It's shocking that publishers have not yet addressed this issue. Years
ago we started hassling publishers to provide accessible copies of their
titles for students - it just seemed such an artificial and unnecessary
barrier to learning to have to scan or have someone read a book that
already existed somewhere in electronic text form. One publisher quoted
over £800.00 to convert a book into electronic form, saying they had to
employ someone to re-type it.
Could DDA/SEN legislation help? Universities are expected to make sure
'disabled persons' are not placed at a 'substantial disadvantage' to
'persons who are not disabled' in many areas of study. With all the
assistive technology aids and personal readers you can fund from DSA I
think it could be said that blind students are still at a 'substantial
disadvantage' compared to sighted students in ability to browse and
access library-based study resources (i.e. books!).
Publishers might in the past have argued that they couldn't reasonably be
expected to produce versions of all their titles in braille, large print
or tape depending on the need of the student. I think it's now reasonable
to assume to most students use, or can be expected to learn to use,
assistive technology aids to access documents in electronic form. As
publications must exist in machine-readable electronic text at some stage
in production, this argument cannot now be valid.
Tutors presented with a range of research materials of similar quality
might be more inclined to set texts from publishers who make efforts to
ensure accessible versions of their publications are available if they
are made aware of the possible implications of DDA/SEN legislation. When
tutors and libraries start to apply pressure, publishers might start to
be more responsive.
On 9 May 2003 at 12:51, Marcus Ormerod wrote:
> Hi Andrew
>
> thanks for the quick response and I agree that one person cannot do much and
> most other lecturers have probably not considered it. What miffed me most
> was their casual attitude. If they had said that I could contact the editor
> of the book to see if there was draft copy I would have been happier - not
> ecstatic, but at least it would be workable solution. Do they really still
> typeset at SAGE and not use any electronic publishing? I even suggested an
> accessible pdf would be fine. I wanted to buy 10 copies immediately and then
> possibly 15 per year thereafter - so it was in their interest to at least
> humour me.
>
> the book did not contain numbers as it was a simple research book - but I
> can recognise that you might want to feel the numbers. But I do not expect
> any of my students to have to send a new book off to be taped, or put it on
> a scanner.
>
> I am off to kill a few more giants before tea!
>
> cheers
> marcus
>
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