Written by Charlie Crawford, Executive Director of ACB.

      *  States rights trump blind kids on info access at Ed.

      Looks like the Informational Materials Access Act has been
thwarted by the states rights mentality at the U.S. Department of
Education.  the Assistant Secretary for Special Education has
essentially let the blindness advocates and textbook publishing
industry know that they are going to fund a "voluntary" standard
for a national file format for textbooks to be converted to
braille and large print, rather than supporting a mandatory
single standard.  Why?  Well, did you ever wonder how good public
policy can be corrupted by misapplied ideology?  Seems like the
Bush Administration is somehow married to this notion of states
rights to choose what format they want textbooks in.  So the
blind kids can just hope that the Publishers will be forthcoming
with these various formats desired by various states, or that
once the "voluntary" national standard is developed in the sweet
bye and by, they will get their textbooks at the same time as do
their sighted classmates.  In the meantime, we can thank the U.S.
Department of Education for their sweeping foresight in moving
federal policy backwards in time.


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