Make Bookshare Better

Page numbers are so 20th century, but I agree with everything else. When students access books from Bookshare, they assume they are accessible and ready to read.

Benetech and Bookshare need to quit taking in the money unless they make whole-scale and sincere efforts to improve the services and processes.

Files for many books on bookshare have a .brf file extension, however these files are not formatted to be embossed, or read on a braille display, without issues such as spacing, and proper page numbering. errors. Also, books containing math notation being available with a .brf extension, is very misleading, because very few of these books are properly marked up using MathMl. This mark up also makes it so that math notation can be read with cynthasized speech applications.

Individuals with disabilities deserve high quality accessible materials with complete content and proper formatting. I agree with the requests/recommendations in this petition.

It is important for people with disabilities to have access to the same information as their non-disabled peers.

People with disabilities deverve first rate products.

Students deserve better.

In general it is very important to provide proper accessibility within print information to the population that need it. Students depend on it, and there is always room for improvements to be made. It is clear it is time to raise the bar and provide fully accessible information, Meaning transcriptions from the original files exactly how they are. Without taking any content or images away.

I have been a bookshare member since early 2002. As a service for end users to share scanned materials, it worked great. We did not expect the highest quality because it was all of us volunteers working together. The problem occurred when they started promising to get textbooks from publishers without making sure they were fully accessible. Organizations often reach too high when they try to accomplish more. I believe they either need to do as Mr. Martinengo says, or they should simply offer what the publisher provides and be very clear about it! Don't pretend you can do things you cannot!

Bookshare is a great resource for students and individuals but substantial improvements need to be made in the quality of accessibility they provide in their materials. I believe tools or criteria need to be implemented to better standardize the accessibility of all books available in Bookshare.

Given that books in this system are often missing appropriate alt text, accessible math, properly formatted tables, and accessible navigation features (i.e., proper headings levels, page numbers, table of contents), there should be some quality control or assessment of all files so that users can make informed decisions about if what they are downloading will meet their needs (until a system can be put in place to remedy such files). Benetech, which operates Bookshare, has created its own accessibility certification system (GCA) that publishers can pay into to have their files assessed for accessibility. Why can't files submitted to Bookshare be similarly assessed? Files on Bookshare often do not meet baseline accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG 2.0 AA). Advertising itself as a solution for the print disabled community is overtly misleading.

Make unlocked PDF source files from publishers available. It’s clear that Bookshare is adding more and more “Publisher Quality” materials, which is progress, but there are many materials still categorized as “Excellent” quality, etc. If those materials are produced by Bookshare, it would be a good short-term solution to make the source image files available until the Bookshare team is expanded and those image files can be formatted as unlocked PDF text-files. The MP3 file naming system is extremely problematic for users that already struggle with challenges regarding organizational skills. Those files should be clearly labelled regarding what information is actually in those files (example: Book Name_Section Name_Page Ranges), or at the very least bundle MP3 information in clear sections (Chapter 1, for example).

Bookshare's continued commitment to inclusivity and accessibility is commendable. Obviously, Bookshare believes this is morally and ethically the right thing to do and as such was awarded a new award for an estimated $45mil $ from the U.S. DOE. We sincerely hope that this new award will prompt Benetech to continue to make immediate and substantial improvements in the quality of accessibility of the books being provided to students with disabilities through Bookshare.org. It is our sincere hope that Benetech will use those funds to making changes for the better, and not put the burden on service providers or students to remediate educational materials.

based on my 18+ years of experience, I and others believe Benetech needs to make substantial improvements in the quality of accessibility of the books they provide. Improving Bookshare will have an incredibly positive impact on so many students with and without disabilities. I look forward to Benetech making improvements in its offerings.

As the person reasonable for digital accessibility in the SFCC DAS office. I work with Bookshare frequently and it's not a good experience. Bookshare often omits formatting and imagery in its books. It forces either EPUB or Word documents for those with print disabilities which require more correction and upkeep from me to make them accessible and usable by more than one student. While Bookshare is an important tool for me it's often a blunt hammer that I must use out of need and not the being the best for the student. I hope to see chances at Bookshare and improvements in serving their community.

We the undersigned, based on our expertise and experience, believe Benetech needs to make immediate and substantial improvements in the quality of accessibility of the books they provide to students with disabilities through Bookshare.org.

Improving Bookshare will have an incredible positive impact for so many students with disabilities.

Bookshare does need to make significant updates to its platform, available books voice and capabilities of the readers, as well as providing more content (tables, graphs) even if accompanied by a dialogue "unreadable table" .

With $9 Million a year of taxpayers' money, they should be able to provide students "made accessible" books (when not "born accessible"). Something as simple as page numbers is a requirement in college courses.

Thank you for your committment to accessibility.