Books for All Blog

Training on BoardMaker 6/BoardMaker Plus!

Sally Millar — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:08:41

Hopefully everyone will now be aware of the cheap deal on BoardMaker software offered through LTS.

Please note that there is a training course on BoardMaker 6 and the new BoardMaker Plus! features in CALL on 25th March, and places are still available. Could be just the thing to get you started! Find out more and book

Making accessible worksheets and workbooks using MS Word

Stuart Aitken — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:52:17

Many pupils benefit from accessing worksheets and workbooks on a laptop or desktop computer. Instead of handwriting they can key in their answers or drag and drop words, symbols or images. They can also use spellcheckers, text-to-speech tools such as the free WordTalk and many other access tools.

But it can be frustrating for both pupil and teacher when the pupil accidentally - never on purpose - deletes or edits the question or other text or images. MS Word has a few net tricks that allow you to prepare worksheets or workbooks so that the pupil can enter text only into the answer boxes. The questions remain 'read only'. Janice McCallum, of the Sensory Support Service South Ayrshire Council provided a handy guide: Making accessible worksheets and workbooks MS Word 2007. CALL Scotland prepared a companion version for those who use MS Word 2003: Making Accessible Worksheets and Workbooks MS Word 2003.

Creating Accessible Information with symbols

Paul Nisbet — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:51:06

Many people think that 'alternative format' means things like Large Print, Braille, audio, Daisy etc, but it also includes symbolised materials. Widgit software, who publish software for creating and using symbolised resources, are running a FREE day on symbols here in CALL on Wednesday 3rd March. Go here to book a place.

Widgit have pioneered the use of symbols in learning and communication for over 25 years and their software and services are used worldwide to create symbol-supported materials in print, onscreen and online. Information augmented by symbols can be helpful for people with learning, language and communication disabilities, dyslexia, those with English as a second language and students with literacy difficulties.

The first part of the day will look at incorporating symbol based information in a variety of communication media. There will be a focus on the importance of this for educational establishments such as schools, colleges and universities to provide accessible information as part of their learning and teaching, on their websites, as part of their general marketing strategies and within other services such as libraries, design units etc.

The second part of the day will provide an opportunity to have hands on experience of using the software and will provide delegates with the chance to try out different Widgit products including Communicate in Print (symbol dtp software to create books, worksheets, newsletters and posters etc) and Communicate Symwriter (a symbol and grid supported writing tool).

What you'll learn:
Incorporating symbol based information in a variety of communication media;
hands on experience of using Widgit software.

Bespoke voices for your voice output communication system

Paul Nisbet — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:45:42

Heather, the Scottish Voice, which can be downloaded free from CALL's Scottish Voice web site by anyone in Scottish schools, is a product of CereProc, an Edinburgh based company. CereProc make 'custom' voices by recording and synthesising human speech, and one possibility is to create bespoke computer voices for people who are likely to lose their speech as a result of illness or disability. CereProc have created a synthetic voice for Robert Ebert, an American film critic, who lost his voice after surgery. The voice was created by analysing the recordings made for Robert Ebert's TV series. This is fine if you are a well-known (in the USA) TV broadcaster, but not so good if the sum total of the recordings of your voice consists of a few warbles from your childhood or speeches at weddings and the like. Nevertheless, it's good to see progress like this because better synthetic voices, greater individuality and more personalisation all improve the communicative experience with voice output communication aids. Certainly, the response we have had to Heather, the Scottish Voice, has been extremely positive both when she is used for communication and also when reading out digital books, learning resources and exam papers. To find out more about the voices visit the CereProc web site.

New books on the Books for All Scotland Database

Paul Nisbet — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:10:18

Another 54 books were added to the Books for All Scotland Database today.

There are 23 new books in PDF which have been produced by CALL Scotland. LTS funded the production of these books, which are scanned PDF copies of third and fourth year textbooks from various publishers including Heinemann, Leckie and Leckie, Hodder and Pulse. The books were originally produced for a pupil with physical disability and they have structure for easy navigation. They have been OCRd so that most of the text is readable with text-to-speech software, but some parts of books with very complex visual layouts are not accurate - the OCR process just doesn't work with squint text or low contrast text on coloured backgrounds.

