Following a successful trial, we are pleased to announce that Webby Books can now be used as audio books.
This means that it is now possible, for example, to listen to a Webby Book while driving. So travel can now become a productive study period!
To take advantage of this new capability, the reader must use the Chrome browser and install the Read Aloud browser extension. Then simply open the Webby Book to the page you want to have read, and click on the Read Aloud icon.
One of the most popular features of Webby Books are the interactive tables and charts. Some of the flowcharts are quite large, and require a special viewer to make them easy to use. Until now, we have used a viewer based on Adobe Flash. But no longer …
We are happy to announce that we have now switched to a viewer that relies solely on HTML5. This means that the charts will automatically work with any browser, even on mobile devices. There will no longer be any need to activate Flash or use a Flash-enabled browser.
Happy New Year to all our readers!
We are proud to be able to celebrate the New Year by announcing that Webby Books are now fully accessible and WAI-ARIA compliant. This means that Webby Books are now compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies.
From the beginning, Webby Books have been designed to be much easier to read than most other e-books or websites. The default fonts and font sizes used in Webby Books were specially chosen for their readability.
We have also always offered the facility for dyslexic users to use instead a special font designed specifically to cater for their needs.
In addition, the color scheme used by Webby Books was chosen partly because it has proven to be useful in helping readers with dyslexia. It also has the benefit for all readers of reducing glare from the screen. This makes it possible to read a Webby Book for long periods without eyestrain or headaches.
We have now, however, been able to add several new options to cater for those with various forms of visual disability including color-blindness.
Readers can now choose, for example, to use a grayscale palette, thus eliminating any issues arising from the need to distinguish different colors. Alternatively — or in addition — readers can opt for a high contrast color scheme which utilizes a dark background.
Another new option for Webby Book readers is the ability to increase or decrease the font size.
While it has always been possible to zoom in or out of a Webby Book page, just as on any other web page, such zooming often has the unfortunate side-effect of compromising the page’s structure. The new ability to adjust the font size leaves the page structure intact, and so the reader now can have the best of both worlds: a well-structured page with a font size optimal for him or her.
The facilities to change the color scheme and the font size can be used on their own or in combination. They also persist throughout the Webby Book, so that there is no need to reset each one for each page.
Webby Books are now fully accessible to those using screen-readers. The Webby Book templates have been completely re-built to ensure that all the appropriate information about what is on screen is conveyed to screen-readers, while irritating and unnecessary repetitions have been eliminated.
The spacebar and the arrows, Enter, and Escape keys now function in accordance with the WAI-ARIA guidelines, so that full use can be made of the FAQs, the table of contents, the glossary, the comments feature, the discussion forum, and the quizzes without the reader getting lost.
Users who prefer to use keyboard controls, rather than a mouse, will also now find that the tabbing function has been refined to work in a more logical way.
This means that, whether a reader is sighted or using screen-reading technology, he or she should always know precisely where s/he is on a page and within the Webby Book more generally.
In addition, visual clues as to where the cursor currently is have been significantly enhanced so as to leave little room for confusion.
As this raft of enhancements demonstrates, we are always looking for ways to improve Webby Books. We have a new title planned for publication in 2017, and are pleased that we have been able to make these changes in good time to be able to implement them for the new book.
If readers have any further suggestions on how we might improve Webby Books, we are always interested in receiving them. Just use the contact form to get in touch.
Happy New Year!
We are pleased to announce several new enhancements to Webby Books:
Thanks to the outstanding work of Brandi Palmer (voiceover) and Stan Arthur (production), we now have a video that takes you through the main features of Webby Books.
The video is in ten short sections, as follows:
We are delighted to announce the publication of the very first Webby Book, Law of Torts.
Written by the founder of webby-books.com, Dr. Tim Kaye, it showcases all the features that make Webby Books such an accessible and effective means of teaching and learning the law.
A full description of Law of Torts can be found hereClick this link to be taken to the relevant page., while an outline of all the features to be found in Webby Books is available on the Features page.
Unlike so may other e-books, Webby Books are not just glorified PDFs, but are designed from the ground up as free-standing websites. This means that they can make use of online technology to an extent that far surpasses anything that law books have provided hitherto.
They contain not just case well-chosen extracts, but also a helpful commentary with references that hyperlink to original sources. They are accompanied by numerous tables, diagrams and charts, which can be enlarged as each user desires without loss of definition.
Students and professors can annotate and highlight Webby Books as they wish. They can even leave and respond to comments next to any passage of text. A forum facilitates broader discussions, where the ability to hyperlink to any paragraph in the Webby Book can also be utilized.
Webby Books are optimized for both mobile and other touch-enabled devices, so they can be used literally wherever a user has an internet connection. The color scheme and fonts have been chosen to minimize eye-strain and to facilitate use by those with dyslexia.
If you are a Law Professor and are interested in adopting Law of Torts as your class text, please contact us using the form provided hereClick this link to be taken to the relevant page., and we will arrange for you to have access to a copy of the Webby Book so that you can peruse it to see if it would be a good fit for you.
If you decide that you would like to adopt the Webby Book, please use the same form to let us know. We can set this up very quickly, and require only a bare minimum of details from you.
If you are a law student and would like to use Law of Torts for your studies, please ask your professor if he or she will consider adopting the Webby Book as the class text. We can offer a significant price discount to students in such cases.
You can, of course, still subscribe to a copy of Law of Torts even if it is not adopted as your class text. Just sign up hereClick this link to be taken to the relevant page., choosing either the 5 Months’ or the 12 Months’ subscription.
