The History of Swansea University Transcription Centre Part II

By Alison Sandy and Naomi Steele

Part I

• The Legal Environment
• Technology Developments
• Recording Texts
• Figures and Bibliography

The Legal Environment

Swansea University celebrates its centenary in the same year as the 25th anniversary of the UK Disability Discrimination Act and the 10th anniversary of the Equality Act. The Transcription Centre operates now in a legal environment which allows enhanced provision of educational equality for print-disabled students.

The passing of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 was an important milestone to help print-disabled students. Copying and reproducing complete texts is permitted for print-disabled students under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 section 31b[31]. The SUTC will provide texts once the student has signed the Copyright Agreement to confirm it is solely for their use during the course of their studies.

Equally important was the passing of the Equality Act 2010, which defined disability in these words:

“You’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.”[32]

In June 2016, the Marrakesh Treaty came into force, having been ratified by twenty countries. The European Union directed all member states to implement the Marrakesh Treaty into law by 11 October 2018, and it was transposed into UK law on this date. The Copyright and Related Rights (Marrakesh Treaty etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 established a set of limitations and exceptions to traditional copyright law[33]. This made the production and international transfer of specially-adapted books for people who are visually impaired easier. This means that even if an ‘accessible’ e-book version is available, an authorized body (such as Swansea University as an educational establishment) is allowed to create a new accessible copy that meets the actual needs of students.

Technology Developments

The service which supports VI students at Swansea University has evolved to take advantage of developments in hardware, audio technology and computer software. Some facilities used were on-site, or in other universities, external organisations, and the publishing industry. There was, and still is, an element of collaboration and joint benefit between the University and external bodies in many of these links.

As time went by, more technology became available to use and the University College of Swansea showed its commitment to widening access and providing equality of opportunity by opening the Recording Centre for the Blind in October 1995[34]. This had an immediate impact, as revealed in a comment by a Swansea University student in the local newspaper:

“The university's Recording Centre for the Blind has had an enormous impact on her studies. The only one of its kind at a British university, it features three soundproof booths in which volunteers tape record written material for blind students. "It has been a lifesaver," Lucy enthused. “It wasn't open in my first year, and I got the bare minimum of reading done….and now I'm able to read round the subject. I don't think I would be able to get my degree if it wasn't for the centre. I'm ever so grateful to the volunteers.”[35]

At this time there were about 100 dyslexic students, 12 visually impaired students, 6 deaf students and 4 students who used wheelchairs[36]. This description includes features which are still true of the SUTC (as it is now known) in the present day. The strong two-way links with the RNIB, adapting the processes to include new technology, and the growing range of subjects studied by the supported students, required flexibility and adaptability from the Transcription Centre staff and the volunteer readers.

Students have different requirements, depending on the nature and severity of their print disabilities. The history of hardware for computers and IT generally has been that hardware becomes miniaturised and processing power grows. A similar theme is true of transcribed output – more output in a smaller volume produced in a quicker turnover.

In the early days of transcription services for the print-disabled students, the output produced for students consisted of either tape cassette recordings of texts read aloud by the readers, or Braille printouts. The process of editing tape cassettes was laborious, involving scissors and sticky tape! Books required many cassettes to record a complete text because of the limited length of tapes, and there is still an extensive collection of audio cassettes stored in the SUTC, although it is rarely accessed now.

Perkins braillers were available for students to borrow, and are still used by students and staff. Students can use the braillers for their exams and within the Transcription Centre they are mainly used to produce labels in Braille.

Braille printouts produced on the Braille embosser require many volumes to produce one published text, and are sent to students by post in large boxes!

In 1995, the introduction of Dolphin software was a significant advance in complexity for the transcription team, and user-friendliness for the students. The team still use Dolphin software, which creates recordings saved as DAISY [Digital Accessible Information System] files on CDs, with a structure which allows navigation at different levels.