There are also 31 new 'Classic' titles such as Frankenstein, Heart of Darkness, Kidnapped and Oliver Twist in PDF and Microsoft Reader format. Most of these books were produced by the participants on the Books for All course in Stirling last term: thanks to Anne Beveridge at LTS who checked, amended and collated these titles.

The new books can be used by pupils with visual or physical impairment - pupils with other print disabilities should not use them (yet) because the CLA licence under which they are made does not yet cover other disabilites (but we're told it will, any minute now...).

Teachers can access the Books for All Scotland Database via the Finding Books page or by going direct to the Database itself. To log in to the Database and download books you need a Scran password (all teachers in Scotland have one - someone in your school or local authority will know it) or you can log in via Glow.

Teach reading, use alternative formats, or do both?

Paul Nisbet — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:38:45

The Books for All programme is about learning resources in accessible, alternative formats for people who cannot access standard printed books.

Sometimes this is due to, for example, severe dyslexia, visual impairment, blindness or physical impairment. In these case it is self-evident that the reader can't read a paper book because they either can't see, can't hold the book and turn pages, or just can't read.

But there are also many children and young people who have problems with reading when the cause is less obvious. Maybe they have a language difficulty, or a visual-perceptual problem, or maybe English is not their native tongue.

Or maybe they have never been read to as a child, never been comfortable with print, and have not had enough practice to become a fluent reader. (I read somewhere that you need to practice reading for 5,000 hours to become fluent.)

In these cases, should we try and teach the pupil to read, or should we use, say, audio books or digital books that can be read out by the computer? If we persevere with teaching literacy, will the pupil get frustrated and fall behind in class because they cannot read independently? By introducing books in accessible formats maybe we can prevent this frustration, help the reader be more independent, and at least give experience of language and literature. Maybe if we can encourage pupils to read books in accessible formats it will help motivate and develop general literacy and actually help develop reading skills? Maybe the opposite is true: if we give books in accessible formats, will they ever learn to read standard print?

Or should we try to both teach reading and also provide accessible formats so we have the best of both worlds - access to the curriculum and also development of reading skills?

This is a long introduction to a short blog to say that Pearson Education have published some interesting case studies and research reports about their Rapid Reading intervention programme which they say is "an award-winning, Wave 3 reading intervention programme that's been proven to deliver more than twice the normal rate of progress." Of course, there are many programmes and methods which make similar claims (see Dr. Chris Singleton's comprehensive review of teaching methods Interventions for Dyslexia) but the Rapid Reading videos and reports are interesting and well worth a look.

(And if anyone has answers to the questions posed above we'd be really keen to hear them....)

SQA 2009 Adapted Digital past papers are now available

Paul Nisbet — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:02:05

SQA have put up the 2009 adapted digital past papers on their web site for anyone to download. They cover all levels from Intermediate through to Advance Higher with a wide range of different subjects. This means you can now download papers from 2007, 2008 and 2009 for revision and practice.

In response to comments from centres, SQA have added 'tick boxes' to Part 1 of the Standard Grade Chemistry paper. Previously, you had to use the Comment/markup tools to draw a circle or mark the answer from the multiple choice, but now you just click with the mouse, which should be faster and simpler.

In 2009 there were 1,167 requests for Adaped Digital Question Papers from 73 centres on behalf of 422 candidates. To find out more about digital papers visit CALL's dedicated web site http://www.adapteddigitalexams.org.uk/Home/, SQA's Assessment Arrangements site, or come on a CALL Scotland training course.

Free Books for All CPD!

Paul Nisbet — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:54:05

Another opportunity to learn how to make Books for All!

Learning & Teaching Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Government, would like to invite you to send a representative from your local authority to attend Books for All CPD event at Stirling Management Centre. This free CPD is a four day training course, developed and delivered by CALL Scotland and is aimed at practitioners who currently produce books in alternative formats (such as large and adapted print, digital books and audio), for pupils with print disabilities as a result of visual, physical or learning impairment.

