[nabs-l] Publishers and EPub problems

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi all,

I recently posted about an Epub file textbook that I am using.  While
this is a separate issue, it is dealing with the same publishing
company.

A publisher for a lot of my textbooks is moving away from selling
print editions of their books, and instead is moving towards selling
the Ebook versions from their web site.  I'm in a situation now where
a textbook I need for one of my classes is very big and very
expensive.  In order to save the class money and from having to cary
the book around, the professor is letting everyone access the book
electronically through the university's library database, which of
course is not accessible to me with NVDA or JAWS.

I've been battling the library for the past 2 years because this
obviously hinders my ability to research, but they say it's
E-learning's job to make the databases accessible, E-learning says
their focus is on our sakai site and they have nothing to do with the
library stuff, and disability services has known about it from day one
but hasn't backed me up or applied pressure on either department to
fix itso that's obviously a huge problem.  In any case, the real issue
is that supposedly the publisher does not have a publisher file like
they would for a print textbook that they can send to my disability
services office.

I did submit an alternative format request to the disability services
office so they could make me a copy of the book.  When they found out
the publisher supposedly had no file to give them (apparently they say
they can't get the Ebook and convert it) they said we'd have to go on
through the library database and get the book from there.  The problem
with this is that only 60 pages can be coppied at a time, which is
severely delaying this process.  The disability services office also
appears to be understaffed this semester, so I've been receiving
things behind my syllabus schedule.  When I drop off documents in hard
copy they take upwards of four or five business days to be done
instead of hours like they were before, and when I call to say, "I
dropped off this or sent in a request for pages 1-25 in my textbook
from the library database a few days ago and my class is tomorrow
afternoon," I'm just told that they'll hopefully get to my conversion
soon.  It is now the middle of September and I'm going to classes
without having read required material because I don't have it.  My
professors are starting to become less understanding, and I don't want
them to see the lack of preparation as something I caused for myself
rather than an issue with getting the materials I need.

There are several problems with this, but specifically with the
textbook I don't know what to do.  I am tempted to buy the Ebook and
just take care of it myself, but it is very expensive and may/may not
work with my technology depending on how it is set up, as it was
explained to me in my other thread.  The other issue is that none of
my classmates have needed to pay for their book since they can just go
online.  Of course this would not be a problem if the library would
listen and make their database and web site accessible, but it also
would not be a problem if the publisher would give the DS office some
kind of file.  I thought they were legally bound to do that?

I guess I'm at a loss for what to do.  This is a high 300 level
theories seminar-style course and I need to have my readings to
actively participate.  I've told the ds office at this point to just
scan documents and run the pdfs through robobraille and send them to
me without significant editing just so I have the materials.  I feel
like I'm advocating with them to get my stuff done but I'm not being
successful, the library has not been successful either as everyone
seems to be passing the buck and DS hasn't backed me up even though
they are aware of the issue and have been since I brought it to their
attention 2 years ago, and I feel like I want to try to contact the
publisher, but doubt hearing from a student rather than the disability
professional will do anything.  I guess I'm just frustrated and at a
loss as to where I should go from here to get my materials in a timely
manner so I can do my work.

-- 
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton-Music Therapy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students 2013-Present
Secretary, The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts
Division 2015-2016

"You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back!"