Bedfordshire County Council, Childrens Services

1. Bedfordshire County Council, Childrens Services Miriam Waller –Resource officer/Technican Visual Impairment team Peripatetic to all schools in Bedfordshire

2. Alternative formats we produce • Braille • Tapes • Tactile books (early years) • Large print • MP3 • (Daisy)

3. Equipment needed to produce Braille • Computer • Scanner • Embosser • OCR software (to scan in text) • Braille translating software • Binding machine • Perkins machine • Braille paper (for embosser & perkins) • Hotspot

4. How we produce Braille on the computer • Scan text using OCR software (Dolphin Easyconverter or Textbridge) • Format work in Word • Use braille translation software to convert text to braille (Duxbury software)

5. Print using the embosser • Comb bind or use treasury tags • Pictures – - produce a simple tactile diagram using the hotspot - give a description • Tables – line of dots between information

6. Tips when producing Braille • Short document – hand braille • Miss out diagrams that are not learnt from • Relevant questions and diagrams on facing pages • Or diagrams in a separate book • Use treasury tags or bind work with a comb • Add a tactile picture

7. Difficulties when producing Braille • Work given last minute - not a lot of time to produce • Editing on the computer takes time • Not given anything

8. Large Print - How we started • Adapting early years books • Reading books – Prisons • Text books • Send out forms to schools with VI pupils to fill out what books will be needed for the next academic year. • Reveal web, VI forum • If not available decide whether to send to prison or produceourselves

9. Equipment needed to produce large print • Computer • Scanner • Colour Printer (A3) • Graphic software (to adapt scanned in images) • OCR software (to • scan in text) • Good quality paper • (double sided printing) • Binding machine • Laminator

10. How we produce large print • Scan text using OCR software (dolphin easyconverter) • Scan pictures using scanners software • Paint shop pro to adapt pictures. Extremely time consuming • Print on laser printer • Thick paper so it can be double sided • Laminated covers • Comb bind

11. Tips when producing large print • Does information on a page still make sense after enlarging? • Number pages to correspond with original pages (1, 1.2, 1.3, 2) • Take out Italics • Don’t have whole sentences in capitals

12. Pictures –– - Clean up and enlarge - Adapt - enlarge any text, declutter, pick out points that are important, change to the pupils specific needs • Standardised as much as possible - Diagram title always at the top right, - Page numbers in the same place • Start a new page when the original starts a new page • Highlight a regular heading that occurs throughout the book

13. Difficulties when producing large print • Schools change which books they are using and which order chapters are being studied • Chasing schools for which books are needed • Obtaining copies of the books from the schools • Very time consuming- as covering the whole of Bedfordshire may not use the same text book twice.

14. Equipment needed to produce MP3 and DAISY • Computer • Scanner • Converter software (Dolphin easyconverter) • MP3 player • DAISY player or software (easyreader)

15. How we produce MP3 • MP3 stories – download from the internet onto MP3 players • Scan the whole document using OCR software (dolphin easyconverter) • Tag pictures – these are then explained to listener • Convert to MP3 using dolphin easyconverter • Use the lexicons to edit text if needed

16. Difficulties when producing MP3 • Difficulties with always getting the sentences to sound right • Not good for Stories

17. DAISY • DAISY has great potential - Jumps to the chapter needed - Notes can be added - Bookmarks

18. Final tips for successful production • Regular feedback from the users • Obtain books in advance with enough time to produce • Find out which chapters and order of chapters being used