The course information is detailed below:

Day 1 & 2 - 10th & 11th February 2010
Day 3 & 4 - 25th & 26th March 2010

The venue for all training is Stirling Management Centre and overnight accommodation and refreshments (if required) will be paid for by the Books for All Database project.

Some of the topics that will be covered at the training include:

Sourcing accessible resources
Scanning papers resources into digital format
Making publisher PDFs accessible
Making "intermediate" files
Converting intermediate files to different alternative formats
Copyright

If you are interested and would like someone from your authority to attend then please let Gayle Monteith at LTS know by Monday 25th January. Please note that places are limited on this course and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

If you are unable to attend the training, you can join the books for all user group on Glow. We have formed a user group of experienced practitioners who, as part of their practice, create and use these types of resources. The aim of the group is to share information, materials and practical strategies to support their use.

If you would like to know more about Books for All in general go to http://www.booksforall.org.uk/ and to find out more about the Books for All Database go to http://www.booksforallscotland.org.uk/.

Once you have confirmed your interest in this course, LTS will confirm if a place is available and send you a booking form for the training.

If you have any questions about the venue, funding or arrangements please contact Gayle Monteith at LTS. If you have any questions about the course content contact Paul Nisbet or Stuart Aitken at CALL.

New ABBYY FineReader 10

Paul Nisbet — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:27:29

A new version of FineReader has just been released and the basic OCR accuracy seems to be much better than the previous version 9 (which was actually much worse than version 8 - we carried on using 8 because 9 was so bad). Here's a screenshot of a PDF image that was recognised using FineReader 9:

As you can see (and also hear, if you are using a screen reader), the recognition is pretty poor. Try right-clicking on the image and reading the alt text to see how bad it is.

Here's the same PDF page, opened and recognised using FineReader 10:

Much better! I've not had time to explore FineReader 10 in detail, but the user interface also seems cleaner and more intuitive. So all in all if you're struggling with FineReader 9 it might be worth upgrading to version 10.

You can try a 15 day trial copy from Abbyy and buy the program for about £69 from suppliers like iANSYST.

Happy scanning!

Half-price eBooks from WH Smith

Paul Nisbet — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:45:46

WH Smith are selling eBooks half price until 15 January. There are over 100,000 available and so you can get your hands on say the Twilight series for £4 each (no thanks), Rebus novels by Ian Rankin (that's more like it) as well as books by the likes of Barack Obama or Jeremy Clarkson.

Most of the eBooks are electronic publication (EPUB) format which can be read with a Sony Reader or an iPhone or on a computer using the free Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) software. ADE leaves a lot to be desired in terms of accessibility though:

Most of the commercial eBooks are copy-protected so you can't read them with text-to-speech software or a screen reader.
The maximum font size is depends on your font size and resolution, but I estimate it to be about 20 pt.
You can't change colour of text or background.
You can't change font or line spacing.
Keyboard navigation is very limited.

ADE is OK if you basicaly want to see the pages on screen and click a key or switch to turn the pages, but readers with visual impairment or dyslexia may struggle.

However, if you've not looked at an EPUB book, now's your chance to buyone at half price. You can also get some free eBooks (e.g. Sherlock Holmes, Dracula) from the Adobe web site library.

The eBook revolution could be really good news for readers who struggle with standard printed books, but only if the eBook readers and the eBook formats are accessible. Adobe is working on improving the accessibility of ADE (see: Adobe eBooks - Update on Accessibility Support ) and the latest version of EasyReader can open EPUBs, but it can't read them out with text-to-speech because the text is copy-protected. So we need EPUB to let text-to-speech programs get at the text to read it out, and eBook readers that are accessible. Persuading publishers to provide accessible formats might be difficult but making an accessible eBook reader should be easy given that Adobe already has one - Adobe Reader. With Adobe Reader you can magnify the text massively, reflow to fit the screen, change colours, and it even has basic text-to-speech.

Lochaber High School Audio Revision Project

Paul Nisbet — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:26:09

The Audio Revision Project at Lochaber High School is a really good example of how learning resources can be provided in alternative formats. The project is a collaboration between Dyslexia Lochaber, who raised the funding and organised some volunteer narrators, and Lochaber High School. Revision materials (some produced by staff, some commercial publications) were recorded and made available as podcasts on the school web site and the end result of the project is a set of revision materials for Standard Grade and Higher courses for all the subjects offered by the school in audio format. Pupils can listen to the revision materials online or download them to their own computers or audio players. Have a look at the project site and listen to what's been recorded.

