Comment

Comment by Eric McCormick on September 23, 2011 at 10:25am

If you look at the picture of the sample one I linked, you can see it is three hole punched. However, yes, they are not always 8.5 by 11 inch. or A4 sized.

 

You just need to be sure the publisher says it is binder ready.  For example, I have this book for a Sociology class I took:

 

http://www.cengage.com/aushed/instructor.do?disciplinenumber=1037&a...

 

Nowhere on that publisher site does it say binder ready.

But on Amazon they have it as "Loose Leaf" :

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cengage-Advantage-Books-Experience-Relationsh...

 

And when I bought it at the college book store, because they had it for less that time, it was "binder ready."

 

These copies are usually 25% to 35% cheaper than the bound book, so it is a good value that way too.

Comment by Heather Norton on September 23, 2011 at 9:24am

Eric;

 

How do you know that this unknown binding book format is actually binder ready format?  It makes no mention and the product deminsions don't sound right, either.

Comment by Eric McCormick on September 23, 2011 at 9:07am

Heather, that is a very good point you bring up. TTS means Text To Speech, and people think a PDF is text.... but many PDFs are actually pictures of pages and have no text in them. That means the quality of the textual part of the image is changed by compression and many other things.

 

A high resolution scan and OCR to make a true text based PDF that has pictures in it is possible, but most people use the faster "take a picture, cram it in" sort of solution.

Comment by Heather Norton on September 23, 2011 at 8:52am

Oh btw, for a full blown reflection on this topic... There are the contortions I went through to settle on a TTS app, too. Text Aloud didn't deal with image based pdfs (doesn't have built OCR formatting; does it now?). ReadWrite Gold is really pretty good but not for $600 (wow). That’s still better than Kurzweil 3000 (way way too much). The free ones are not that great and they don't provide built in OCR formatting, either. I settled in on ReadIris and Adobe's PDF Reader ver 10 as a workable solution, for now. P.s. My disability center only provides image based pdfs so built in OCR is crucial!!!

Comment by Eric McCormick on September 23, 2011 at 8:50am

Some of the binder books are a bit larger print, some of them use the same print but the page numbers slowly shift, and most of them are a little larger for the 3 ring holes, but not full 8.5 by 11 pages.  Still, they are cheaper, there is no spine to cut off, and it is designed to be put in a three ring binder.  So it is a plus there as a minimum.

Here is the odd part: The binder ready books are not always listed on the publisher site. I have looked when I was getting books and found them sometimes and not others. I just looked up one that I have, and the publisher lists the regular book, but not the binder ready! So they make it, but only a book store or someone with access to the publisher representatives would know about it.

I found a random one as an example:

http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Management-Modules-Binder-Ready/dp/...

Comment by Heather Norton on September 23, 2011 at 8:28am

I’ll go through a routine before I commit to buying a  text book. At least I try to remember to.  Check w/ RFBD (Learning Ally is it now?) and BookShare for the book on their formats.  Grad books seem to be few and far between!  Then I'll check with our university book store and lastly I’ll generally buy at Amazon or Half. Make sure to check their formats, too. I'm starting to see some text books on Kindle, but not any of mine.  Does Kindle provide many books w/ TTS - publishers had the right to not make that capability avail, at one point.  Wondering...

 

But I've never heard of a binder ready format!  I can check our disability office person see if she can get it.  Doubt Amazon or the other typical online places would have that format.  News to me...  Like the idea that it's larger text, so better TTS quality and for me likely easier to read with my eye tracking probs.  Pretty sure our disability office person doesn't know about this format, either (or she would have offered it to me in the first place).

 

Thanks for giving me a new format to ask about, Eric!

Comment by Eric McCormick on September 23, 2011 at 12:33am

Yes, I knew about Learning Ally before they changed their name. They are one of the ones that make the audiobooks.

For some people, the computer accent of the text to voice software is hard to deal with. This can be more true when a person is younger and does not have the language skills to tell the difference. That is where a professionally made audiobook can be better.

Not all schools offer the same accommodations. It is important to find out what is available where you are. Sometimes they do the legal minimum and another school might be a better choice. However, most seem to be getting better about it and offer a wider range of services. An example is the book chopping Heather is getting done. That is not required.

Heather, most books come in multiple format. Your school might be able to order "binder ready" copies that are spineless (wimpy books!) The "binder ready" part is that they are slightly larger pages than the normal book and three hole punched. That may make them even better for you because they are a good size to scan into a TTS program but still able to be kept together easily. With a D ring binder, you can lay them flat and open them to read, or take the pages out and spread them out as needed.

If the school does not have the binder ready version, check with the publisher. They probably do sell it and you can order it through them or another vendor. That can get you an even better book without having to get them chopped up.

Comment by Sarah D on September 21, 2011 at 5:32pm

Thanks! Those are great ideas.

Comment by Heather Norton on September 21, 2011 at 2:45pm

 

Hi Sarah;

 

I'm a grad student too. I’m getting an M Ed in Sp Ed in a couple more classes. Why you wonder am I doing this degree? I figure, who's more likely to understand / advocate/ mentor these kids than we BTDT types (plus, I know the disabilities in 1st and 2nd hand way so I know the accommodation, naturally).

 

Anyway, I've got Right side CP, both Visual and Auditory Processing issues and both slow processing and working memory concerns. My psych eval done earlier this year suggests I lack social skills too; sooooo, me thinks I might be more akin to my 2e HFA DS than I thought (i.e, gifted in visual spatial and math; but, w/ high functioning autism, too). Anyway, the slow processing, lack of working memory and Auditory Processing stuff comes out as double dyslexia and / or reading fluency probs.

 

I don't manage to read all that is assigned of me. I try too, though. Our Disability Center will cut the bindings off the text books and then scan them in as .pdf formatted docs (text reader formatted; not image formatted). Then I'll use a text reader or text to voice app to pace my reading. I can maybe read 100 wpm but using a reader pacing me I can get around 160 wpm read, instead. Adobe's free pdf reader now provides pretty good text to voice capability built in, btw.

 

I also prefer the loose page text books because the pages lay flat so there's less fighting of lighting source glare on the curved pages. And the pages are easier to handle one at a time. And, it's also easier to use a ruler for a line guide on a flat page than a curved one (I've got eye tracking issues, too).  And, I prefer reading online because I use the arrow tool of the mouse for my word /line tracking device (aka my fancy electronic finger).

 

When I write posts or what have you, the paragraphs are generally 5-6 lines long max. It avoids visual crowding and makes my eye tracking concerns much easier to deal with if the paragraphs are shorter. White space is a friend for those that can deal with visual crowding!!! And it makes proofing my own stuff much easier!!!

 

Anyway there are the ideas I can think of (off hand) that I use a lot and might be helpful to you. Also, I 2nd the idea that Jonathon Mooney's book is great for dyslexic / ADHD / LD college students to read.

Comment by Sarah D on September 21, 2011 at 9:36am

Thanks! I'm in graduate school for statistics; so a lot of statistical publications are being thrown at me. I just heard about this website: Learning Ally. Have you ever used it?

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