[nabs-l] Accessible textbook legislation

[T. Joseph Carter]

I think they won't this time.  Four years ago was a difficult time 
for the NFB in Oregon and we were not really a very strong force at 
that time.  We're becoming stronger, and honestly I can make a better 
case for it than other people have in the past:

Simply put, the public higher education system is going to save money 
by the passage of the legislation I intend to propose.  A lot of 
money.  One of the smaller public university probably spends 
$7-10,000 every term producing electronic textbooks of such low 
quality that they are unusable and could/should get them into legal 
trouble under section 504.  One of the larger universities in Oregon 
probably pays far more.

The publishers can spend a few tens of dollars to save the state 
university system many thousands.  Oh, and the quality would be 
vastly improved as well.

Joseph

On Tue, Feb 03, 2009 at 01:23:10PM -0800, Bill wrote:
>I have been told that about 4 years ago oregon tryed to pass legistlation
>similar to this and it was blocked by the publishers.
>Bill
>
>On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 8:57 AM, Robert Spangler
><spangler.robert at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> What is this NIMAS thing that they are using for secondary schools? Can't
>> we work on the ability to use that?
>>
>>
>> Nicole B. Torcolini wrote:
>>
>>> Excuse my language, but that is ridiculous. In my opinion, publishers of
>>> textbooks should be required to provide colleges with an electronic copy of
>>> the book that can be embossed or easily converted into either text or word
>>> for those of us who read our books on our notetakers. At Stanford, I still
>>> have to purchase my books, but the OAE usually either has their own to
>>> destroy or has a file from the publisher. In one case, when the OAE could
>>> not get the book in time, and I had mine before they did, I let them have my
>>> book. However, I have never heard of this .mp3 process.