[nabs-l] publisher files and question on if school downloads files

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hi all,

Does your school get publisher files for you or scan books for you?
If so, which format? At marymount university, MU, I got files in pdf or word. All throughout college the dss staff downloaded files for me and handed them to me on cd typically or emailed zipped files to me. I did not need to  download files. I also 
used audio texts a lot from RFB or what is now learning ally. I used my school account sometime or my personal account.
Of course, if I did not like the e text or none was available, I used readers too.
With these options, I did fine and was well prepped for college.

I  am now in a disturbing position.
I received the files for the english literature text
They use drop box. When I sought clarification on whether I needed an account and how to download them, the director of disabilities campus wide sent me a rude note. She implies I need to learn more and be prepared for college.

So, my question is, is downloading files a college readiness skill to you? Did you learn to use drop box before college?
Honestly, it never occurred to me to have to learn that.
She is insinuating I need to learn to be prepared for college; even though I have attended for years with the accessible text options described above.

What do you think ? And is her note mean or what?

Oh, and why did the a assistive tech coordinator just write to me one sentence saying sorry I cannot help you. You need to learn this for college. Instead, she goes to her supervisor to have her write.
An exerpt below.

It has come to my attention that you have been requesting our Assistive technology Coordinator for support that goes beyond her responsibilities.  Learning how to use Drop Box, download files, etc, is part of your college ready knowledge. She can request the alternate book for you and send it to the Drop Box for you to download, but she will not be able to tell you how large the file is because each book has a different length and this is controlled by the publisher.  You will need to follow her instructions on how to download and that is all the support you will get.  If the file comes in 37+ files, this is how we receive it from the publisher and we are not allowed to touch it or convert it any other way. So yes, if there are those many files, you will have to download them all if you will be using all the chapters of the book.

I know you are very savvy on using Jaws and that is an excellent asset  for you when accessing online information. I suggest you start also preparing yourself with learning how to use other common tools used in college such as downloading and saving files, transferring files to a flash drive, converting files from one format to another if that is your choice, etc. 

Thanks for your thoughts.

Please know that I’ve downloaded files from other sources like blackboard, email, and NLS and copied files to storage devices too. So I do feel I know what I’m doing generally.

In my next message, I’ll ask about drop box.

Ashley