[nabs-l] Question about Readers

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi Vejas,

Based on my university disability services experiences thus far, here
is what I think.  You should be able to request the book in a format
that is accessible to you.  If they only are offering you PDFs which,
let's face it, aren't the most accessible thing out there, they should
at least offer you the option of getting your books in word or plain
text format.  My university allows students to choose between these
three formats for print materials, with the recommendation being that
PDF documents be used by students with learning disabilities since
they preserve the format the best, and that screenreader users use
either word or plain text.  If they give you a book in a format that
isn't working due to accessibility problems for you, you should be
able to ask them to change it so it is accessible.  In any case, they
should be proofreading the materials.  I don't personally mind a typo
here or there, but if there are tons of typos I do ask the disability
services to review the book and make corrections.  If they are
hurrying through it to get the book done quickly you can also ask them
to just give you the first few chapters so they can focus on doing
those well, then work on later chapters ahead of time as the semester
progresses.  AS long as they have a copy of your syllabi they should
be able to do this, and it hasn't been an issue when they've needed to
give me my books in chunks before.

For readers, one thing I'd recommend is asking to meet with the
potential hire during the hiring process if the disability services
office helps you find a reader.  I know at least at my university we
have a lot of foreign students who go for the jobs in learning
services, but that can sometimes cause issues due to language
barriers.  I'm not advocating that you resist working with a foreign
student, just make sure you can understand them and they have a fairly
fluent knowledge of the English language and the words they might
encounter in the readings.  I had some issues with a DSO-hired lab
assistant from Saudi Arabia, and although he was really helpful and
did his best most of the time the language differences made
communicating about anatomy terminology difficult because he wasn't
fully confident in English, let alone with latin terms that were also
new to me that I needed to learn propper pronunciations for.

Other than that, I'd definitely also make sure the person you
eventually work with is okay with you recording them.  It's nice to
have lectures on file, but you would definitely want to make sure
they're okay and give consent as recording someone without their
knowledge or approval isn't fair (or technically legal and some people
are very uptight about that).  I don't see why you couldn't take notes
as the reader reads to you like you would during a lecture with a
professor in class, but you should always feel free to ask readers for
spellings of unfamiliar words, for information in footnotes, etc.
HTH.

On 10/8/16, LaKeria Taylor via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Actually, I would take the book back and make them fix it everytime it
> has errors. It is their job. I would not use a reader just to read a
> book unless it was completely visual, which one of the stories in my
> literature book is.
>
> On 10/8/16, David Andrews via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> If you are going to use a human reader then use the book itself. The
>> only reason to scan a book is to produce an electronic copy. And yes,
>> hopefully that copy is accurate.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> At 08:24 PM 10/6/2016, you wrote:
>>>Hi All,
>>>I was wondering if any of you have used readers to read a chapter
>>>from a textbook, and how exactly you would go about this process.
>>>Although I have the textbook I need, it has been scanned by
>>>Disability Services and there are tons of errors, making some parts
>>>confusing to read.
>>>Do you just tell the reader when to stop so that you can take notes
>>>on a particular topic?
>>>Would it be appropriate to ask my disability services office to
>>>check for spelling/accuracy, or is that not really their place?
>>>Thanks,
>>>Vejas
>>
>>
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-- 
Kaiti Shelton