[Blindmath] Students Should Know Their Legal Rights

[Sina Bahram]

I would conversely point out that I've had experience with one of the most well funded DSS offices I, or any colleagues of mine,
have ever heard of, and unfortunately funding them is not always the solution or the only source of the problem.

Take care,
Sina
-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Susan Jolly
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:32 PM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Students Should Know Their Legal Rights

Amanda,

Susan M. is right (and a cyber kiss back at her).  You get to choose your 
desired accessible medium, not anyone else.  The only restriction is that 
you must choose a medium that is generally recognized as an accessible 
medium, not sure of the exact legal terminology.  All that restriction means 
is that you can't use Klingon or something you've invented yourself, not 
that some official decides what's best for you.

Birkir,

Most US colleges and universities, even private ones, get a large amount of 
public funding.  For example, it is typical for them to take 50% off the top 
of  any federal research grant for their own purposes.  And they benefit 
from students' getting loans, and so forth. Plus they get various tax 
breaks.

Meanwhile, most publishers are commercial enterprises.  So that is why the 
government places the legal responsibility on the colleges and universities 
here in the US.  However, US textbook publishers are definitely becoming 
more aware because of their obligations because of the US Department of 
Education's  National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) 
for textbooks.
http://tinyurl.com/6l6xud

I understand your larger point and agree with you that anything we can do to 
make publishers more aware is good but we can't really blame them for 
considering the bottom line.

I also agree that all the DSS people that I know personally or have had some 
contact with are extremely hard-working and well-intentioned.  However, I'd 
think that if students complained to the proper persons, it could help their 
DSS offices to get more funding.

This might be a good place to point out that some DSS offices are between a 
rock and a hard place because if they get known as providing good service, 
their institution may end up getting more students who need their services 
while they don't get a proportional increase in resources.

Susan 


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