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

ALBERT ELIA al.elia at aol.com
Mon Jan 5 23:15:16 UTC 2015 

I just graduated from law school in May 2014. I did extremely well, using nothing but publisher-provided pdfs and electronic copies of handouts/slides. I am both totally blind and a screenreader user. I would like to point out that  while we blind students are entitled to equal access to materials in our education, we are not entitled to employment upon earning advanced degrees, and no non-governmental employer is going to provide fully re-formatted word versions of PDF files to a blind employee. My advice is to work with the PDFs, as that's what you're going to have to work with after you graduate.

That said, if you receive a PDF from a publisher that is not accessible ( which has happened from time to time), raise hell and get the accessible version you're entitled to, but I would strongly advise you to try to work with the PDFs before you go asking for an alternative.

As for your earlier question about pre-registering, your school should be able to tell you what section/professors you'll have in advance, even if other students don't find out until registration.

Have you already been accepted into a particular law school, or are you currently considering several schools? You might want to speak with the disability coordinator (or whatever each school calls the person who handles accommodation requests from law students) at each school you're considering to find out what the policies and procedures are for students having accommodations in classrooms, during exams, etc.

Best of luck. Feel free to contact me off-list if you would like to discuss this further: 617.874.6359. 

Æ

On Jan 5, 2015, at 5:13 PM, Michal Nowicki via blindlaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Dear Alex,
> 
> Thank you for this information.  It is exactly the kind of response I was
> hoping to get.
> 
> Michal
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Stephen
> Alexander Marositz via blindlaw
> Sent: Monday, January 5, 2015 4:03 PM
> To: 'Loren Wakefield'; 'Blind Law Mailing List'
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Accessibility of PDF Textbooks Obtained Directly
> from the Publisher
> 
> Hi Michal and All
> 
> I am both a law student and an accessibility service professional (my
> official title is assistive technology specialist) at a public college in
> California who uses a screen-reader.  I was responsible for providing
> materials like textbooks to students in alternative formats for about three
> years.  I have dealt with a lot of publisher files.  Whether or not
> publishers are required to provide electronic files to you directly is, I
> think,   an open question.  Whether or not you can use them depends greatly
> on your needs.  For instance, I would never provide a publisher file to a
> student who is blind and uses a screenreader but I may if the student has
> low vision and reads visually.  It is impossible to rely on publisher files
> exclusively because their accessibility is not consistent.  For instance,
> some have page numbers while some do not or some are divided in to chapters,
> while some are not.  It is important to keep in mind Publisher files are
> generally for printing, they are not tagged with headings, bookmarks, tables
> and the like although most of them these days are OCRed.  
> 
> I hope this helps.
> 
> Alex
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Loren
> Wakefield via blindlaw
> Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 10:26 AM
> To: 'Michal Nowicki'; 'Blind Law Mailing List'
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Accessibility of PDF Textbooks Obtained Directly
> from the Publisher
> 
> I have had good luck with my first year books.  Now granted, I have had to
> learn, sometimes by accident, how to move around.  But so far, things seems
> to be going fairly well.  
> 
> Let me say though that the pdf came from the ada office.  
> 
> Loren Wakefield
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michal
> Nowicki via blindlaw
> Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 12:08 PM
> To: 'Illinois Association of Blind Students List'; 'Blind Law Mailing List'
> Subject: [blindlaw] Accessibility of PDF Textbooks Obtained Directly from
> the Publisher
> 
> 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
> 
> _______________________________________________
> blindlaw mailing list
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindlaw:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/theweird1%40mediacombb
> .net
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> blindlaw mailing list
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindlaw:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/samarositz%40gmail.com
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> blindlaw mailing list
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindlaw:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/mnowicki4%40icloud.com
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> blindlaw mailing list
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindlaw:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/al.elia%40aol.com

More information about the BlindLaw mailing list