Here amidst the golden sands and azure skies, APU is untroubled by at
least part of these difficulties. A member of the senior management
team (I believe) applied for and received permission to produce
individual copies of texts for blind students, much as the RNIB enjoys.
We now live without fear of the bill dragging us off to a roomy peter.
I understand this permission was initially for the Regional
Transcription Service (an autonomous department offering a service to
the public) but was extended without difficulty to the whole University.
Regards, Bernard
On Wed, 29 Aug 2001 18:23:47 +0100 Ian Francis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi
> While there are moves to sort this issue out, It remains an infringement of copyright to make an
> electronic copy without permission. RNIB are involved with the campaign to change the rules to
> allow people who are visually impaired to access print materials at the same time as their peers.
> Refer to http://www.rnib.org.uk/campaign/copyright.htm for more information and contact details.
>
> Ideally, contact the publisher and/or the author(s), explaining the situation and request a text
> version of the final copy (just before the book was typeset in publishing-specific software, where
> it can be difficult to extract the plain text). Maybe they've started to do a CD-ROM version
> anyway (if so, make sure it's accessible).
>
> I wonder if a 'script' could be prepared, from the DDA, when calling publishers that might just
> nudge them in the right direction if they're being difficult. You'd think law publishers would be
> particularly sensitive to this!
>
> I know that people have resorted to scanning the whole book and having a sighted helper go
> through the text to check for accuracy (this is absolutely crucial for law books, you can't afford
> to miss out a single word or mis-scan a reference number), fix all the badly scanned superscript
> footnotes and move them to a sensible place. The time taken to have this done is very expensive
> and once done, you can't lodge your electronic copy at a central store for other VI users to
> access. You might consider selling the text copy back to the publishers, or at least getting their
> approval on this condition.
>
> I don't know whether it's worth checking with Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic in the US at
> ww.rfbd.org to see if an electronic copy has been lodged with them.
>
> It's a ridiculous situation to be in this day and age.
>
> Good luck
> Ian Francis
>
>
> On 29 Aug 2001, at 15:07, Liz Collins wrote:
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Liz Collins [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 2:42 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Access to reading materials for blind law student
> >
> >
> > I should be interested to hear from anyone who has successfully overcome the
> > problem of access to the voluminous reading materials required by law
> > students for a student who is blind. Most material is in book form, some of
> > which are 500 pages. The time taken to read this on to tape, even though
> > using RNIB reading service and student support workers (who are expensive)
> > means that most of it will not be available in time for the student's needs.
> > The RNIB tape library may have some material on tape, I realise. Are there
> > any other speedy and not too expensive solutions that anyone has come
> > across? My e mail address is below if you wish to contact me off-list.
> > I look forward to hearing from you,
> >
> > Liz Collins
> > Project Manager
> > Student Services
> > 0121 331 7757
> > e mail: [log in to unmask]
> >
----------------------
Bernard Doherty
Senior Student Adviser
Anglia Polytechnic University
Tel: 01223 363271 x2434
Fax: 01223 363369
Minicom: 01223 576155
[log in to unmask]
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