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

Michal Nowicki mnowicki4 at icloud.com
Fri Jan 9 19:26:28 UTC 2015


Dear all,

I wanted to apologize to all of you for posting potentially misleading
information to this mailing list.  Some time ago, I heard from a counselor
that publishers are required to provide accessible copies of the textbooks
they publish, but I never verified the accuracy of this information.
Instead, I prematurely assumed it to be true.  I didn't mean to cause any
confusion, and I hope that someone on this list can definitively clarify
this issue by citing relevant legislation.

Cordially,

Michal

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Shannon via
blindlaw
Sent: Friday, January 9, 2015 1:14 PM
To: 'Anita Keith-Foust'; 'Blind Law Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Accessibility of PDF Textbooks Obtained Directly
from the Publisher

So is it the publishers that are legally required to provide or the schools?
Please provide the regulation or statute imposing this requirement.

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Anita
Keith-Foust via blindlaw
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2015 1:09 PM
To: 'Michal Nowicki'; 'Blind Law Mailing List'; 'Illinois Association of
Blind Students List'
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Accessibility of PDF Textbooks Obtained Directly
from the Publisher

Dear Michal:

You have really revealed a lot of great information about the publishers
responsibilities. I had no clue about this. My poor butchered books! I will
look into this. 

My experience has been extremely negative when it comes to getting textbook
information in advance. As you know, I am working towards to making that
change at my alma mater.

All of your questions are really good and the answers to these research
questions certainly will help all of us.

Thank you.

Anita Keith-Foust
919-430-1978

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michal
Nowicki via blindlaw
Sent: Monday, January 5, 2015 1:08 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/anitakeithfoust%40gmai
l.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/sbg%40sbgaal.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





More information about the BlindLaw mailing list