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public:nnels:etext:overview-nnels [2020/04/22 14:28]
farrah.little [What is An Accessible Book?] 		public:nnels:etext:overview-nnels [2020/04/22 14:45]
farrah.little
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 Welcome! We are happy to have you join our team of dedicated professionals who work hard to create accessible books for people with print disabilities. Welcome! We are happy to have you join our team of dedicated professionals who work hard to create accessible books for people with print disabilities.
 +
 +====Who We Are and What We Do====
 +
 +The National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) is a digital repository of content owned and sustained by Canadian public libraries. We work with international partners, libraries, readers, and publishers (particularly Canadian ones) to make copies of books in accessible formats available to readers in Canada who have print disabilities.
 +
 +When NNELS launched in December 2013, we were a team of librarians focused on ensuring Canadians with print disabilities could exercise their right to access information and Canadian culture.
 +
 +We were bridging a gap: there was no way for people with print disabilities to request books in the formats they needed, and no publicly-owned collection of accessible books for these readers. Our work focused on converting books to alternate formats and educating public libraries about the importance of providing service to all people, no matter how they read.  
 +
 +Visit our [[https://nnels.ca/|website]] to learn more.
 +
 +====What Production Assistants Do====
 +
 +Your job as a Production Assistant is to reformat ebooks to match current accessibility standards as outlined in the wiki.
 +
 +These standards are part of our continued consultation with DAISY and other similar organizations, as well as exhaustive in-house testing and research. All the guidelines in the wiki fit into international standards and best practices for accessibility.
 +
 +The rest of this orientation is designed to familiarize you with the expectations and workflow for your position as a Production Assistant.
 +
 +We also encourage our PA's to ask questions, and be curious about the process. If you ever want to learn something that goes beyond your assigned position, then reach out to the Content or Production Coordinator.
  
 ====What is a Print Disability?==== ====What is a Print Disability?====
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 ====Synthetic Narration vs Human Narration==== ====Synthetic Narration vs Human Narration====
  
-Accessible books can include Synthetic Narration ([[https://daisy.org/|DAISY]] and EPUB) or Human Narration (Audiobook).+Accessible books can be read by a speech synthesizer (like Apple's VoiceOver or Window's Narrator) or by humans.
  
-Synthetic narration provides some benefits not offered by human narration, including consistency, ability to speed up a voice without distortion, and low cost. It also gives the reader access to the text as it appears on the page, and not just a dramatic recreation of the narration alone; with text-to-speech the entire book is recreated for the reader with a print disability so they can experience the book the same way as everyone else can. This can also be a good option for people with cognitive disabilities, and find human narration hard to follow.+Synthetic narration provides some benefits not offered by human narration, including consistency, ability to speed up a voice without distortion, and low cost. It also gives the reader access to the text as it appears on the page, and not just a dramatic recreation of the narration alone; with text-to-speech the entire book is recreated for the reader with a print disability so they can experience the book the same way as everyone else can. This can also be a good option for people with cognitive disabilities who may find human narration hard to follow.
  
-Audiobooks are great for texts that require more emotional engagement with the content. Having a novel read by a professional, or trained volunteer, who can use tone and inflection for meaning, accents for different speakers, and other narrative devices can enrich the reading experience. Audiobooks can include novels and other creative works, as well as text books and other STEM works. There are different techniques for narration for the different genres of books. +Audiobooks are great for texts that require more emotional engagement with the content. Having a novel read by a professional, or trained volunteer, who can use tone and inflection for meaning, accents for different speakers, and other narrative devices can enrich the reading experience. Audiobooks can include novels and other creative works, as well as textbooks and other STEM works. There are different techniques for narration for the different genres of books.
- +
-Fun fact: NNELS is working with other organizations to create a standard for accessible Audiobooks. This work is similar to the work we have done in the past for creating standards for EPUB's (different format from DAISY.) +
- +
-====Who We Are and What We Do==== +
- +
-The National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) is a repository of content owned and sustained by Canadian public libraries. We work with international partners, libraries, readers, and publishers (particularly Canadian ones) to make copies of books in accessible formats available to readers in Canada who have print disabilities. +
- +
-When NNELS launched six years ago, we were a team of librarians focused on ensuring Canadians with print disabilities could exercise their right to access information and Canadian culture. +
- +
-We were bridging a gap: there was no way for people with print disabilities to request books in the formats they needed, and no publicly-owned collection of accessible books for these readers. Our work focused on converting books to alternate formats and educating public libraries about the importance of providing service to all people, no matter how they read.   +
- +
-To learn more who we our and our history visit our [[https://nnels.ca/about|About]] page on our website. +
- +
-NNELS is a digital public library of on-demand titles for accessible format materials. To learn more visit our [[https://nnels.ca/collections-policy|Collections Policy]] page. +
- +
-Materials in NNELS are produced from available open content whenever possible. When copyright materials are produced at the request of system users, we rely on copyright exemptions that extend equitable access for public library materials to print-disabled persons. To learn more visit our [[https://nnels.ca/about-productions-nnels|About Productions in NNELS]] page. +
- +
-====What do Production Assistants Do==== +
- +
-Your job as a Production Assistant is to reformat ebooks to match current accessibility standards as outlined in the wiki. +
- +
-These standards are part of our continued consultation with DAISY and other similar organizations, as well as exhaustive in house testing and research. All the guidelines in the eText wiki fit into theses recommendations, guidelines, and best practices for accessibility. +
- +
-The rest of this orientation is designed to familiarize you with the expectations and workflow for your position as a Production Assistant. +
- +
-We also encourage our PA's to ask questions, and be curious about the process. If you ever want to learn something that goes beyond your assigned position, then reach out to the Content or Production Coordinator.+
  
 +Fun fact: NNELS is working with other organizations to create guidelines for accessible audiobooks. This work is similar to the work we have done in the past for creating guidelines for ebooks.
public/nnels/etext/overview-nnels.txt · Last modified: 2020/11/19 13:49 by rachel.osolen

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