[NABS-L] Trouble obtaining accessible textbooks.

[Karl Martin Adam]

Hi Justin, the policy you mention is federal law.  The law allows 
you to get a digital copy of your books from the publisher, but 
it requires you to pay for them like everyone else.  That's 
equality not discrimination (the financial aid policies, on the 
other hand, are awful, and I'm sorry you have to deal with that).  
You might, however, be able to work with your disabled student 
services and arrange for them to order your books now but not 
give you the files until you show them a receipt.  In my 
experience two weeks is pushing it for turnaround.  The person at 
your disabled student services who actually orders the books will 
probably have the best assessment of the turnaround time for 
those specific publishers.  Also, FYI Bookshare's speed for 
ordering and preparing books is usually 2-4 months, though 
they've slowed down significantly with the pandemic.

HTH,
Karl

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Justin Ekis via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Wed, 22 Jul 2020 17:31:01 -0500
Subject: [NABS-L] Trouble obtaining accessible textbooks.

Hey there Nabsters,

This fall, I will be heading back to community college for my 
second attempt at an associate’s degree in Computer Information 
Technology. My duel majors are concentrations in Cyber defence 
and networking.

I am having a great deal of trouble obtaining accessible 
textbooks. Neither Bookshare or learning ally have the correct 
editions of the required material. For one title, no edition is 
available from these services. I requested them to be added in 
may, but they have not yet come through.

When I contacted the Center for access at my college, the 
coordinator for disability services informed me that they could 
request accessible versions directly from the publishers. 
However, I would have to provide receipts showing that I had 
purchased the books first. On my SSDI, there’s no way I can 
afford those books until I get my Financial aid funds. According 
to the financial aid office, they won’t distribute the 
bookstore voucher until 2 weeks before classes start, and the 
rest of the money after the  first 2 weeks of class.

If I can’t request the books until 2 weeks before class, what 
are the odds that I will receive all 4 of them before the first 
day? two of my books are published by Pearson Education, i 
can’t tell whether another one  is from  Pearson IT 
Certification or Cisco press, and the last one is from cengage 
learning. Does anyone know whether this rule comes from the 
publishers, or might it be simply the policy of our center for 
access?

Is there anything I can do to get my materials more quickly? This 
policy seems to discriminate against low income disabled 
students. Now that NFB is working more closely with Pearson, 
might they be able to get involved somehow?

Thanks in advance for any help.



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