[IAEP] Dyslexia - Cost of Commercial solutions

[marilyn at ourdyslexicchildren.org]

Just now I received an email with technology recommendations from
Susan Barton (who I think is a pretty cool dyslexia advocate) and they
total between $500 - $1000, depending on what type of RFB&D book reader
player you choose. 

That is why I am so fanatical about getting open
source software offerings publicised. Currently, you have to be rich to
survive as a dyslexic person. 

Booo . . . . Hissss . . . .  

Sugar can
change all of that! 

Marilyn 

On Tue, 31 May 2011 12:07:19 -0400,
iaep-request at lists.sugarlabs.org wrote: 

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> Today's Topics:
> 
> 1. Re:
[Argentina] [Sur] Planet Sugarlabs Latinoamerica
> (Edward Cherlin)
> 2.
Re: [Argentina] [Sur] Planet Sugarlabs Latinoamerica
> (Bernie
Innocenti)
> 3. Re: I am so excited I can hardly stand it - how about a
Daisy
> Reader too? (mokurai at earthtreasury.org [20])
> 4. Re: Texas
Senate Bills 866 & 867 regarding dyslexia passed
> over the weekend
(Sridhar Dhanapalan)
> 5. Re: Texas Senate Bills 866 & 867 regarding
dyslexia passed
> over the weekend (Gonzalo Odiard)
> 6. Re: I am so
excited I can hardly stand it - how about a Daisy
> Reader too? (James
Simmons)
> 
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>

> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 16:32:28 -0400
> From: Edward
Cherlin 
> To: Bernie Innocenti 
> Cc: Gustavo Ibarra , "OLPC para
usuarios,
> docentes, voluntarios y administradores" ,
> Rafael Ortiz ,
gacq at cafelug.org.ar [26],
> OLPC-AR , David Farning
> , IAEP 
> Subject:
Re: [IAEP] [Argentina] [Sur] Planet Sugarlabs Latinoamerica
>
Message-ID: 
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> 
> I could
assist, but I can't take on another whole project, even part time.
> 
>
On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 12:47, Bernie Innocenti wrote:
> 
>> [cc +=
iaep] On Mon, 2011-05-30 at 11:43 -0400, Edward Cherlin wrote: 
>> 
>>>
Is there a way for a reader to filter the feed, to get just entries in
Spanish? Can we add an automatic translation button? Would anybody be
willing to commit to some amount of translation in either direction?
>>
The planet is looking for a committed editor who would: 1. Process
syndication requests, checking that the new feed contains only articles
relevant to Sugar, Sugar activities or deployments using Sugar:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sysadmin/Planet_syndication_request [1] 2.
Contact the owners of dead feeds and possibly drop them:
http://planet.sugarlabs.org/validate.html [2] 3. Promote quality, not
quantity. Sometimes, feed owners think it's cool to tag stories about
their personal life as "sugar". I usually write them in private to
remind them that they have to stay on topic. 4. Refresh the visual look
of the Planet. The current CSS is just dreadful and need to be
redesigned or replaced altogether. 5. We probably need to add a separate
feed for content in Spanish. I don't believe in automated translations,
but maybe we could provide a link which goes through Google Translator.
6. Improve the software. We're currently using a simple RSS aggregator
called Planet Venus, which is easy to deploy and customize, but lacks
advanced features. 7. As with any other volunteer position in our
community, remember to step down responsibly when you no longer have
time to contribute. Until we appoint a new Planet Master, I occasionally
dedicate some time to maintain the planet, but I don't consider myself a
proper editor. -- Bernie Innocenti Sugar Labs Infrastructure Team
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Infrastructure_Team [3]
> 
> -- 
> Edward
Mokurai (??/???????????????/????????????? ?) Cherlin
> Silent Thunder is
my name, and Children are my nation.
> The Cosmos is my dwelling place,
the Truth my destination.
>
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks [32]
> 
>
------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 30 May 2011
16:37:39 -0400
> From: Bernie Innocenti 
> To: Edward Cherlin 
> Cc:
Gustavo Ibarra , "OLPC para usuarios,
> docentes, voluntarios y
administradores" ,
> Rafael Ortiz , gacq at cafelug.org.ar [38],
> OLPC-AR
, David Farning
> , IAEP 
> Subject: Re: [IAEP] [Argentina] [Sur] Planet
Sugarlabs Latinoamerica
> Message-ID:Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="UTF-8"
> 
> On Mon, 2011-05-30 at 16:32 -0400, Edward Cherlin
wrote:
> 
>> I could assist, but I can't take on another whole project,
even part time.
> 
> Thank you, I understand. It's best not to
overcommit.
> 
> -- 
> Bernie Innocenti
> Sugar Labs Infrastructure
Team
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Infrastructure_Team [42]
> 
>
------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 30 May 2011
20:14:55 -0400
> From: mokurai at earthtreasury.org [43]
> To: "Gonzalo
Odiard" 
> Cc: iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org [45], custserv at learningally.org
[46],
> marilyn at ourdyslexicchildren.org [47]
> Subject: Re: [IAEP] I am
so excited I can hardly stand it - how about
> a Daisy Reader too?
>
Message-ID:
> 
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> On
Mon, May 30, 2011 2:38 pm, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
> On Mon, May 30, 2011
at 2:36 PM, wrote: Hi! Oh my goodness . . . you ca
> 
>> and the reader
that Barnes and Noble is pushing. They say they can't do it. Well, the
support of epub files in Read activity was done more than a year ago, I
think by Sayamindu Dasgupta. 
>> 
>> Good to know. I must go test it.
>>
Can you also include a Daisy Reader or something that works with the
RFB&D (Recording For the Blind
> ic) books? 
> 
> We have been
discussing that for years, and some work in that direction
> was done
using the text-to-speech e> text as it is spoken or sung. (The most
effective literacy campaign in India ever.) If you can drum up some
volunteer developers or financial support for the project we can
probably complete it for English and Spanish, and then offer it to other
la
> ities for adaptation to their speech and writing systems.
Accessibility is one of the critical targets for the Replacing Textbooks
project that I manage, to get rid of print and go to digital Open
Education Resources. Now they call themselves Learning Ally
(http://learningally.org [50]). There is something open source that
works with Firefox for Windows called DDReader. I am not techy enough to
know if it is adaptable. The Learning Ally files are audio. Formerly
they have been encrypted mp3s or wmas, but now they are in a push to
make everything more accessible. They have a huge collection and most
current textbooks. I think the DDReader works only in Windows. 
> 
>
Correct.
> I am also a big fan of Librivox. Last semester I was at an
elementar
> 
>> dio of Librivox recordings. Using the web browser, the
chi
> the book and it started reading when the text and pictures came
up. Kids liked it. Probably is a good online solution. I don't know how
do this offline, because the recorded books a huge. 
> 
> This is one of
the intended uses of School Servers.
> Can there be some sort of Sugar
on a Stick version for dyslexic kids? I would definitely promote it and
distribute it in Texas. 
> 
> We would probably not do a separate
version, but would include
> accessibility in > n-left:5px;
width:100%">Probably is a good project, but need people with knowledge
about dyslexic and time to create and maintain it. 
>> 
>> Nicholas
Negroponte is dyslexic. We could talk to him about it.
>> Thanks to all
of you who are contributing. It's great! Thanks! I am only putting
together the different
> know there are a lot of work to do. but I think
we can create a solution in par or better than the commercialy offered.
Gonzalo top.org> wrote: 
>> 
>>> Well, you are describing our solution
:)
>> Great to hear! We are