This interview with a VI student, in the article about the official opening of the Centre, highlights the additional work required to study: “Accompanied by her guide dog, she attends lectures and takes notes on a braille keyboard but she recognises that she has to work harder and longer than her sighted friends.”[37] In 1995, before the advent of DAISY recordings, the student had commented “Just writing up lectures takes about eight hours a week and, when following texts on tape, it sometimes takes an hour to find the material I want, before starting to work on it."[38]

By contrast, students using a DAISY Victor Reader can navigate through a text by chapter headings, or even by subsections or sentences, following the structure laid down in the original HTML file. Usually a complete book would require just one CD containing up to 15 hours of reading, though some books need two or more CDs. With the option to hear the reading speeded up by 200% or more, this represented a big advance in efficiency to give VI students greater equality with sighted students.

Continuing the University-wide emphasis on equality of opportunity for VI students, text to speech software programs became part of the normal suite of programs offered on the Swansea University Unified Desktop Accessibility option. The Transcription team had also been offering students the use of screen-reader software such as JAWS for some years.

Recording Texts

Texts are still recorded at the present day, although not in quantities which require the rota of volunteer readers. In the past, the Centre had recorded the Swansea University prospectuses which were accessible through the University website. As recording texts takes several weeks, the texts recorded now are usually items with a longer lead-time. As part of the Centenary celebrations the team has recorded audio versions of the Swansea University Centenary essays.

Recording texts by reading aloud was the only option for many years, and was labour-intensive. Volunteer readers offered their services or were recruited by word of mouth, from groups such as retired academics or students. Some were academic staff who could bring specialist expertise and understanding to reading subject texts, which could help to bring out the meaning. Over the years volunteers formed an invaluable body of expertise in reading and recording texts, able to deal with obscure and lengthy medical and technical vocabulary, or clearly and correctly pronounce texts written in different languages. More obscure skills and preferences emerged and there were some readers who particularly enjoyed creating comprehensible and meaningful descriptions of data presented in graphs, tables or diagrams.

One of the more difficult areas to get right is reading the Index, particularly when this is lengthy and contains words or names in multiple languages, which have to be spelled out letter by letter. Rules set out in the RNIB guide cover the practical issues when recording, such as:

Equations and formulae:

If there are many of these the book will be read by a specialist reader.

Numbers:

…when reading numbers. Read “183” as “one hundred and eighty three. Please do not cough or sneeze on the tape! Press the pause button first. Also try not to shuffle on your seat or cause rustling noises…

Read in your normal tone of voice …Try to resist the temptation to be over-dramatic in your reading…. Concentrate on making sense of the text…Try to turn the pages as quietly as possible…

 

Readers often comment if they have particularly enjoyed reading a text, or not! It is surprisingly difficult to read for a length of time and ensure clarity and accuracy, so readers’ sessions are only for one hour at a time – after that, reading accuracy (and voices) tend to decline. The completed texts can take several weeks to be finalised, as finishing a recording is then followed by another few weeks for Transcription Centre staff to edit the recording. They check the recording word by word to remove mispronunciations, coughs and sneezes, add missing page numbers, and ensure that no text has been omitted or repeated. Each text will include a statement to say the length of time of the recording, and that it was produced by Swansea University Transcription Centre. When a recorded book has been completed and checked, the recording is burned to a disk and then sent to the RNIB to be added to their national library of recordings.

Working With Other Agencies

The earliest provision for VI students at Swansea University was in conjunction with Sussex Tapes library, and this set the pattern for collaborative working with external agencies. Swansea University has turned to the RNIB for advice and expertise in provision of facilities. HEFCW (Higher Education Funding Council for Wales) and RNIB assisted with funding the Recording Centre for the Blind, and RNIB loaned recording equipment, and advised on the installation of the studios.

The RNIB continues to provide expert advice and training as transcription software evolves. In 2017, the RNIB came to the centre for a training day with the team which covered the launch of their RNIB Bookshare service, which replaced Load2Learn, and also included an introduction to Calibre software used to convert files to formats which were becoming increasingly popular, such as converting PDFs to e-books.[39]

The Transcription Centre team also share information and advice with JISC, the UK’s digital agency for lifelong learning and research, colleagues across the sector via Twitter and various mailing lists, and are active members of UKAAF (UK Association for Accessible Formats)[40]. When possible, members of the team have attended the UKAAF AGM conference in London, to network and learn more about accessibility issues and best practice.

