[blindlaw] Textbooks for disabled, Particularly College Students

Mon Sep 7 19:23:15 UTC 2009

William:

I don't believe Chuck was objecting to obtaining of electronic texts. 
What he objected to was who did the obtaining.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "WB" <mruniverse08 at gmail.com>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List'" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 10:59 AM
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Textbooks for disabled, Particularly College 
Students

I can see your point to an extent, Chuck.  While I agree for the need to
lead an independent life through education into the workforce, the fact 
of
the matter is that we are in a different time.  So many things are
electronically based, whether it be for the disabled or not.  As we all 
know
in the legal field, in the past few years there has been a considerable 
push
to go paperless in the court system and firms.

I don't believe that making this service available will necessarily make 
an
individual less independent.  I think this service is catching up to the 
way
society as a whole has gone...electronic.  When I studied to become a
paralegal, I learned to shepherdize with books.  That is now really 
almost
non-existent.  I'm thankful for being able to do that electronically now
because of my loss of sight.

Sometimes I think I may think a bit differently than those who have had
vision impairments for most of their lives because I still view things
predominately from a sighted person's perspective.

But where you are correct is that individuals, disabled or not, should 
be
able to also use the old way in case the electronic way is unavailable.
But, as we know, we all adapt to what is necessary.

It was great reading your comments on this.

William

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
On
Behalf Of ckrugman at sbcglobal.net
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 12:43 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Textbooks for disabled, Particularly College
Students

While this sounds good on the surface a drawback to this is that 
disabled
students are losing their choices to be independent by having to 
register as

being disabled and allowing the college to assume responsibility for
producing and locating textbooks. I realize I'm dating myself here but I
learned many valuable skills by having to procure and arrangement for 
use of

text materials in an available format. These skills included the 
supervision

of personnel (readers) a valuable skill transferable to the real work of
employment where supervision of staff is necessary, procuring materials 
in a

timely manner a transferable skill of meeting deadlines and insuring 
that
materials would be available. and an ability to be self-reliant learning 
to
find and create available resources and development of increased problem
solving skills. Unfortunately, too many disabled students blind or 
otherwise

lack these skills today and as a result are ill equipped to adequately
compete in the real world of employment when programs such disabled 
services

do not exist in the real world. In many cases the development and use of
such systems prevent students from addressing individual needs with 
faculty
members as they would have to do when they are on their own in an 
employment

setting.
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
To: <david.andrews at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 7:42 PM
Subject: [blindlaw] Textbooks for disabled, Particularly College 
Students

>
>>
>>
>> From
>>
<http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/28/access>http://www.insidehighe
red.com/news/2009/08/28/access
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Textbooks for the Disabled
>>
>>
>>
>>August 28, 2009
>>
>>The Association of American Publishers and the University of Georgia 
>>this
>>week unveiled an electronic database aimed at making it easier for 
>>blind,
>>dyslexic and otherwise impaired college students to get specialized
>>textbooks in time for classes.
>>
>>The database, called <http://www.accesstext.org/>AccessText, is 
>>designed
>>to centralize the process by which electronic versions of textbooks 
>>are
>>requested by colleges and supplied by publishers. Experts say it will
>>allow disabled students to get their textbooks more efficiently, help
>>colleges save money and avoid lawsuits, and protect publishers'
>>copyrights.
>>
>>For students whose disabilities prevent them from using traditional 
>>texts,

>>the normally straightforward task of acquiring books for their courses 
>>can

>>be tedious and frustrating. Federal law requires that colleges and
>>universities provide disabled students equal access to educational
>>materials, but this is often easier said than done. College officials 
>>have

>>to track down and contact the publisher of every textbook that each of 
>>its

>>disabled students buys and request an electronic copy. If such a copy
>>exists -- the likelihood shrinks the older the book and the smaller 
>>the
>>publisher -- college officials still have to convert the file to a 
>>format
>>that can be read by whatever reading aid the student uses. If not, the
>>college has to wait, sometimes weeks, to obtain permission to scan the
>>book and create its own electronic version.
>>
>>Once a college has an electronic copy, converting to a readable format 
>>can

>>be another complex process, says Sean Keegan, associate director of
>>assistive technology at Stanford University. Math and science texts 
>>often
>>arrive as scanned pages, and cannot always be easily read by the
>>character-recognition software the university uses to turn them into
>>standard electronic files, Keegan says. "That can take a longer amount 
>>of
>>time to process that material internally and turn it around and give 
>>that
>>to the student efficiently," he says.
>>
>>Meanwhile, delays in the process can make it impossible for disabled
>>students to prepare for and participate in classes. "Students need to 
>>have

>>a book in time so they can do the assigned reading and study for tests 
>>and

>>papers," says Gaeir Dietrich, interim director of high-tech training 
>>for
>>the California Community Colleges system. "So if the book doesn't come
>>until the term has been in session for three or four weeks, that puts 
>>that

>>student very far behind." Some students have sued colleges over such
>>delays, she says.
>>
>>AccessText aims to mitigate these woes by streamlining the request and
>>delivery process, says Ed McCoyd, executive director for accessibility
>>affairs at AAP.
>>
>>"There's a lot of transactional friction taking place currently," says
>>McCoyd. "What AccessText is trying to do is take some of that out of 
>>the
>>transaction by having parties agree to streamlined rules up front."
>>
>>Having colleges submit requests using the AccessText portal should
>>eliminate the need for the publishers to require endless paperwork 
>>with
>>each request to protect its copyrights, McCoyd says. Under the system, 
>>the

>>copyright protection agreements can be handled once, during 
>>registration,
>>and the requester's bona fides can be verified by a log-in.
>>
>>Currently, colleges that get tired of waiting for publishers to 
>>process
>>the paperwork and procure an electronic copy of a text sometimes just 
>>scan

>>a text themselves to try to satisfy the needs of disabled students in 
>>a
>>timely fashion, says Dietrich.
>>
>>AccessText is also set up to eliminate the need for different colleges 
>>to
>>convert the same text to a readable format once it is acquired. 
>>Currently
>>"numerous schools could be doing the exact same thing, converting the 
>>same

>>text," says Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education 
>>at
>>the publishers' association. Under the new system, "if one school has
>>already spent the time and the money to convert a file to a format, 
>>they
>>could advise the AccessText network, which could then make the info
>>available that it was still available in that format, and that school
>>could share it with another school" -- thereby sparing those colleges 
>>the
>>time and resources it would have used to convert the file themselves, 
>>he
>>says.
>>
>>Eight major publishing houses paid a total of just under $1 million to
>>develop the AccessText network and maintain it through its beta phase,
>>which will end next July. From then on, it will sustain itself by 
>>billing
>>member colleges between $375 and $500 annually, depending on size.
>>
>>Dietrich notes that community colleges might not benefit from the
>>AccessText network as much as other institutions, since "we have a lot
>>more vocational classes and basic-skills classes, and a lot of those 
>>books

>>don't come through those big publishers, they come through specialized
>>publishers," she says. "It doesn't solve that part of the problem for 
>>us."
>>
>>The network includes 92 percent of all college textbook publishers and 
>>is
>>recruiting even more, according to AAP officials.
>
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