Spoken Ink short audio stories

Paul Nisbet — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:59:25

Spoken Ink is a new web site offering downloadable audio short stories by authors such as Roald Dahl, Angela Carter, Julian Barnes, Margaret Atwood "and a host of new and unknown talent." Most of the stories cost 99p to download and you can listen to them on your computer, MP3 player, mobile phone etc.

Scottish Schools Browsealoud trial

Paul Nisbet — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:08:51

This is a chance for you to help improve the accessibility of Glow.

If Glow is to fulfil it's aims it needs to be accessible to every pupil in Scotland and one way of helping many pupils with visual or reading difficulties is through 'text-to-speech' software, so that pupils can have material on Glow read out to them by the computer.

There are many text-to-speech programs for reading different types of digital text, such as:

Rod Macaulay's WordTalk (which you can download free from CALL), can read out Word documents, for example, or
TextHelp's PDFaloud, which can read PDFs such as digital textbooks or SQA exam papers,

but we also need a program for reading text from the web itself.

Again there are several options (see Allan's Reading the Web guide at http://www.callscotland.org.uk/Resources/Publications/Information-Sheets/) , and one of them is Browsealoud from TextHelp Systems. Browsealoud is a free program that reads 'speech-enabled' web sites and also Word and PDF files on the web sites.

TextHelp have agreed to 'speech-enable' the CALL Scotland and LTS web sites and also Glow until the end of January 2010, for us to evaluate.

CALL's speech-enabled web sites are:

All LTS web sites (http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/) and also everything accessed through the Glow portal are speech-enabled.

The pilot Books for All Scotland Database at http://www.booksforallscotland.org.uk/ is also speech-enabled.

To read the web sites with Browsealoud you need to download it from http://www.browsealoud.com/page.asp?pg_id=80004.

Jennifer MacDougal from LTS has agreed to set up a discussion forum for the Glow users and so once you have tried out Browsealoud on Glow, go to My Glow Groups > ASN Group and add your comments about it to the discussion. The direct URL for this is https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/Additional%20Support%20for%20Learning/Lists/Pages/Discussions.aspx

Browsealoud is essentially a tool for reading web sites with text-to-speech software. It can help pupils with visual impairment, dyslexia, reading and learning difficulties or pupils who are not fluent English readers access information on web sites. It can speak using a number of different voices including Heather, the Scottish voice.

To take part in this trial, download and run Browsealoud and then test it on Glow or on the CALL or LTS websites, and then log any comments or issues on the Glow group. If you can't access Glow send an email to CALL at callscotland@ed.ac.uk.

LTS are currently looking at how the accessibility of Glow can be improved, and a text-to-speech facility could be extremely useful, if not essential, for thousands of pupils in Scotland (not much point in having a national intranet if it isn't accessible to all pupils in Scotland).

Browsealoud is only one option for reading the web and so you might also like to look at some others such as Click Speak, a free add-on for Firefox, but it is really important that we all have a chance to test this particular tool to find out if it does what we all want. Please comment on whether you think Browsealoud would help pupils access Glow, as well as any problems that you come across. Take a look at the video tours and user guides on the Browsealoud web site as well - see http://www.browsealoud.com/page.asp?pg_id=80006

We're aware that you won't have much time before the end of term, but no doubt some keen people will be unable to resist the temptation to play with Browsealoud over the break, and there will be a few weeks at the start of next term for you to try it.

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year

Latest Publisher Accessibility Newsletter

Paul Nisbet — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:09:33

The latest edition of the Accessibility Action Group newsletter is well worth a read and shows how much is going on in the field of accessible formats. For example:

new guidelines for publishers in how they should respond to requests for permission to adapt books or for digital versions of books;
an update on the DCSF Accessible Textbook project in England;
an update on the Right to Read Alliance eBook working group's efforts to encourage accessible eBooks;
news that Adobe plans to improve the accessibility of it's less-than-accessible Adobe Digital Editions software;
the Publisher Lookup Awards for publishers who have been particularly helpful to print-disabled readers;
new Pearson HTMLbooks - digital versions of (North American) textbooks for the same price as print copies - this is what we want from all publishers

and much more.