> t this :) Read can open PDF, EPUB, DejaVu
and text files. Can do text to speech with word highlighting of text
files, and only text to speech of EPUB files dd the capability to the
other formats. I've tried Read 87.2 on an XO with OLPC OS, and Read 88
on Fedora 14. I don't get any TTS options when I open an EPUB file with
them. Is this functionality still in development? 
>> 
>> Yes. You can
test a preview version in http://dev.laptop.org/~gonzalo/R
> In a few
days I will publish it in ASLO This is the description of GetBooks. A
deployment can use Pathagar to create a book repository. In eduJam, we
talked about how improve the tagging of books to create catalogs, and we
need to do a few changes in the server code. Nicholas and Daniel worked
in code to add dynamic catalogs to GetBooks, and we are trying to
improve it. GetBooks and Pathagar use the OPDS protocol. That's
wonderful. We'd love to be able to add our own repositories. 
> 
> You
have more information about Pathagar server here:
>
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Book_Server [58]
> 
> Gonzalo
>
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> An HTML attachment was
scrubbed...
> URL: into Read Etexts and you'd have most of what a real
Daisy reader would give you, at least as far as IA books are concerned.
(IA books are created by doing OCR on photographed book pages. The OCR
is high quality but far from perfect). To make a Daisy reader desirable
you'd need a free source of high quality Daisy files which could not
give you a plain text version of the same content. Its possible I'm
missing something here. I'm not a Daisy expert. James Simmons On Mon,
May 30, 2011 at 7:14 PM, wrote:
> t:5px; width:100%">On Mon, May 30,
2011 2:38 pm, Gonzalo Odiard wrote: On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 2:36 PM,
wrote: ?Hi! Oh my goodness . . . you can read EPUBs? ?That is great!!
Even the book reader people say they can't speak EPUB - I am thinking
about KNO and the reader that Barnes and Noble is pushing. ?They say
they can't do it. Well, the support of epub files in Read activity was
done more than a year ago, I think by Sayamindu Dasgupta. Good to know.
I must go test it. Can you also include a Daisy Reader or something that
works with the RFB&D (Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic) books? We have
been discussing that for years, and some work in that direction was done
using the text-to-speech engine in Speak, and following the model of
Same Language Subtitling of Bollywood films with coloring of the text as
it is spoken or sung. (The most effective literacy campaign in India
ever.) If you can drum up some volunteer developers or financial support
for the project we can probably complete it for English and Spanish, and
then offer it to other language communities for adaptation to their
speech and writing systems. Accessibility is one of the critical targets
for the Replacing Textbooks project that I manage, to get rid of print
and go to digital Open Education Resources. Now they call themselves
Learning Ally (http://learningally.org [61]). ?There is something open
source that works with Firefox for Windows called DDReader. ?I am not
techy enough to know if it is adaptable. ?The Learning Ally files are
audio. Formerly they have been encrypted mp3s or wmas, but now they are
in a push to make everything more accessible. ?They have a huge
collection and most current textbooks. I think the DDReader works only
in Windows. Correct. About the books in learningally.org, are these
books free? Some can be downloaded by registered users at no charge, but
thy are not generally under free licenses. Important Copyright Notice
The contents of all Learning Ally books are protected under copyright
law. Le
> 
>> ave a learning disability, visual impairment or other
physical disability, and who have provided documented evidence of a
print disability 
>> 
>>>> I am also a big fan of Librivox. ?Last
semester I was at an elementary school and had what I called an audio
book server. ?I just used the Gutenberg html versions with embedded
audio of Librivox recordings. Using the web browser, the child clicked
on the book and it started reading when the text and pictures came up.
?Kids liked it.
>>> Probably is a good online solution. I don't know how
do this offline, because the recorded books a huge.
>> This is one of
the intended uses of School Servers. 
>> 
>>>> Can there be some sort of
Sugar on a Stick version for dyslexic kids? ?I would definitely promote
it and distribute it in Texas.
>> We would probably not do a separate
version, but would include accessibility in the base system. Probably is
a good project, but need people with knowledge about dyslexic and time
to create and maintain it. padding-left:5px; border-left:#1010ff 2px
solid; margin-left:5px; width:100%">
>> t:5px; border-left:#1010ff 2px
solid; margin-left:5px; width:100%">Thanks to all of you who are
contributing. ?It's great! Thanks! I am only putting together the
different pieces :) We know there are a lot of work to do. but I think
we can create a solution in par or better than 
>> 
>>> lid;
margin-left:5px; width:100%">Marilyn [Irrelevant messages snipped.] --
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin Silent
Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation. The Cosmos is my
dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks [11]
_______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An
>> ject
(not a laptop project!) IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org [12]
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep [13] 
>> 
>>
------------------------------
>> 
>>
_______________________________________________
>> IAEP -- It's An
Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
[14]
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep [15]
>> 
>> End of IAEP
Digest, Vol 38, Issue 60
>> ************************************

 


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http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachmen>a17/attachment-0001.html>------------------------------Message:6Date:Tue,31May201111:07:11-0500From:JamesSimmonsTo:marilyn at ourdyslexicchildren.org[5]Cc:GonzaloOdiard,iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org[7],mokurai at earthtreasury.org[8]Subject:Re:[IAEP]IamsoexcitedIcanhardlystandit-howaboutaDaisyReadertoo?Message-ID:Content-Type:text/plain;charset=ISO-8859-1Marilyn,TheonlyfreesourceofmaterialinDaisyformatthatIknowofistheInternetArchive.Forexample,oneofthebooksId
</div>href=
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