Local Author to Be Featured in ABA Journal

Local Author to Be Featured in ABA Journal

Braille Monitor
April 2015

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Local Author to Be Featured in ABA Journal
From the Editor: This article was originally published December 12, 2014, in the Wyoming County Press Examiner (Tunkhannock, PA) print edition:
The ABA Journal, the publication of the American Bar Association, did a photo shoot this past week in Auburn Township for an upcoming article featuring local author Donna W. Hill. Hill, author of the novel, The Heart of Applebutter Hill, is an advocate for the full inclusion of people with visual impairments in society. She visited Lackawanna Trail and Elk Lake High Schools earlier this fall and is a consultant to the law firm Disability Rights Advocates, which filed a suit against the electronic library Scribd on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind in July.
"Failing to make websites accessible to people with print disabilities is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act," Hill said, "But there's no remedy for digital access issues equivalent to building permits which ensure that new brick and mortar structures have wheelchair ramps and elevators. The only way the law is enforced is when someone files a complaint, so it's always after the fact, and it's harder for everyone that way."
Despite advances in technology making it possible for books, magazines, and other publications to be made available in formats that blind people can access with text-to-speech software (aka screen readers) and digital Braille displays, only 5 percent of books are available in accessible formats. This book famine, along with an increasing problem with website accessibility, is one of the major contributors to the high unemployment rate among otherwise able-bodied blind adults, most of whom have never had a full-time job.
Scribd boasts 40 million titles for a monthly subscription fee of $8. In contrast, only 80,000 titles are included in the Talking Book Program, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (a division of the Library of Congress). Learning Ally and Bookshare, which cater to students with print disabilities, have circa 80,000 and 300,000 titles, respectively.
Hill, who is not a plaintiff in the action due to the restrictions in Scribd's terms of service, tried to use the Scribd site to advance her writing career. The Heart of Applebutter Hill is carried by the electronic book aggregator Smashwords, and Smashwords placed it with Scribd, along with other titles included in Smashwords's extended distribution program. Hill, along with the other Smashwords authors, received a free one-year subscription to Scribd and was looking forward to networking with other authors by reading and reviewing their books on her website. Scribd, however, is inaccessible and has not responded to requests to fix the problems.
"It feels so unfair," Hill said, "Promoting a book is really difficult for anyone, but there are so many examples like this, where I can't even take advantage of the benefits other writers have, simply because so many websites don't bother using the series of ones and zeros that would make them accessible."

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