Deal broadens e-reader accessibility for visually impaired

It's easy to get excited about the potential education applications of new technologies like e-readers and online learning sites until you stop to contemplate the fact that some of these platforms, actually probably most, haven't yet between optimized for the disabled among us.

So, even as schools and universities push for digital learning as a means of cutting costs and introducing new revenue-generating services, the whole concept of leaving people behind becomes even more urgent.

That's why I took note of a recent announcement from VitalSource Technologies, which is part of the massive Ingram Content Group, huge in the textbook and educational publishing world.

An agreement between VitalSource and the American Foundation for the Blind will see the two work together on an "accessibility" version of the VitalSource Bookshelf e-textbook software. Among other things, they will be developing support party screen reader applications and also something called MathSpeak, which will turn certain tags into English-language articulated instructions and comments.

The company has committed to updating its entire platform for accessibility, across both Windows and Macintosh application. iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad releases are scheduled for August. All of these releases will conform with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, according to VitalSource.

In a statement, Rick Bowes, a senior executive consultant for the American Foundation for the Blind's accessibility consulting arm (AFB Consulting) said his groups has been working on accessibility features with VitalSource for months. "The team at VitalSource understands the importance of making content accessible for individuals with disabilities, and they are making important strides," said Bowes in a statement. "I believe their effort is going to make a big difference for disabled students, and we are excited to be part of it."

The reason that VitalSource's support for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is a potentially major step forward is that publishers shouldn't have to do much to their existing development workflow -- other than adding the appropriate XLM tags -- in order to provide titles that are accessible for students or individuals with handicaps.

Ray Kurzweil, a pioneer in issues of technology and accessibility, is working on an e-reader platform called Blio that addresses accessibility issues. He introduced the concept back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show and discusses it in this CNET video interview:

If you're interested in the issue of accessibility, here are some more articles for background:

Kindle e-book reader made accessible for the blind

Apple iPad: Accessible e-reader?

Amazon vs. Apple Be Damned: Publishers Pine for a Universal E-book Format

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com