[blindlaw] Accessibility of PDF Textbooks Obtained Directly from the Publisher

[Michal Nowicki]

Dear Current Students and Recent Graduates,

 

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and that you are ready for
2015.

 

I am addressing this message to you directly, though I welcome responses
from everyone who is willing and able to provide them, because I know that
you can give me the most accurate information.  I'm sure many of you know
that publishers are required to provide students with print disabilities
textbooks in alternate format if the students provide proof of purchase.
This obviously applies to books that are not readily accessible online or
through a library service like LearningAlly and/or Bookshare.org, in which
case members may download them without even contacting the publisher.  To
satisfy this requirement, most, if not all, publishers offer such materials
in PDF format.

 

That being established, I would greatly appreciate it if you could give me
some information as to the navigability of these documents with JAWS and
other screen readers.  Since publishers offer this service as an ADA
accommodation, I would expect, at least in theory, them to be fully
accessible.  That is, I would expect them to be tagged, as well as for
headings and other HTML elements to be used properly.  However, is this
actually the case?  If not, are the files accessible enough that you
recommend using them in an academic environment, such as law school?  Also,
do all publishers seem to follow the same accessibility standards?

 

I am asking you all these questions because as an undergrad, I received all
materials from the office for students with disabilities in Word format.
That is, when the office received PDFs from publishers, they always
converted them into Word files for me.  Consequently, I never even saw the
publisher PDFs, so I don't know anything about their accessibility.  Looking
ahead to law school, though, I would like to spare document conversion staff
the extra work if it turns out that publisher PDFs can be navigated
efficiently using assistive technology.

 

Finally, I have some questions specific to law school case books.  Based on
the research I have conducted, my understanding is that entering law
students are often not assigned to instructors until the semester is about
to begin.  Is this true?  If so, can such students be granted priority
registration as a reasonable accommodation?  If not, what steps can they
take to insure that the disability office has enough time, if applicable, to
scan their textbooks before classes begin?  Finally, how responsive do
publishers of law school case books tend to be when they receive a request
for electronic copies of the books?

 

Thank you in advance for answering my questions.  I eagerly look forward to
reading your responses.

 

Best,

 

Michal