[Athen] Quick and dirty convert Bookshare to ePub tool/process?

[via athen-list]

Hi,
 
Have you checked the braille conversion recently? Engineering  reports that
they have made major improvements.
 
Best
George
 
 
From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman22.u.washington.edu> On Behalf
Of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2025 9:56 AM
To: Susan Kelmer <Susan.Kelmer at colorado.edu>; Access Technology Higher
Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Quick and dirty convert Bookshare to ePub tool/process?
 
It is my understanding that all publisher quality books on bookshare are
actually delivered to bookshare as epub. I heard this from two folks who
used to work for bookshare.
And typically when you choose to download a book, you get a drop-down from
which you can select epub.
However, if the book was provided by a volunteer who scanned it in, then
epub will not appear in the drop-down and the quality may not be that great,
depending on how much proofreading the volunteer did.
There's also the issue that the publisher can decide to submit the book
without images. 
If the book is available as Daisy with images, and images are needed by my
student, and they don't like or want to use Daisy, then I usually ask
bookshare to convert it to Word, which will retain those images. The process
is automatic, and the results aren't as good if someone worked on it by
hand, but you can always convert any daisy file to word using bookshare's
tools and see what you get.  Then you can convert word to epub and more
tools for that are readily available.
I'm seeing more and more books though where the publisher chose to not
include images because they want a student to buy the printed book. And they
rationalize that if the student can see they can see the pictures in that
printed book and if the student cannot see, they don't need the images. This
is of course crazy because a student with vision issues can use a tutor or
AI to describe images, and a student with good vision is still going to want
to have the images there in front of them onscreen. And most of my low
fision students need to magnify an image to see it anyway, so images should
always be included; don't be surprised however if they are missing!
I know this is a bit off topic, but if I need epub I usually have the
bookshare automatic fairies convert it to word, then I confert the word to
epub and check that images are or are not included.
Another point near this topic, is never -NEVER  -- use the automatic Braille
conversion, it is absolutely terrible. You can get better Braille, even if
you don't know Braille by taking the Word document in to Duxbury or even
Braille Blaster, especially if it has some markup, and letting that software
automatically convert.
When Bookshare converts to Braille it does not preserve any of the markup.
And modern displays typically can handle Daisy and in some cases epub
letting a Braille reader benefit from existing structure in a textbook. 
Also, if a book on bookshare has limitations, minimal structure, bad
formatting, no images - if it is poor quality I will give it to the student
anyway, explaining the quality is crummy. I then tell the student to bring
me their printed book and I will scan, convert and improve on what they got
early. I find that many students will not bother but instead either use an
eBook version which is reasonably accessible, or they'll put up with the
crummy version from bookshare. This policy has saved me a ton of work since
I'm only scanning and formatting books for students who need that extra
effort.
And it's important to ensure your bookstore will allow the student to return
the printed book in exchange for the eBook, often integrated in to a
required lab. Not all the publishers' online platforms are accessible, but
often they are, and there, the book is often better formatted than what
comes out of bookshare.
Sorry for ranting some and going off-topic but as a person who myself
requires alternate formats, I believe we do what we can and if we can push
for publishers' online platforms to be more accessible we could eventually
make our profession obsolete.
--Debee
 
 
From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman22.u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman22.u.washington.edu> > On Behalf Of Susan
Kelmer via athen-list
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2025 7:48 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu
<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: [Athen] Quick and dirty convert Bookshare to ePub tool/process?
 
I should know this but I've reached my frustration limit with publishers and
Bookshare at the moment.
 
Who has a step by step process for turning rotten Bookshare Daisy files into
ePubs so I can then extract text and do what I want with it?
 
The directions I'm finding online are wholly unhelpful and appear to be
leaving out steps, and I'm lost.
 
Help!
 
Susan Kelmer 
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
Division of Student Life
T 303 735 4836
 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices__;!!A
-B3JKCz!F-eqzqop_E3TNjWBfnsH2M0yctR1akHfUuTImyRFcvb8eRuJa4h_2gF6l5Qd6HuvZHlK
Mcyj5UuGQUiXlz5ZFSYoHSRPZBs0Ur8$> www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices 
 
 

 
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