[Blindmath] Students should know their legal rights!

[Sina Bahram]

Warning, the below might sound harsh, but this is one of my trigger topics.

This is absolutely false. I've been told such complete and utter falsehoods myself, and without getting into specifics, suffice it
to say that this is not only a blatant misrepresentation of the facts, of reality, and of the school's legal obligations, but if
they told you that this is all they are required to do, then it is criminal on their part.

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but I urge you to fight for this particular right, and I will put aside time from my
schedule to talk to you on skype, or phone, or by email, to make sure you know all the facts, if you need me to. I also urge you to
consult such groups as your state's Governor's Advocacy counsel, if there is one.

A line university disability offices like to flaunt is that they only owe you access, not success. This insanity can only come from
those in such offices, as I've never found another individual of sound mind in any institutions of higher education to conceive of
such complete and utter garbage. It really is amazing to me, to this day, that such ignorant and thoroughly low caliber mentality
can persist in the very office whose responsibility it is to help students with disabilities.

As a final note of irony, I'll share with you that my personal experience was that my professors would bend over backward, while
standing on one thumb, while reciting the alphabet backwards, and juggling with their feet: if it meant my success in their class.
There is nothing they would not do after they saw that I was dedicated to learning the material. I'll let you infer from what I've
written what the disabilities office would do in comparison.

Please feel free to email me at any point in time if you need any help in this matter.

By the way, that offer extends to any soul on this list regarding issues such as this.

Take care,
Sina

-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Amanda Lacy
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 7:58 PM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Students should know their legal rights!

Susan,

I was told by the manager of the OSD at my current campus that audio was 
considered accessible and that providing Braille was going above and beyond 
the obligations of that office. Is that false? This discussion involved a 
math textbook. Is it the responsibility of the school or the publisher to 
provide accessible textbooks?

Thanks,
Amanda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Jolly" <easjolly at ix.netcom.com>
To: <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 6:32 PM
Subject: [Blindmath] Students should know their legal rights!


> Birkir,
>
> Thanks for the great feedback; I agree with everything you've written.
>
> As far as your upcoming contact with the NFB students, I hope that someone 
> at the SLAM is knowledgeable about the latest laws.  It is actually 
> illegal for universities and colleges in the United States to not provide 
> accessible materials in a student's desired medium in a timely fashion. 
> Moreover, if a student produces class work in a standard format, such as 
> braille, the university is obligated to pay the costs of converting that 
> format to whatever format is required by the professor.
>
> I can understand an individual student's reluctance to be viewed as a 
> troublemaker but I believe that if a few more braille-using students were 
> willing to actually sue their DSS offices when they don't meet their legal 
> oblications, a lot of the current problems with lack of materials would go 
> away a lot more quickly!
>
> Susan
>
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