Blind seek faster access to textbooks
By Andrew Mollison

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
February 7, 2002

WASHINGTON -- White canes in hand, blind students from across the country
lobbied Congress this week for faster access to textbooks.

"I use Braille and recorded books and readers," said Angela Wolf, a
senior at the University of Texas at Austin and president of the National
Association of Blind Students.

But Wolf said she has to wait two to four weeks for taped or digitally
recorded versions and months for Braille versions of textbooks that
sighted students could use in print versions on the first day of school.

"And sometimes there simply isn't an accessible version," she said. "It's
not always easy to find and schedule time with people to be readers (of
the print version). That can be a real pain."

The students were seeking a new federal law that would require all
publishers of new K-12 textbooks to send an electronic file of each
textbook in a uniform national format to a newly created nonprofit
center.

The center would assist state and local educators in helping students and
their parents obtain those files, which can be used instantly for
large-print, audible or Braille-machine versions. The usual six-month
delay in obtaining regular Braille versions of textbooks could be cut in
half.

The plan would cost the federal government $6 million a year. It was
crafted during two years of negotiations by about 20 groups, including
the schools division of the American Association of Publishers, state
education and rehabilitation departments, the American Foundation for the
Blind and the National Federation of the Blind.

"It would be more cost-efficient for the publishers, students would have
more access, schools would have fewer headaches finding accessible
material, and society would have more educated workers," Wolf said.

Advocates of the plan anticipate that if the system is created and works
smoothly, it would attract support from all other U.S. publishers,
including those who supply college textbooks.


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