Creating digital files from printed materials

Paul Nisbet — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:12:54

Lots of teachers, pupils and parents are interested in scanning books into the computer, converting it readable text, so that for example:

pupils with physical disabilities can press a key on the keyboard, or click a switch, to turn the pages, or
dyslexic pupils can have the text read out with text-to-speech software, or
pupils with sight loss can use text-to-speech software or magnify the text to read the book.

There's a good article by Jim Kauppila on making digital files from printed materials in the latest issue of Closing the Gap. Jim's project has scanned hundreds of books and thousands of pages and in the process has gathered a lot of experience. You can read the article by signing up for a 14 day trial of Closing the Gap. Jim advocates a similar process to the one that we covered in the recent Books for All courses at Stirling, which involves:

Scanning the book
Converting the scanned image to text using FineReader Pro optical character recognition (OCR)
Checking and editing the text with FineReader Pro.
Saving from FineReader as PDF (which makes a digital book that looks like the original) and Plain Text or RTF (for further editing in Word, say, if you want for example a Large Print copy)
Saving from RTF/Plain text/Word as MP3 audio.
Adding structure to the PDF with Acrobat Pro.

The nice thing about this workflow model is that it generates several different types of accessible format for lots of pupils with different literacy support needs.

The 2009 Royal Mail Book Award winners

Robert Stewart — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:58:27

The 2009 Royal Mail Book Award winners were announced yesterday, 24th November, and they are:

Early Years 0-7

Manfred The Baddie by John Fardell.

Younger Readers 8-11

First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts by Lari Don.

Older Readers 12-16

Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray.

Making Books for All Part 2, 19-20 November 2009

Paul Nisbet — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:03:30

Last week 26 teachers and educationalists from all over Scotland gathered at Stirling Management Centre for the second part of CALL's four day course on making learning materials in accessible formats - "Books for All". The course was funded by LTS and led by Paul Nisbet and Stuart Aitken of CALL Scotland. We covered topics like:

'intermediate files' from which accessible formats can be made quickly and easily;
scanning books and hard copy resources into digital formats;
interactive resources created using Textease, Clicker 5, PDF, The Grid and Mediator (thanks to Maudie Riley from Highland, Graeme Bruce from Aberdeenshire, Janet Mackie from Fife and Owen Dunn from North Lanarkshire for presenting at this session);
recording audio resources.

The course seemed to be well received and we hope that those who attended will be able to use the skills and knowledge acquired to create more books and learning resources in accessible formats for print-disabled pupils. We hope to be able to offer more of these in-depth courses in 2010, as well as the shorter events that we run as part of our regular CPD programme in Edinburgh and on site in schools and local authorities.

Spellcheckers and digital papers

Paul Nisbet — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:02:08

Staff, parents and pupils often ask us for advice on whether a spellchecker can be used with an SQA Adapted Digital Paper, so this is what we think is the situation. If you are in any doubt, contact the SQA Assessment Arrangements team.

Question. Can I use a spellchecker in the examination?

Answer: SQA's policy is that "all software such as spellchecks, predictive software etc, must be disabled, unless it has been approved by SQA." [1]

If your candidate is eligible and wants to use a spellchecker (or any other technique that may help the candidate with spelling, like word prediction or speech recognition), you must request it using the standard Assessment Arrangements Request system. Use of a spellchecker is regarded as a type of Assessment Arrangement.

Spellcheckers should only be requested for candidates who have a particular spelling difficulty due to, for example, dyslexia, and where their poor spelling is likely to impact on their ability to demonstrate their skills and knowledge. Spellcheckers can be requested for candidates who "potentially have the ability to achieve the national standards" , but are "unable to do so using the published assessment arrangements". [2] A candidate who does not have an identified difficulty with spelling should not use a spellchecker. You will of course need to have evidence that the candidate's spelling difficulty means they cannot demonstrate their skills and knowledge in the examination, and why and how a spellchecker should help. A spellchecker should not be requested if it won't help the candidate, or if it will give the candidate an unfair advantage over other pupils sitting the examination.

