Giving Thanks, Looking Ahead: An Open Letter to the Bookshare Community

Thank you to our thriving Bookshare community for everything you have done to to enable us to accomplish together tremendous achievements over the past year. As we look forward to 2015, we know that much work remains to be done. This giving season, you may be receiving communications from our team with an appeal for financially supporting Bookshare. Please take a look and give whatever you can to allow us to continue these efforts and do even more, for more people. Thank you in advance for your support.

Improving Education for All Students with 3D Printing

We are delighted to share that the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded Benetech a 2014 Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant to explore new ways in which 3D printing technology in libraries and museums can be used to improve learning and accessibility in a range of educational contexts.

Fair Use Victory Advances a Future of Accessibility for All

Two days ago, on Tuesday, June 10, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York made a major ruling that emphasizes the legality of fair use for book digitization. In Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, a unanimous three-judge panel concluded that digitizing books in order to enhance research and provide access to individuals with print disabilities is lawful on the grounds of fair use (Section 107 of the U.S. copyright law). This is an immense victory for fair use as the basis of a balanced intellectual property system, and we, at Benetech, are delighted by it and by its tremendous positive implications for the public interest.

Towards Accessible Online Content for All: Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2014

Today, May 15 is Global Accessibility Awareness Day—a day intended to get people talking, thinking, and learning about digital accessibility for people with disabilities. This is an opportunity to share what Benetech’s DIAGRAM Center is doing to ensure that digital content is accessible to all. The DIAGRAM Center is working at the frontier of accessible publishing and online content by making it easier, faster, and cheaper to create and use accessible digital images. One of the many emerging technologies we are researching is 3D printing for accessible educational materials.