Robo Braille: enhancing the accessibility of documents<\/p>\n
By Scott Davert, Monday, August 13, 2012<\/p>\n
For many reasons, people who are blind or deaf-blind find it
\nnecessary to convert files from one format to another. For example,
\nconverting a graphical PDF file to an accessible format such as
\nMicrosoft Word (.doc or .docx), rich text format (.rtf), digital
\nbraille (.brf) or plain text (.txt). This is especially the case when
\ntextbook publishers send out books in PDF format.
\n
\nThere are many software applications that can convert files from one
\nformat to another, but these must be installed in order to perform
\nconversions for some of the above mentioned formats. That is, until a
\nservice called Robobraille came in to being.<\/p>\n
Robobraille, (www.robobraille.org), is a Danish Web based service that
\nwill convert files from one format to another.<\/p>\n
Files can be converted from or to: uncontracted and contracted
\nBraille, plain text, Microsoft Word,JPEG, PDF, and many more.<\/p>\n
There are also many languages supported such as Danish, French,
\nGerman, Spanish, Arabic, and several others.<\/p>\n
You can even view the Web interface from the list of available buttons
\nfor the languages that are present on the home page.<\/p>\n
The process of converting files is very straight forward. First choose
\nthe file you’d like to convert and upload it on the front page of the
\nsite much as you would upload a file on any Web site.<\/p>\n
The only issue with this is that once your file has successfully
\nuploaded, the upload file portion of the web page remains there, so
\nyou have to arrow around to find out when your file has completed
\nuploading.
\nThe service has a 32MB limit on file size, which could present some
\nissues for those who need very large PDF documents converted.<\/p>\n
The complete list of input file types supported are : .doc, .docx,
\n.pdf, .txt, .xml, .html, .htm, .rtf, .epub, .mobi, .tiff, .tif, .gif,
\n.jpg, .bmp, .pcx, .dcx, .j2k, .jp2, .jpx, .djv and.asc Once you have
\nuploaded the file, you will be presented with a list of alternative
\ntypes for the file such as a document, tagged PDF, audio, or an eBook.
\nThe next series of options are contextual. For example, if you’re
\nconverting a PDF file to another document type, you will be presented
\nwith the various formats available.<\/p>\n
MP3 audio, eBook formats including EPUB and MOBI, document (10 different
\ntypes to choose from), and various forms of digital Braille are all
\navailable with for PDF file. If you choose to convert the file to an
\nMP3, you will then have a choice as to the speed of the speech along
\nwith whether you’d like the text-to-speech engine to read in an
\nAmerican or British voice.
\nThese options vary slightly based on what you upload.
\nFor example, if you upload a Microsoft Word file for conversion, you
\nget the additional option of DAISY format, even with both text and
\naudio.<\/p>\n
After choosing your desired format, you then need to enter an email
\naddress where Robobraille can email you the converted file as an
\nattachment, or in the case of MP3 files, you will be provided with a
\nlink to the file from their server. You can then download the file,
\nand be on your way to enjoying the file format of your choice.<\/p>\n
I have found that graphical PDF documents are quite accurately
\nconverted with the OCR tool Robobraile is using.
\nThe 5 documents I tested this conversion with had AN AVERAGE OF LESS
\nTHAN one error for each page.
\nTurnaround time varies based on the size of the document. For example,
\na 3 page document may take less than 2 minutes, while a 300 page
\ndocument could take over an hour.<\/p>\n
A few limitations:
\nAs mentioned above, the files you upload must be less than 32MB. Also,
\nprotected documents cannot be converted.
\nFinally, while one can convert to digital Braille, it is slightly
\nmisleading that the files are given the file extensions .txt. It
\nwould be nice if Robobraille could include the BRF format as an input
\nformat so that those who create .brf files can have them converted to
\nanother format when needed.
\nThis would also be nice to see for some of the other proprietary
\nformats such as Key Word.<\/p>\n
Overall, this is a great service that can come in handy when no
\nconversion software is available. While they gladly accept donations,
\nthe service is free and worked with Safari, Internet Explorer, and
\nFirefox when I tested it.
\nObviously, going through each type of file you can upload and all of
\nits options is beyond the scope of this article, but the above
\nexamples demonstrate how Robobraille can become yet another resource
\nin the ever expanding assistive technology toolbox for users of
\nadaptive technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Robo Braille: enhancing the accessibility of documents By Scott Davert, Monday, August 13, 2012 For many reasons, people who are blind or deaf-blind find it necessary to convert files from one format to another. For example, converting a graphical PDF file to an accessible format such as Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), rich text format […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n