The Transcription Centre team follow the RNIB standards to produce recorded books which benefit Swansea University students and meet RNIB standards for inclusion in the RNIB Talking Books library. Transcription of scanned texts to formats which are accessible to students are produced following UKAAF’s standards for accessible texts, and Martina Webber, as the Transcription Centre Manager, has been actively promoting awareness and use of accessible formats among teaching staff at Swansea University.

Working With Other Education Institutions

Transition to higher education is a key area of focus for the University and since the 1950s the links with Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) in Hereford, and New College Worcester, have flourished. Visits to the RNC have become annual events, so that students can learn more about University life and in particular find out what Swansea University provides for VI students.

In 2002, the University was working on widening access, with special provision for visually impaired students, which included working with RNC to develop a Humanities Access course:

“The College has adopted a strategy which attracts and welcomes non-traditional students from a wide range of groups normally under-represented in the higher education system.”

This work has continued and in 2013 the RNIB published an article entitled, ‘“The best team in the country” for supporting visually-impaired students’. The strong links between the RNIB and the SUTC were highlighted when the SUTC ran an event to inform school and college students about the process of transition to University. This was attended by current and former students who could share their experiences. Mike and Carly both did their degrees at Swansea University, and made use of the services provided by the Transcription Centre. Mike said: "The Swansea team is the best in the country – I’d send huge lists of reading through and they’d manage to get it all back to me." Carly added: "If it wasn’t for the Transcription Centre team we wouldn’t have our degrees."

The support available to print-impaired students, from transcription services, to advice from RNIB Cymru experts on employment, was the focus of the event for students. Nicola Crews, Head of Education and Employment Services for RNIB Cymru, said:

"A survey by RNIB showed 90% of employers found it difficult to employ visually-impaired people. Working closely with the Swansea team, we give students help to improve their confidence and their CVs."

Sarah Jones, Transcription Centre Manager at the time of the transition event, said:

"The event was intended to highlight the extra support we can provide to students. Our team here can support people in their studies, but through our link with RNIB Cymru we can also give them access to specialist advice to boost their employment prospects. We’d strongly encourage anyone with a print impairment who is thinking of studying at Swansea to get in touch with us. We’re here to help!"

In 2018, the Transcription Centre arranged for students who were in their final year at RNC to visit Swansea University, for a well-attended transitions event where Swansea University lecturers, Assessment Centre staff, Disability Office staff and others addressed the students and were able to give a flavour of what it would be like to study at Swansea University. Attendees included a very well-behaved guide dog who was taken out to stretch its legs in a specially provided dog-walking area.

In addition to this, Swansea University students undertaking a year abroad as part of their degree continue to be able to access the support of the SUTC, as was the case during the 2019–20 academic year when one of our VI students did a year abroad at the University of Maryland in the USA.

In recent years the Centre has taken on projects such as producing Braille and electronic, accessible versions of the prospectuses for Oxford University. Students from other Universities have also benefitted from the services of SUTC; Transcription Centre staff liaise with Disability departments at other institutions, and provide transcribed materials, and PDF versions of textbooks. In at least one case, the student has attributed their First Class Honours Degree to the support of the SUTC, without which they would not have been able to easily access books: “I have finally finished my degree and wanted to thank you for your help over many many years…I could not have done so well without Swansea’s services and recommend you wherever I go."[45] In another case, the SUTC was mentioned in the acknowledgement for a Master’s dissertation!

Present Day

Provision in the present day has widened to cover print-disabled students, with SPLDs such as dyslexia and dyspraxia, and other medical conditions where prolonged use of printed texts may cause problems. As the range of subjects offered grows, the volume of texts processed by the Transcription Centre has grown and the skill set required has altered.

