Recent press releases:

Bookshare Celebrates 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act with Free Membership Offer

July 26th, 2010, Palo Alto, CA — In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Bookshare announces a free membership opportunity for all Americans with qualifying print disabilities, regardless of age or student status. With this offer, Bookshare celebrates the huge strides forward towards inclusion and equality for Americans with disabilities resulting from this act.

"We'd love to see seniors, veterans, and other adults with print disabilities experience the joy of accessible reading," said Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, the nonprofit organization that operates Bookshare. "I'm honored to have been invited to the White House today to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ADA with President Obama."

Read the press release here.

Benetech Hires New Senior Managers Gerardo Capiel and Thomas L. Stephenson

April 13, 2010, Palo Alto, CA — Benetech has announced the addition of two seasoned professionals to its senior management staff. Gerardo Capiel will serve as Benetech's new Vice President of Engineering and Thomas L. Stephenson is the company's new Chief Development Officer.

"Benetech attracts committed professionals who want to make a difference in the world and we are delighted to welcome Gerardo Capiel and Thomas Stephenson to our senior management team," says Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman. "Benetech is on track to grow 20% this year as it did in 2009 and their extensive business experience and keen judgment will allow us to meet the increasing demand for our technology products and services that address important social needs."

Read more about this announcement here.

Benetech and CMP Release Miradi 3.0 Conservation Software

User-Friendly Software Improves Biodiversity Planning and Assessment of Conservation Projects

April 7, 2010, Palo Alto, CA — Benetech and the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) have released Miradi 3.0, an enhanced and expanded version of the user-friendly software that allows environmental conservation practitioners to design, manage, monitor, and learn from their projects. Miradi 3.0 incorporates a new work planning interface that allows users to forecast expenses and create project budgets to more effectively meet their conservation goals.

Miradi 3.0 is used by conservation planners from Sweden and Norway to develop management plans for the Swedish Kosterhavet Marine National Park and the Ytre Hvaler National Park in Norway which share the same marine area. Read a case study detailing how Miradi 3.0 has been used by the Swedish Kosterhavet Marine National Park and the Ytre Hvaler National Park in Norway. "I am impressed by how easy Miradi is to work with," says Aase Richter, a conservation planner for the Ytre Hvaler National Park. "It provides a systematic way of working that leads you through all the important elements in the process and helps ensure that you don't loose track of the details."

Miradi is a joint venture between Benetech and CMP, a consortium of global conservation organizations committed to improving the practice of conservation. Built with input from users around the world, Miradi 3.0 allows practitioners to export project data to donor reports and supports the creation of a future central repository of shared conservation data. Read more about Miradi 3.0 here.

Benetech, with the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media and the U.S. Fund for DAISY, Receives $5 Million Award to Transform Production of Accessible Images

March 3rd, 2010, Palo Alto, CA — The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), awarded $5 million to Benetech, in collaboration with The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH and the U.S. Fund for DAISY (USFDAISY), to create a research and development center that will greatly improve the processes and availability of accessible images for students with disabilities.

The new Digital Image and Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials Center (DIAGRAM) will develop tools and best practices that will make it easier and more cost-effective to create and use accessible images across a range of educational content.

"Together, we are committed to creating tools and best practices that anyone can use to make graphical content more accessible and widely available," says Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, the nonprofit organization that operates Bookshare. "Educators and students with print disabilities will have unprecedented opportunities to use devices and software to make access to image and graphical content a reality in educational materials." Read more here.

View entire Press Release Archive.

Recent publications:

Tamy Guberek, Daniel Guzmán, Megan Price, Kristian Lum and Patrick Ball, “To Count the Uncounted: An Estimation of Lethal Violence in Casanare,” A Report by the Benetech Human Rights Program. 10 February 2010. (Available in Spanish)

Silva, Romesh, Jeff Klingner and Scott Weikart, "State Coordinated Violence in Chad under Hissène Habré: A Statistical Analysis of Reported Prison Mortality in Chad's DDS Prisons and Command Responsibility of Hissène Habré, 1982-1990." A Report by Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group to Human Rights Watch and the Chadian Association of Victims of Political Repression and Crimes. 29 January 2010. (Available in French)

Fruchterman, James R., Developing Infiormation Technology to Meet Social Needs, published in Innovations, a journal published by MIT Press, Summer 2008.