You can request to use a spellchecker in almost all subjects apart from the writing papers in Modern Languages and , Gaelic (Learners) and Gaidhlig. The Writing papers for these subjects assess spelling and so spellcheckers are not allowed for any candidate.

Question. So how do I disable the spellchecker in Adobe Reader when I use an Adapted Digital Paper?

Answer:

Open Adobe Reader, click Edit > Preferences
click Spelling in the list at the left, and then untick Check Spelling while Typing

Mis-spelled words in the answer boxes will no longer be marked with a red wavy line. From 2010, SQA will supply two versions of each Adapted Digital Paper: one version will let the candidate use the Adobe Reader spellchecker, and the other won't (even if you have the spellchecker turned on, it won't work in the answer box). The presenting centre has responsibility for loading the correct version of the paper on the computer, i.e. make sure the spellcheck-enabled paper is only given to candidates who have permission to use it.

Keep up to date with the latest communication aids + Free Lunch!!

Sally Millar — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:28:59

Act NOW and book a place at one of the forthcoming Scottish Communication Matters Road Shows. It is completely free, and you get a free lunch as well! Choice of three venues (all 9.15am - 3.30pm, or 'drop in'):

Tuesday 1st December - Edinburgh (Murrayfield Stadium, with CALL)
Wednesday 2nd December - Aberdeen (Pittodrie Football Stadium, with TASSC)
Thursday 3rd December - Glasgow (Hampden Park Stadium, with SCTCI)

This is THE opportunity of the year to find out about all the equipment and software available to support people with complex communication support needs. Suppliers of communication technology exhibit their wares and highlight any new products. As well as each giving a short presentation - you choose which you wish to attend - product experts are on hand all day to answer any questions you may have, demonstrate equipment, supply catalogues and literature, give you mini 1:1 tutorials. Unlike with visits from one particular company, you get the chance to 'compare and contrast' systems. Staff from the local specialist AAC services in Scotland are on hand to help to point you to local sources of informaiton and support, and you will also be able to 'network' with like-minded colleagues. Hope to see you there!

To find out more and to book online, go to Communication Matters Road Shows. Or, you can email Communication Matters or ring 0845 456 8211, giving your name, full address with postcode and contact telephone number. You will receive an acknowledgement of your booking.

You are also always welcome to contact CALL for further information, on 0131 651 6235 or 0131 651 6236.

Making Books for All CPD at Stirling Management Centre, 29 and 30 September

Paul Nisbet — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:12:39

Paul Nisbet and Stuart Aitken have developed a comprehensive 4 day course that attempts to cover techniques for making learning resources in accessible formats. The course is split into two sections and the first half was held on 29/30 September, at Stirling Management Centre. It was attended by colleagues from across the country - from Shetland to Dumfries and Galloway, and was very successful. It was great to have a meeting of minds both geographically and also in terms of remit - there were people who make Large print, Braille and audio books for pupils with visual impairments and also staff who make digital books for pupils with other print disabilities due to physical impairments or dyslexia. This mix made the two days very stimulating (and hard work).

Over these first two days we covered:

where to find and source accessible formats;
accessibility of different formats for different groups of print-disabled pupils;
how to add structure to digital books and make 'Intermediate Files' using Microsoft Word;
how to convert these Intermediate Files to different audio, print and digital formats;
adapting digital files from publishers.

The second part of the course will be on 19/20 November and will cover scanning and OCR, making interactive resources, uploading accessible books to the Books for All Database, and copyright issues.

We hope to repeat the four day course in February/March 2010 initially, and also in summer 2010 and/or the 2010/2011 session.

These courses are funded and organised by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS): attendence was FREE for participants. If you would like to find out more, contact Gayle Monteith at LTS (G.Monteith@LTScotland.org.uk).

