[nabs-l] Knowing your Books in Advance

[Robert Spangler]

As far as I know, the CourseSmart site is still inaccessible unless
there have been enhancements of which I am unaware.


On 8/1/10, Jewel S. <herekittykat2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> In contrast, I know of only two of my four books for class. I know
> them because I talked directly to the professors for the classes.
> However, the professor for the third never replied to my inquiries,
> and the fourth is either a new or temporary professor or from another
> university, and so no one knows his/her information. I don't even know
> if the professor is male or female! The others are all female, and I
> do better with female professors, so I hope the fourth is female also.
> Anyway, it's two weeks until school starts and we still don't have the
> book information for two of the classes. The disability office needs
> at least two weeks to scan the books to make them Word documents to be
> accessible and add the alt tags for pictures. So, two of my books
> probably won't be available in accessible format until a week after
> classes start minimum. One is available from RFBD, though, and the
> Spanish book has been scanned up (was scanned by DSS before I even
> knew which book...the professor actually went to DSS and presented
> them with a copy that they could scan before I bought my own
> copy...now that's a nice professor!
>
> So, this new law will be helpful for me so I'm not struggling to get
> my books in time for classes. Thanks for the information!
>
> ~Jewel
>
> On 8/1/10, Anita Adkins <aadkins7 at verizon.net> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> Thanks for the info.  I do happen to know the titles/authors, etc. to most
>> of my textbooks for the upcoming semester.  I have been researching online
>> to see if the books are available in an ebook format, and I discovered
>> that
>> at least one of them is.  My concern is that the book, even if I obtain
>> the
>> online version, will not be accessible to me.  Acording to the website I
>> explored, it claims that books may not be accessible and to contact the
>> publisher, but that it was working toward making the books accessible.
>> Also, it did not mention that the books would be inaccessible to any
>> specific disability group, such as blindness.  I am emailing to see if
>> anyone on this list has experience with ebooks that are textbooks, and if
>> so, were you able to access or obtain JAWS scripts to allow you to access
>> the book.  Thank you.  Just FYI, the link I discovered is:
>> "Find your college textbook at low prices | CourseSmart"
>> http://www.coursesmart.com/search
>> Anita Adkins
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "J.J. Meddaugh" <jj at bestmidi.com>
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2010 7:03 PM
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Knowing your Books in Advance
>>
>>
>>> There's a new law that may help out blind people who want to ensure they
>>> can get their books in an accessible format. This from Consumerist.
>>>
>>> Finding the best textbooks prices just got a whole lot easier now that
>>> colleges are
>>> required to provide students with a list of required textbooks when they
>>> register
>>> for classes. The requirement was mandated back in the 2008 as part of the
>>> Higher
>>> Education Opportunity Act, but only took effect this year.
>>> "
>>> Proponents say the law will give students more time to take advantage of
>>> textbook
>>> buy-back programs, book rentals and prices that are often lower online
>>> than in college
>>> bookstores. They expect it will also force professors to pay more
>>> attention to the
>>> cost of books they assign.
>>> "Until this year, many schools didn't give the book list until the week
>>> before classes,
>>> and you really had no choice but to head to the college bookstore," says
>>> Christine
>>> Frietchen, editor in chief of ConsumerSearch.com.
>>> J.J. Meddaugh - ATGuys.com
>>> A premier Code Factory, KNFB Reader, and Sendero distributor
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>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> ~Jewel
> Check out my blog about accessibility for the blind!
> Treasure Chest for the Blind: http://blindtreasurechest.blogspot.com
>
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-- 
Robert Spangler
The University of Toledo
Student Senator - Administrative Affairs Committee Chair, College of
Arts and Sciences