Google Books
6 Keywords: References, Referencing, Bibliography, Dyslexia, Specific Learning Difficulties,
Google Book Search is a way of finding books on-line in digital format - this does not necessarily mean everything in book is available or even accessible to a screen reader.
"If the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given us permission, you'll be able to see a preview of the book, and in some cases the entire text. If it's in the public domain, you're free to download a PDF copy. Learn more about the different views." It is possible to keyword search some books, view contents and in many cases find specific information quicker than one would be able to find items in a paper based book.
One of the latest features is the ability to build a personal library containing your own topics and chosen books.
It should be noted that there have been some ctitical reviews of the database including one from Robert B. Townsend of the American Historical Association , on April 30, 2007. ..."the quality of the scans is decidedly mixed, the information about the books (the “metadata” in info-speak) is often erroneous, and the public domain is curiously restricted."
- Adobe PDF Accessibility
The Portable Document Format (PDF) developed by Adobe can be made accessible, but it very much depends on how the original document is designed. If it is a poster created in a publishing application, scanned or saved from a Word document and locked down for copyright reasons then saved as PDF, it is liable to act in the same way as a picture. This means the text cannot be read by a screen reader or adapted for easier reading. It is appreciated that the concept of the PDF is to ensure that printed or saved versions of a document remain as the author intends, but there are ways to help the reader who uses assistive technologies or requires different formats of the text and graphics.
- First Step in Adding Accessibility to Google Books–Was It Enough?
"George Kerscher, senior officer accessible information, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, and Dr. T.V. Ramen, a research scientist with Google, Inc., addressed the 2007 convention of the National Federation of the Blind. The topic was online access to books for blind readers. Following the convention Mr. Kerscher wrote [this] article describing the brave new world of Google Books and explaining where the problems still lie."
