the information provided.
Market data
• Total book sales
AAP reports total estimated book sales at $23.9
billion in 2009
• Higher Education market sales
Sales of college textbooks reached $4.3 billion in
2009, up 12.9% from 2008.
Association of American Publishers (AAP) Consumer Books & Materials
E-book sales
• E-book mass market sales
E-books sales reach $313 million in 2009, up 176.6% from
previous year.
• E-book educational market projections
Over the next five years, digital textbook sales in the
United States will represent 18% of combined new
textbook sales for the Higher Education and Career
Education markets. (approx. 900 million dollars).
Source: Digital Textbook Sales in US Higher Education 5 year projection XPlana
The future of e-book sales
Source: Digital Textbook Sales in US Higher Education 5 year
projection Xplana / MBS Service co. January 2010
E-book reader prices collapsing
• Amazon and B&N lowered prices
• Numerous vendors entering the e-book
space
• E-book publisher and clubs offering free
readers
• E-books available for telephones, PC’s
The future has arrived
• 50% of US college students plan to buy an ereader before autumn 2010 term
• US college students will spend an average of
$361 each in preparation for the new school
term, 50% want to buy an e-reader (and 73% a
portable games console. )
The Independent July 2010
The rush is on
• Jim Kourmadas, VP of strategic marketing at
McGraw-Hill Higher Education, says his
company has seen sales of e-textbooks double
each semester over the past two years. The
company offers electronic versions of all
volumes through CourseSmart, an ecommerce site launched by several publishing
companies.
newyorktimes.com July 19, 2010
Why e-book readers?
• Portability:
You can carry many books on a device
• Availability and Delivery:
Books available almost instantly wherever a
wireless connection is available
• Cost:
E-books cost much less than equivalent hard copy
• Formats and features
Interactivity, search and multi-media
• Familiar (digital) user experience
Market leaders
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Amazon Kindle / DX +-60%
Sony E-Reader +- 25%
B&N Nook, Apple iPad +- 15%
Dozens of companies launching new readers soon.
File standards not determined e-pub PDF
Amazon
Sony
Barnes & Noble Nook
Apple iPad
Highlighting E-Readers
February 23, 2010
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Even before Apple announced the iPad, higher-education technologists predicted that e-book
readers were on the brink of becoming a common accessory among college students; last
fall, two-thirds of campus CIOs said they believed e-readers would become an “important
platform for instructional resources” within five years, according to the Campus Computing
Project.
Now, as several major universities finish analyzing data from pilot programs involving the
Amazon Kindle, officials are learning more about what students want out of their e-reader
tablets. Generally, the colleges found that
. But they also noted that the shift had some key
environmental benefits. Further, a minority of students embraced the Kindle fairly quickly as
highly desirable for curricular use.
If one clear consensus emerged from the studies that have been finalized at Princeton
University, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Virginia’s Darden School
of Business, it is this: For students who were given the Kindle DX and tried to use it for
coursework, the inability to easily highlight text was the biggest lowlight of the experience.
“Because it was difficult to take notes on the Kindle, because PDF documents could not be
annotated or highlighted at all, and because it was hard to look at more than one
document at once, the Kindle was occasionally a tool that was counter-productive to
scholarship,” Princeton researchers wrote in a summary of their study
Student complaints about e-book
readers
• Difficulty in annotating text
• Page numbering is not consistent with
hard copies and varies with text size
• E-ink is currently only black on white
• images and graphics can be difficult to
read.
• Switching between books is awkward.
Where do we stand?
• Academia is exploring E-book readers
C.U.N.Y. and other Universities conducting pilot projects.
• Vendors are pursuing educational markets
Huge profits on the horizon.
• Consumers are embracing e-book technology.
• Governments are searching for cost cutting
options.
The (current) bottom line
E-book readers are NOT fully
accessible at this time.
• Blind users generally excluded
• Low vision users have limited access
• Mobility impaired users have few
options
What might an accessible e-book
reader look like?
• Screen reading and navigational
controls.
• Voice recognition for control and
navigation in lieu of keyboard
• Accessible keyboard controls
• Standardized, accessible file formats
• Multiple connectivity options (Wi-Fi, 3G, usb)
eDGe by Entourage
Alternate futures
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On-line text books,
device independence
Inter-activity of material
University e-textbook publishing
Books on demand single reads.
E-book rentals
Free books, advertising supported.
Video