Cibelli, Kristen, Amelia Hoover, and Jule Krüger. 2009. "Descriptive Statistics From Statements to the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission," a Report by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group at Benetech and Annex to the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia. Palo Alto, California. Benetech.

Critical Report Analyzes Sri Lanka's Disappeared —October 27, 2007

Romesh Silva, a statistician for Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group, has co-authored a report that synthesizes the voices of 633 families and relatives of disappearance victims throughout Sri Lanka using descriptive statistical analysis. The report, "Clarifying the Past and Commemorating Sri Lanka's Disappeared: A Descriptive Analysis of Enforced Disappearances Documented by Families of the Disappeared" was written in collaboration with the non-governmental human rights organization, Families of the Disappeared (FoD) and the International Center for Transitional Justice.

The report is part of an ongoing initiative to create a massive, objective and undeniable statistical record of past and present human rights violations in Sri Lanka. This project aims to augment human rights monitoring and reporting by non-governmental groups in order to positively influence the Sri Lankan peace process. By ensuring that arguments about the total magnitude, pattern and levels of responsibility associated with mass violations are informed by science, human rights debates about truth and accountability will be enriched.

Benetech CEO Co-authors Groundbreaking Paper on Expansion Capital Strategies For Social Enterprises — April 3, 2007

Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman has co-authored a groundbreaking paper that analyzes the financial challenges faced by maturing Social Enterprises that seek access to expansion capital. Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Addressing the Critical Gaps in Risk-Taking Capital for Social Enterprise was co-written with Jed Emerson, a Senior Fellow with the Generation Foundation of Generation Investment Management and Tim Freundlich, the Director of Strategic Development at the Calvert Social Investment Foundation.

Benetech HRDAG Analyzes Key Data for Bangladesh Human Rights Report — December 14, 2006, New York, NY

A report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented abuses committed by Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite anti-crime force that has been implicated in alleged torture and unlawful killings of people in custody.

The statistical analysis presented in the report, "Judge, Jury, and Death: Torture and Executions by Bangladesh's Elite Security Force," was conducted by Romesh Silva, a statistician with the Benetech Human Rights Program. The report concludes that between June 2004 and October 2006, the RAB killed at least 367 people in Bangladesh and tortured hundreds more.

Benetech's statistical analysis helped HRW explain the statistical patterns of the killings over time and with respect to the specific units with the RAB that were most responsible for the violence.

Benetech Publishes Essay on Human Rights in China — July 5, 2006, Palo Alto, CA

The China Rights Forum published an essay in their July issue written by Patrick Ball, the director of Benetech's Human Rights Program and Ann Harrison, Benetech's Communications Director. The essay, entitled Asking and Answering Hard Questions: Technology in the Service of Human Rights noted that human rights analysts can use tools adopted from computer science, mathematics, statistics and demography to transform human rights arguments from political polemic to a scientific debate. The authors assert that the job of human rights investigators is to gather all data that can possibly be relevant and store it in a way that is accessible to colleagues, secure from perpetrators and difficult to destroy. The China Rights Forum is the Journal of the international Chinese non-governmental organization, Human Rights In China, which promotes universally recognized human rights and advances the institutional protection of these rights in the People's Republic of China.

Benetech Op-Ed on Violence in Timor-Leste — July 31, 2006, Palo Alto, CA

The Benetech Initiative today released an Op-Ed thanking the Australian military for defending the offices of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) during the recent violence in Dili and urging the United Nations not to squander the opportunity for accountability in Timor-Leste.

Recent articles and press coverage:

Large Print Books Profiles Bookshare Member Jessica Pinto — June 29, 2010

Large Print Books has profiled Bookshare member Jessica Pinto and linked to a YouTube video of Jessica and her mother.

Radio Canada Covers HRDAG Chad Report — May 23, 2010

In a story entitled "Hissène Habré, le Pinochet Africain," Radio Canada covered the study by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) showing that former Chadian president Hissène Habré was well informed of the hundreds of deaths that occurred in prisons operated by his security forces. Read more about this report here.

