Unlocking the power of books for people with disabilities

Abstract

Mohamed Sobhi has been struggling to get into books for most of his life. Unable to read normal size text because of his low vision--a bilateral impairment that cannot be corrected by lenses, therapy or medical/surgical interventions--he started out by using photocopiers to enlarge text, a time-consuming process that also generated reams of paper. When scanners came along he dispensed with copying simply displayed an enlarged view of text on his monitor. But as he progressed through college, Sobhi, now 28, a resident of Alexandria, Egypt, found that his options were narrowing again. I had to revert more more to library shelves for reference materials, some of which could not be borrowed, copyright restrictions did not allow for photocopying;' he says. Just when he was really getting started, he hit a wall. For 3l-year-old Heba Kholeif, also an Alexandria resident, wall was even higher. I am totally blind;' Kholeif says, and that makes it nearly impossible to read standard printed materials. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to World report an disability, published by World Health Organization (WHO)/World Bank in June, more than one billion people live with some form of disability. Disability issues tend to be discussed in terms of barriers to physical access, while it is true that many built environments, including public spaces transport systems present obstacles of this kind, one of biggest barriers faced in what is often described as the information age is lack of access to information. For Sobhi, Kholeif other people living with visual impairment, reading standard printed books can be particularly challenging. But situation is beginning to change. For Sobhi Kholeif most important development has been development of Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) its relatively recent emergence in Arabic. books are made up of a combination of text, graphics audio files, providing users with an experience similar to that of flipping through a printed book. Users can read books on specialized devices or download software to use on a computer. same way that sighted people might glance at a heading skip to section of interest to them, books are designed so that users can navigate through them with flexibility. As Hiroshi Kawamura, President of Consortium, an international non-for-profit association that develops, maintains promotes international standards, explains, DAISY readers give user a great deal of control because they can be navigated by sentence, paragraph page. It was this interactive capacity that caught Kholeif's attention when she first heard about in 2004 in connection with Swedish Library of Talking Books Braille, a government body that, in collaboration with local libraries, provides access to printed materials for people with print disability. When in 2005 Swedish Library offered a course at Bibliotheca Alexandrina (formerly Library of Alexandria), Kholeif jumped at chance to learn more about it. The course was very intensive she says, but also very useful. Sobhi was also an early convert to system, having worked hard to develop an understanding of different screen readers text-to-speech software packages that had become available before DAISY's arrival. While intelligence determination of Kholeif Sobhi is admirable, it is also clear that they have both benefited from initiatives taken by Bibliotheca Alexandrina, notably with regard to establishment in 2007 of first Arabic Digital Talking Book Library for Blind Print-Disabled. Since then Bibliotheca Alexandrina has established a fully-equipped, professional recording studio acquired software hardware tools. In working with DAISY, it is at forefront of making publications accessible in Arabic, as very few are currently available;' says Julia D'Aloisio, a technical officer who works on accessible publishing at WHO. …