Document recognition advances have improved the lives of people with print disabilities, by providing accessible
documents. This invited paper provides perspectives on the author's career progression from document recognition
professional to social entrepreneur applying this technology to help people with disabilities. Starting with initial
thoughts about optical character recognition in college, it continues with the creation of accurate omnifont character
recognition that did not require training. It was difficult to make a reading machine for the blind in a commercial setting,
which led to the creation of a nonprofit social enterprise to deliver these devices around the world. This network of
people with disabilities scanning books drove the creation of Bookshare.org, an online library of scanned books.
Looking forward, the needs for improved document recognition technology to further lower the barriers to reading are
discussed. Document recognition professionals should be proud of the positive impact their work has had on some of
society's most disadvantaged communities.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.