Including All Children in the Royal Mail Scottish Children's Book Awards

Allan Wilson — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:15:10

Book Awards

The Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books is an innovative nationwide reading project in which children and young people from every corner of Scotland read and vote for their favourite Scottish children's books of the year. Last year:

Over 18,000 children were involved and an amazing 9,541 votes were cast;
Over 350 schools and libraries in every corner of Scotland, from Aberdeen to Dumfries; Shetland to Arran, took part;
The 2008 awards ceremony brought 550 young judges from across Scotland together to see their peers act out the winning books.

The Awards were originally set up by the Scottish Arts Council in 1999 and are now run by Scottish Book Trust. More information is on the Scottish Book Trust web site.

The shortlist

Children can vote for their favourite book from a shortlist in each of three categories:

Early Years (0 - 7 years)

Manfred the Baddie by John Fardell;
Pink by Lynne Rickards and Barbara Chamberlain;
Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

Younger Readers (8 - 11 years)

Dino Egg by Charlie James;
The Eleventh Orphan by Joan Lingard;
First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts by Lari Don.

Older Readers (11 - 16 years)

Crash by J A Henderson;
Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray;
The Reckoning by James Jauncey.

But what about disabled children who can't read the books?

CALL Scotland has worked with the Scottish Book Trust and the authors and publishers to create accessible digital versions of the nine shortlisted books. The idea is that children and young people with physical, visual and reading or dyslexic difficulties, who can't read the paper books, can read the digital books instead and take part in the awards.

Children with spinal injury, cerebral palsy or other physical impairments can click a switch or press a key on a computer, to turn pages and read the books by themselves. Dyslexic readers or children with visual impairments can change the font size and/or colours on screen, or use text-to-speech software to read the books.

The books can be read out by the computer using "Heather", the high quality Scottish computer voice that is available free for schools and pupils from CALL Scotland's web site at www.TheScottishVoice.org.uk. Accessible digital versions of the shortlisted books are available free of charge from CALL Scotland by completing the 'Request Digital Copy' online form' via the Books for All website or phoning 0131 651 6236.

In a related initiative, RNIB Scotland have produced Large Print, Braille and audio copies of the books.

Accessing the Curriculum for Excellence Presentation

Paul Nisbet — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:04:47

PowerPoint copy of presentation by Paul Nisbet and Stuart Aitken at the Scottish Learning Festival on 24th September 2009.

Livescribe Pulse pen for notetaking and maybe as AAC device

Sally Millar — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:40:23

One of the new devices on show at CALL's recent ICT and Inclusion sessions was the rather amazing Livescribe Pulse Pen.

You can see the product description (with video) at Livescribe.com

It has been designed for note-taking and could be useful to students and older school pupils with memory or writing difficulties of speed, legibility or spelling (or all of these). It's not particularly new to have a pen that records audio (though this one is good quality audio and can pick up teacher talk so long as student is at the front of the room) but this device follows through, so you can also quickly and easily transfer the file to your computer and link the recording to your written notes / diagrams, share notes via email, convert your written notes into a word processor file (with the audio still attached). The special notebook that is part of the pen pack might be an attractive alternative to heaving a laptop around everywhere.

The Livescribe Pulse pen is marketed in the UK, you can find more details at Dyslexic.com It's not unduly expensive at approx. £199

For those with an AAC interest, Karen Janowski from the USA outlines on her Teaching Every Student blog how you could use the Livescribe to create a talking communication book, and links to an interesting article that describes in detail how to do this, see "Augmentative Communication: A Low-Cost and Lightweight Communication Device with Natural Speech."

Books for All Database User Group meeting 24th June 2009

Paul Nisbet — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:06:25

A User Group has been created to take the Dooks for All Scotland Database forward and the first meeting was hosted by LTS on 24th June. Staff involved in providing books in accessible formats from 5 local authorities met along with Kim Walker (RNIB), Gayle Monteith, Maggie Smith and Jennifer MacDougall (LTS) and Paul and Stuart from CALL. The group discussed how accessible copies are currently provided and how they could be shared more effectively via the Books for All Scotland Database. Find out more about the Database and user group on the Books for All website.

Update: 13th September 09

The next meeting of the group will be on September 29 and 30th, when CALL will be running a two-day course on making books and resources in accessible formats. LTS are funding the course which will take place at Stirling Management Centre.