Foreign Policy Magazine Posts Story about HRDAG Chad Study — March 9, 2010

Reed Brody, counsel and spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, has written an article in Foreign Policy magazine entitled "Inside a Dictator's Secret Police," which cites an HRDAG report on human rights violations in Chad. The HRDAG study, "State Coordinated Violence in Chad under Hissène Habré, A Statistical Analysis of Reported Prison Mortality in Chad's DDS Prisons and Command Responsibility of Hissène Habré, 1982-1990," shows that former Chadian president Hissène Habré had detailed information about the hundreds of deaths that occurred in prisons operated by his state security force, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS).

The HRDAG report is based on thousands of documents generated by the DDS itself. The analysis could be critical in the long delayed prosecution of Habré who has been accused of killing and systematically torturing thousands of political opponents from 1982 to 1990. Read more about this report here.

Colombian Press Reports on HRDAG Analysis of Violence in Casanare — February 23, 2010

The Colombia Reports news site has reported on an HRDAG study analyzing violence in the Colombian department or state of Casanare from 1998 to 2007. Entitled "NGO Seeks to Stop Conflict Victims Falling Through the Cracks," the story documents HRDAG's February 2010 study analyzing the patterns of violence in Casanare. The study uses a technique called Multiple Systems Estimation (MSE) to calculate the magnitude of these violations. By analyzing multiple datasets containing all known cases of violence, HRDAG analysts were able to estimate the number of killings and disappearances in Casanare that were never recorded. Read more about this study here.

AP Quotes HRDAG's Patrick Ball on Haiti Victim Statistics — February 11, 2010

The Associated Press has quoted HRDAG director Patrick Ball regarding efforts to estimate the number of victims impacted by the earthquake in Haiti. The story includes Ball's observation that accurate data on victims is extremely difficult to gather in such circumstances. "One of the things that distinguishes a disaster like this is a complete breakdown in communications infrastructure," said Ball. "So how are they going to know the difference between who is dead and who is missing?"

HRDAG Chad Analysis Covered In Huffington Post Story — February 10, 2010

In story for the Huffington Post news site entitled "Justice Denied In Africa," Human Rights Watch spokesperson Reed Brody cites HRDAG's study showing that former Chadian president Hissène Habré was well informed of the hundreds of deaths that occurred during his regime in prisons operated by the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS) state security force.

"A report on the documents released last week by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group of the Benetech Initiative found 'a clear communication and command link' between Habré and the DDS and showed that Habré received 1,265 direct communications from the DDS about the status of 898 detainees," writes Brody. "The documents listed 1,208 dead prisoners, confirming what victims told me — that most of those who entered Habré's dungeons, including one at the presidential compound, never came out alive." Read more about this report here.

Radio Netherlands Covers the Case Against Hissène Habré — February 10, 2010

Radio Netherlands has broadcast a story about the case against former Chadian president Hissène Habré. The report includes information about the recent study released by HRDAG showing that Habré received detailed information about the hundreds of deaths that occurred in prisons operated by his state security force, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS). Read more about this report here.

Human Rights Watch Cites HRDAG Analysis — January 29, 2010

Key analysis from Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) was cited in a press release from Human Rights Watch on a complaint filed by torture survivors and the families of those who died from torture during the regime of former Chadian leader Hissène Habré's. The complaint charged Habré with crimes against humanity and torture and asked a Senegalese prosecutor to investigate their claims and file formal charges against Habré.

The case is based on documentary evidence and well as the testimony of victims and those who worked for Habré. The complaint alleges that Habré created and controlled a political police force, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), which systematically tortured political opponents and members of ethnic groups perceived as hostile to his regime. In 2001, Human Rights Watch discovered a cache of DDS files in its abandoned headquarters in N'Djamena, Chad. Among the tens of thousands of documents were daily lists of prisoners and deaths in detention, interrogation reports, surveillance reports, and death certificates. A preliminary analysis of the data by HRDAG showed that a total of 12,321 different victims were mentioned in the documents, including the deaths in detention of 1,208 individuals.

