>ED pushes for national digital file format for textbooks
>By Cara Branigan, Associate Editor, eSchool News
>December 16, 2002
>
>The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is spending nearly $200,000 to
>create
>a
>single "national file format" that will be used to make textbooks
>accessible
>to blind or disabled students.
>
>Adopting the standard will be voluntary, which is contrary to
>legislation
>introduced last spring that would have required textbook publishers to
>submit
>electronic files of all textbooks sold to schools nationwide according
>to a
>universal standard.
>
>That bill, dubbed the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act of 2002
>(H.R.
>4582 and S. 2246), has been held up in committee. In the meantime, ED is
>taking the initiative to create a voluntary standard to coordinate the
>efforts
>of publishers and educators.
>"Since there is not yet agreement regarding the optimal file format
>standard
>for all students, a national voluntary standard would provide a baseline
>for
>future development and enhancements," said Robert H. Pasternack, ED's
>assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services.
>
>The National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum at the Center
>for
>Applied Special Technology (CAST) in Wakefield, Mass., is charged with
>forming
>an advisory panel that will develop, implement, and measure the
>standard's
>success.
>
>With current practices, students who need alternatives to traditional
>textbooks often wait months before receiving their books.
>
>"If you've purchased a new textbook that isn't available in Braille, you
>may
>have to wait six months," said Chuck Hitchcock, chief educational
>technology
>officer for CAST. "What [the national file format] will do is ensure
>that
>kids
>get their textbooks and materials at the beginning of the year, at the
>same
>time as other kids.
>
>When publishers make a textbook, it is assumed that shortly thereafter
>they
>will create a digital file that educators can use to convert the
>textbook
>into
>an accessible format for disabled students, such as refreshable Braille,
>print
>Braille, or accessible hypertext markup language (HTML).
>
>"The problem for the publishers is that every state requires something
>different," Hitchcock said. Kentucky, for example, requires documents in
>HTML
>format, while Texas requires American Standard Code for Information
>Interchange (ASCII) format.
>In fact, half of the states have passed legislation in the past few
>years
>that
>stipulate what digital format publishers must provide, whether it's
>Microsoft
>Word, ASCII, HTML, or another format.
>Publishers also favor creating a single format because it will reduce
>the
>burden and costs associated with providing multiple formats of the same
>file.
>But uniformity won't happen with a voluntary standard, they say.
>
>"We are working with CAST, trying to come up with a workable file format
>and
>hoping for the best. But, in all honesty, it's not going to address the
>needs
>that are there," said Stephen Driesler, executive director of the
>Association
>of American Publishers.
>
>"If all 26 states [that have adopted their own standards] go out and
>have an
>epiphany ... and say, `We need to change and adopt this national file
>format,'
>then I'll eat my words," Driesler said.
>
>Hitchcock said it's pretty likely that states will adopt the standard,
>but
>Driesler remains skeptical that 26 states would change their
>laws-especially
>not in the near future.
>
>"The practical reality is nothing is going to happen [in 2002]. It would
>be
>[2003] before state legislatures could do anything," Driesler said.
>"Having
>worked with state legislatures and state departments of education, these
>things just don't work at a high rate of speed.
>
>He added, "It's totally going to be up to the states to make this
>happen."
>Texas is one of the states that has its own law regarding the format of
>digital textbook files.
>
>"I don't believe our agency would be opposed per se, but we need to see
>the
>devil in the details to see how well [ED's proposal] fits our needs and
>the
>work of our braillist," said Chuck Mayo, assistant director of textbook
>administration for the Texas Education Agency.
>
>(See the April 30 eSchool News article, "New bill would give blind
>students
>equal access to textbooks at
>   http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=3669.)
>
>Links:
>National File Format Initiative
>http://www.cast.org/ncac/NationalFileFormat3138.cfm
>
>Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
>http://www.cast.org
>
>CAST's National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum
>http://www.cast.org/ncac
>
>Association of American Publishers
>http://www.publishers.org
>
>Source:  www.eschoolnews.com


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