[nabs-l] Publishers and EPub problems

Mon Sep 14 23:11:34 UTC 2015

That's right. We are too peaceful and quiet about our activities; lots of 
media coverage about minority discrimination, but when is the last time you 
read of a case about a blind person seeking opportunity and being denied or 
another disabled person?
I've not read much coverage despite all the advocacy going on amongst 
various disability groups and civil rights groups who also do disability 
rights work.

I also think progress for equality in the virtual environment is painfully 
slow due to the fact we are a minority and the fact that web content 
accessibility guidelines are voluntary. In other words, if a vendor puts out 
inaccessible content or software, there is little legal action one can take 
against them.

I do hope things get better for the next generation of students.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: wmodnl wmodnl via nabs-l
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2015 4:21 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Cc: wmodnl wmodnl
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Publishers and EPub problems

We as a population of the blind are not militant enough. This is why these 
problems keep happening. We are to peaceful and it has to stop. We have to 
much divide amongst us, EG: NFB, ACB, etc.  We need an Al Sharpton type of 
person behind us for us to really start to achieve a measure of equality in 
our Society.

Sent from my iPad

> On Sep 12, 2015, at 1:05 AM, STOMBERG, KENNEDY via nabs-l 
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Kaiti, I feel your pain! I'm having similar trouble with an online
> textbook. I don't know what advice I can give you. Are you friends with
> anyone in the class? Maybe you could get notes from them in exchange for
> something you could do for them? Or could your Disabbility Services Office
> hire a reader for you? That looks like what I will have to do for my 
> class,
> where I'm having the same problem. I know this is frustrating, but based 
> on
> other e-mails I have seen from you, you are ambitious and your professors
> should feel lucky to have you in class, not frustrated by something that 
> is
> out of zr control. Try to keep your head up, and keep moving forward!
> You'll get through it!
>
> On Fri, Sep 11, 2015 at 11:27 AM, Kaiti Shelton via nabs-l <
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>> 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!"
>>
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