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

Tue Jan 6 04:24:45 UTC 2015

I just graduated in May as well.  I went to two law schools, and neither was
able to give me advanced registration as an accommodation.  It was never an
issue, even though I was used to it because I had it all of undergrad. The
main law textbook publishers were always very quick to respond to requests
from the disability offices I worked with, and the pdf's I got were easily
converted using Kurzweil 1000 or the software that is auto-installed in
Windows 8/8.1 which allows accessible pdf's to be opened in Word. Generally,
the pdf's I received were one giant file, but it was no trouble if I created
a KES file after converting the whole book once. I never needed the
disability office to scan anything, as Kurzweil could handle it all. If you
don't personally have Kurzweil, most disability offices do at this point I
believe, and they can run it for you and create a word file very easily. It
does not require much work at all on their part, since it can just run in
the background.

On a side note, I think it counts as a reasonable accommodation to get your
employer to purchase Kurzweil if they will frequently have you working with
low-accessibility documents. Mine did anyway. 

Sy

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of ALBERT ELIA
via blindlaw
Sent: Monday, January 5, 2015 6:15 PM
To: Michal Nowicki; Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Accessibility of PDF Textbooks Obtained Directly
from the Publisher

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
> 
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