Technology

Diagram of ReadHowYouWant.com’s Technology

An Overview of Our Technology

The corporate goals of ReadHowYouWant.com (RHYW) are:

• To make reading easier and more enjoyable by delivering formats that suit the reader
• To allow those with reading disabilities access to books in the format of their choice at an affordable price as soon as the book is published

Involvement of publishers will be essential if fast access to books in accessible formats is to be achieved at affordable prices. Accessible format publishing and disability discrimination compliance must be profitable for publishers, if publishers are to give these formats high priority. RHYW believes that this can be achieved by increasing sales, creating new markets and reducing the costs of accessible format publishing.

Innovative technology to achieve these goals was developed by RHYW. This technology allows us to

• Efficiently mark up a book into XML – complex books containing indexes, footnotes, tables, diagrams and images can be processed
• Edit the document
• Create new editions quickly and at a low cost
• Make an index which will repaginate

Once a book is converted into XML, a large number of formats can be produced quickly at a low cost, which include

• Print
  • High quality print editions can be typeset for simple and complex books
  • Large Print
  • Special formats for print-reading disabilities
  • Custom reader-selected formats
• Audio
  • MP3
  • DAISY
• e-Books – MobiPocket (An Amazon Company) & several formats.
• Braille files ready for embossing

A diagram of our technology is shown on the left, and further information is available about new formats for people with reading disabilities (pages 10-12), DAISY books (page 20) and Braille (pages 21-22).

ReadHowYouWant.com works with Publishers, Educational Departments, AT Departments, and print-disability support organizations to create individual books that fit the individual needs of the reader – see (pages 14-19). Contact us on info@ReadHowYouWant.com for more information.

Everyone Wins with Customized Format Books

The Technology: Up until the late 20th Century, readers had to “make do” with one edition of a title because it was prohibitively expensive to produce more than one format. Not-for-profit organizations with copyright exemptions made Braille and audio books for the print disabled – it was slow, expensive and limited in content.

Publishers can now profitably offer books that have been customized for individual readers, and profitably address both new markets and markets that previously were the domain of not-for-profits as a result of ReadHowYouWant.com’s (RHYW) unique formatting technology, Print on Demand (POD), and electronic versions of books.

Available RHYW Formats: The RHYW formats include: standard print, large print, Braille, DAISY, other audio, various electronic formats, new print formats for people with learning disabilities like dyslexia, and formats to help people read English

We think everyone wins

Readers win: Readers can have books in the format they need, or the format that makes reading more enjoyable for them, at an affordable price and at the time of publication.

Parents, Students and Schools all win: Research into Universal Design for Learning shows that some students will perform better with individually formatted books. If the students get good results, parents’ goals are met and schools have improved test scores.

Publishers and Authors win: They can create profitable new markets for their books and sell more books to more readers. They can sell multiple formats to the same reader for different purposes: e.g. a print version for reading and an electronic version for searching. They can keep their books in print. They can maximize revenues from the Long Tail. Some individually formatted books will command a premium price and they can increase new sales by reducing second hand sales – it is harder to resell used books if they are customized.

Accessible Technology (AT), Education and Not-for-Profits win: Provision of books in AT formats by publishers at an affordable price represents a huge step forward for the constituencies they are designed to serve, and enable them to deploy their scarce resources in more rewarding areas.