AHEAD E-Text Institute [#3]

Next week I will be co-presenting [with Ron Stewart] the third official* Association on Higher Education And Disability E-Text Institute. This will be taking place at Babson College and is the first of what is anticipated to be regular trainings around the country and outside of conferences. Institute #1 was at the 2005 AHEAD annual conference in Milwaukee and #2 took place at the 8th annual Accessing Higher Ground conference in Boulder.

I had the pleasure of spending a good Friday afternoon loading software for the institute in one of the Babson College training labs alongside my friend Erin Evans, who runs their disability services and is Program Chairperson of the AHEAD 2006 conference. For someone who is adamantly not a geek - she held her own in the monotony that is loading much software on many computers:

• Dolphin Ease Publisher
• Dolphin EaseProducer (the latest beta)
• Dolphin EaseReader
• Abbyy .pdf transformer
• Abby FineReader (v. 8)
• Adobe Acrobat Standard
• A sample of an in-house DAISY textbook from my staff
• AT&T Natural Voices (half Mike and half Crystal)

All told, for 16 computers it took about three hours. Not a record by any means, but adequate for the task. The institute filled to the 25 participant capacity fast and there is a waiting list in case anyone cannot make it.

Day One will be Ron discussing the management and administration of e-text production programs. This will include overviews of copyright and how it impacts the services we provide our students, as well as NIMAS and its potential impact on the postsecondary environment.

Day Two moves to the lab and Ron starts the day with scanning production techniques and how to properly de-spine a textbook. I take over in the afternoon and get into the nitty-gritty of DAISY production using both EasePublisher and EaseProducer. Knowing most of the folk in attendance will help me gear my information to their needs. For example, most of them will be outsourcing their book scanning and will likely start with a .pdf. Turning this into a finished DAISY Talking Book is a multi-step process that is not too difficult to learn.

If you are interested in learning more, check out the links within this post. I will be posting to the ATHEN blog with pictures shortly after the institute.

* I say "official" because in June I will be flying solo with a similar work the AHEAD New England group. This one will be at Landmark College up in Vermont.