The transcription service takes a student-centred approach, based on meeting each student’s needs for a type of output which suits their current print disability, and sometimes specific learning situations – e.g. for field trips, provision has included scanned and enlarged maps and field guides, printed on A3 paper and laminated. Provision changes as eyesight and conditions change, and the team keeps in regular contact with each student to check what their needs are, or whether their current provision needs to be modified. Different formats suit different students, so the team’s output may be large print (up to at least 36-pitch so far), PDFs which can be displayed magnified to suit the student or read aloud by screen-reader software, print-outs on different coloured paper, audio books, or Braille. The team has produced tactile diagrams, maps of the University campuses and enlarged tactile braille signage. As special commissions, there was the memorable Braille Christmas card, and the Gruffalo congratulations card!

The team can now provide books for students with increased rapidity, provided the University holds the title in the library. This can be done by requesting PDFs of titles from publishers or the increasingly large range of titles held by the RNIB Bookshare library. As facilities to produce PDF versions continue to develop, the team is in a constant process of refining and improving their PDF output with the use of high-quality scanners and scanning software. They have learned how to make PDFs searchable, and navigable with the use of bookmarks and dynamic links, following developments in optical character recognition (OCR) software, and PDF editing software. Team members now regularly upload edited PDF files produced from scanned books to the RNIB Bookshare website.

The ethos of supporting students to be given equality of opportunity at University has now extended to SUTC team members researching accessible travel information apps, large-print bus timetables, accessible campus maps and even producing large-print menus and price lists for the different catering outlets.

The Transcription Centre has recently been featured in the Times Higher Education, with Martina Webber, as the Transcription Centre Manager, commenting on the implications for Universities of providing for VI students. Tina Webber said that the biggest challenge was adapting the service to disciplines that, without recent technological developments, would have been near-impossible for partially sighted people to study.

“We’re supporting students who are doing theoretical physics or engineering, some of which are still taught in a very traditional way – physics, for instance, where formulae would be developed on a blackboard,” Ms Webber said. But, she added, some departments and universities still do not consider the implications of taking on a visually impaired student, and the way that courses – and, for example, field trips, computer programs and laboratory experiments – may have to be adapted.[46]

Even more recently, we were mentioned on the BBC Radio 4 In Touch programme, when one of our Swansea graduates said “...the Swansea University Modern Languages team, they've supported me throughout this time, especially the Transcription Centre ... they've adapted materials into the correct format. It's all worked out very well.”[47]

Swansea University has a strong presence in the Twitter-scape. The SUTC now has its own increasing Twitter identity, with Tweets reaching a growing number of followers, and receiving international responses from followers and organisations in other countries including Microsoft.

The number of students requiring our specialised services continues to rise, and so does the volume of accessible text produced for them.

Production Figures for 2017–9

Production across a variety of formats continued to rise over a variety of formats, as the chart for 2017–18 illustrates:

The figures for 2019 (table below) provide a snapshot of the activity of the Transcription Centre – it is worth noting that they do not give a fair representation of demand or output but rather of formats required by the particular student cohort of that year. It is also not possible to clearly reflect the fact that some formats are more time consuming to produce than others.

The most recent annual figures show we have catered for students’ needs during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The provision of, and demand for, the services of the SUTC have kept evolving, with changes even as this history was being produced. Within the unique circumstances of 2020, we have had to develop new ways of working to help all our students.

The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown have required fundamental changes in the way we support our students. New channels of online communication such as Zoom and Teams have been invaluable, enabling us all to coordinate and share work and information, to be sure that all requestsand required output can be handled promptly. Teaching delivered online, and blended delivery of modules, have increased the need for some students to have access to printed resources. During this time, the Transcription Centre team took into account the time needed for printouts to be delivered by post, and prepared documents to meet this earlier deadline.

The ‘new normal’ will bring further unpredictable challenges over the coming academic years, with changed ways of delivering teaching, and new students with individual requirements. The SUTC will continue levelling up the playing field for them all.

References