Accessible Educational Materials …in the Era of Mobile, Ebooks, Cloud, and Common Core Standards

Page 2 A Moment of Opportunity Mobile: access anywhere, reduced stigma + Ebooks: now born digital, new EPUB3 standard + Cloud: online learning, easily updated + Common Core Standards: new curriculum & assessments, increased similarity across states Mobile: screen sizes, touch screens + Ebooks: multi-media, everyone a publisher + Cloud: new platforms, “built-in” accessibility + Common Core: Everything is now …Or a Perfect Storm for Accessibility?

Page 3 It’s Both! So What Should We Do? ● Embrace change as an opportunity ● Attack successively harder problems ● Actively leverage new technology to make accessibility cheaper, faster, and easier than ever before ● Engage in scalable outreach ● Form strategic partnerships across education, commercial technology, publishing, parent groups, disability services, and student groups …to achieve all of these objectives

Page 4 B4E Accessible online library Scale, efficiency Getting books into students’ hands DIAGRAM Tools for accessible image creation Technical standards Research, training and best practice guidelines LIT Professional development workshops for teachers Cloud-based bookshelf MP3 download Web-based reader Android reader OSEP-Funded Initiatives BI4E October 2012 Bookshare and Innovation for Education

Page 5 Emerging Opportunity: Mobile Access World is [going] mobile Access anywhere anytime

Page 6 What We’re Doing about Mobile Access ● Android Reader (Go Read) ● iPhone/iPad Reader (Read2Go) ● MP3 & DAISY Audio Downloads

Page 7 Emerging Opportunity: eBooks ● Born digital ● Opportunity for new tools and processes ● New platforms and formats ● New players: OER, small publishers ● Uncertainty, Experimentation, Diversification ● Content beyond books: learning objects ● Challenge: images and graphics –Image-rich content is increasingly pervasive –Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) content conveys core information in images

Page 8 What We’re Doing about eBooks ● >150,000 eBooks (Bookshare) ● >200 publisher partners (Bookshare) ● Working with digital distributors (Bookshare) ● Images and Graphics: –Standards: DIAGRAM Content Model –Tools for creating accessible content (DIAGRAM) –Best practices and guidelines (DIAGRAM)

Page 9 POET Image Description Tool

Page 10 Emerging Opportunity: Cloud ● Online learning and assessment ● Multiplying platforms ● Personalization opportunities ● Cloud content storage and management

Page 11 What We’re Doing about the Cloud ● Leveraging it to the hilt! ● Scalable storage (Bookshare) ● Cloud-based bookshelf (LIT) ● Future access to image descriptions (DIAGRAM) ● Forming strategic partnerships with platform providers for built-in accessibility….

Page 12 Emerging Opportunity: Common Core ● Common Core = Change = Opportunity ● Digital from the Start ● More commonality across states ● Leveraged Impact from Accessible Images ● Well-defined Math standards ● English Language Arts Standards: – Emphasize research, analysis, vocabulary ● New digital assessments

Page 13 What We’re Doing about Common Core ● Image descriptions (LIT) ● Volunteer corps (LIT) ● Math tools - descriptions and tactile output (LIT) ● Common Core content (Bookshare)

Page 14 Scalable Outreach ● Parents ● Educators ● K-12 and Higher Ed Institutions ● Publishers ● AEM providers ● Students

Page 15 Allows Bookshare to Scale Training Customer Support Pilot Programs Beta Testers Advisors Special Projects Created a network: 400 current mentor teachers 100% growth in 2 years Mentor Teacher Program

Page 16 Strategic Partnerships A sampling of our hundreds of partners: ● AIR, USFDAISY, NCAM ● NIMAC, Don Johnston, Humanware, Learning Ally, NLS ● MeTRC, VDRDC ● CAST, PACER, Internet Archive ● Google, Barnes & Noble, Moodle Rooms ● 200 publishers ● DIAGRAM Advisory Board: 27 members, 20+ working group members ● Bookshare Advisory Board: 17 members

Page Excited DIAGRAM’ers, 3 Bewildered Dogs, 1 Flying Cane Photo credit: Jim Fruchterman

Page 18 Nagging Challenges ● Interactive content ● Accessibility in assessments ● Research on effectiveness of new approaches ● Full federated search implementation across all image repositories ● Universal identifiers for images…

Page 19 WE CAN’T DO IT ALONE: YOU How can we work together to better serve students in this Moment of Opportunity?