Kelly,

Who at the AJC wrote this article?

MaryB.

Kelly Pierce wrote:

> 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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VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html