Meeting your disability legislation requirements easy as 1, 2, 3
Creating Alternative Formats: Quick, Simple, Easy!
6th Feb, 2009
On January 31st 2009, Steve Bennett of Dolphin Computer Access and Julie Balassa of Valencia Community College spoke to participants at the 10th Annual ATIA Conference in Orlando. The hour long presentation at the premiere assistive technology conference demonstrated the importance of alternative formats and how easily Dolphin EasyConverter can convert traditional materials into multiple alternative formats including MP3, DAISY and Braille.
Ms. Balassa opened the session on a reflective note of past years when she would order books on cassettes from RFB&D. But she knew what was needed was "an Altformat that would suit the particular needs of each and every student." Feverishly researching alternatives to cassettes, she heard about Dolphin EasyConverter from Gaeir Dietrich of HTCTU.
"Ridiculously simple to use," Julie said, EasyConverter is designed for the "one person show, the techie geek and the Altformat newbie." When EasyConverter passed Ms. Balassa's test of "accuracy, timeliness and effectiveness" with flying colours, EasyConverter became the ultimate toolkit in her accessibility arsenal. Taking source files such as HTML, NIMAS, Kurzweil, PDF and scanned documents, she could output to multiple formats which "...is fantastic for different students with different needs."
She demonstrated the three easy steps of EasyConverter. First, select your source file; then edit your source file in MS Word within EasyConverter and wait for the magic! The finished product. In less than two minutes, Ms. Balassa had pulled a rabbit out of EasyConverter's hat. A fully accessible MP3 with headings.
But don't be fooled by EasyConverter's laid back interface and simple flow exercise format. Behind the scenes, there's a mighty OCR and reliable Braille that "works just as fine as Duxbury." Feature rich, with a fantastic MP3 heading element, options to burn to CD, your student's MP3 player or DAISY Reader you, the accessibility provider, can rest easy knowing you've provided your students with customized access and met your disability legislation requirements.
Download Dolphin's powerpoint presentation from ATIA 2009.