Christian Science Monitor Covers HRDAG Comments on Human Security Report — January 25, 2010

The Christian Science Monitor has quoted HRDAG director Patrick Ball in a story which examines the recently released Human Security Report. The story, entitled "New Study Argues War Deaths Are Often Overestimated" notes that Ball agrees with the authors of the report who assert that estimates made by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) of deaths due to conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo are flawed.

But in the blog item posted below, HRDAG researchers question the HSR claim that "nationwide mortality rates actually fall during most wars" and that "today's wars rarely kill enough people to reverse the decline in peacetime mortality that has been underway in the developing world for more than 30 years."

Anita Gohdes, Megan Price, and Patrick Ball write that they are deeply skeptical of the methods and data used by the HSR authors to conclude that conflict-related deaths are decreasing. "We believe that the authors should examine their own data on mortality related deaths with the same rigor with which they critique the recent IRC surveys," write the HRDAG researchers. "If they did this, they would find that they have inadequate information to conclude anything about the trend in war-related lethality in recent decades." HRDAG's concerns about the estimates of war deaths by the HSR authors are discussed by noted statistician Andrew Gelman on his blog.

Jeune Afrique Publishes Story on Violations During Habré Regime — January 2010

The news magazine Jeune Afrique has published a story about the analysis of human rights violations which occurred during the regime of form Chadian president Hissène Habré. The story cites the report released by HRDAG showing that Habré knew about the hundreds of deaths that occurred in prisons operated by his state security force, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS). Read more about this report here.

Mother Jones Covers Benetech's Martus Software — January 2010

In a story about ex-patriot Burmese men in Thailand who document human rights violations in Burma, Mother Jones included information about Benetech's Martus secure database software. The story, "For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question," reports that Martus is used by Bumese human rights activists to collect and encypt information about human rights violations in Burma. You can read the entire story here.

Chronicle of Higher Education Features Comments From Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman — January 7, 2010

In a story entitled, "Charity and Business Will Blend in New Ways by 2020," Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman is quoted about the future of nonprofit organizations. "'The for-profit whose job is only to make money or the nonprofit which is a charity, those are two poles. In reality there is an entire spectrum in between them,' says Jim Fruchterman, chief executive of Benetech, a nonprofit technology organization in Palo Alto, Calif. In the next 10 years, he expects changes in federal and state laws to foster the development of L3C's. 'Someone should be able to operate a business and have a social mission without getting sued by shareholders for not making the maximum [amount of] money,' he says."

View entire Articles and Press Coverage Archive.

Recent presentations:

Bookshare.org for Education (B4E) Presentation to OSEP — November 2007

Presentation by Jim Fruchterman and Lisa Friendly to the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education, which awarded Benetech $32 million to provide Bookshare.org to every student with a print disability in the United States.

View presentation here
PowerPoint version

HRDAG Statistician Advisors Speak In Guatemala City &mdash August 7, 2007, Guatemala City, Guatemala

August 7, 2007 — Statisticians Paul Zador and Gary Shapiro, who have provided pro bono technical assistance to Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), gave a presentation today in Guatemala City entitled "The Application of Statistics to Human Rights Violation Research." They were joined by HRDAG statistician Daniel Guzmán who also spoke.

Zador and Shapiro, who are members of the American Statistical Association, have consulted to HRDAG on the scientific sampling method used at the National Police Archive project. The estimated 80 million records in the archive contain critical information about police procedures during Guatemala's 36 years of armed internal conflict that resulted in 200,000 deaths and disappearances. The archive is the largest single cache of documents made available to human rights investigators in Latin America.

The event was hosted by the United Nations Development Program and the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman which is overseeing the archive project.

World Summit on the Information Society — November 15, 2005

Text of remarks by Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, Tunisia. The focus of the speech was on building a global digital library for people with print disabilities.
Read Jim Fruchterman's speech to the World Summit on the Information Society (PDF)

View entire Presentations Archive.

Recent white papers:

Comments on Accessibility of Google Print and Google's Library Project

Google's recent announcement of massive library digitization partnerships has generated a huge amount of interest and angst in the print disabled community, and brought focus on the Google Print program. This short white paper aims to illuminate the issues and set the stage for future discussions with Google. Google has not approved this paper, although we hope they will use it as a tool in advancing accessibility.

Download the article (PDF)

View entire White Papers Archive.