JISCMail - DIS-FORUM Archives

To be more specific about HE than our copyright page linked to by Richard, below:

the CLA HE licence (http://www.cla.co.uk/assets/357/he_uuk_comprehensive_licence.pdf, found via http://www.cla.co.uk/Education_licences.php) now has the revised Clause 10 on VISUALLY IMPAIRED **AND DISABLED** PERSONS which means that you can convert "part or the whole of any work within Licensed Material" to a suitable alternative format, without the publisher's permission, for someone who is disabled within the meaning of the DDA. So if your dyslexic student qualifies for a DSA, for example, I don't think that there can be any argument but that they are covered.

This change has now been in the HE licence for a couple of years, but not adequately advertised and is being rolled out to all CLA licences as they are updated. It hasn't yet got into the specific VIP licence, which allows non-profit bodies to make alternative formats and keep them for library-type distribution to VI people, as well as make them for individuals. But we have been assured that it will do, and when it does I would encourage resource centres to use this "VIP" licence rather as well as the HE one, so that accessible resources can be shared amongst those who need them, rather than wastefully recreated each time.

This obviously applies where you scan, OCR and convert materials yourself. As soon as you ask the publisher for a digital version of the work, to save you the effort of scanning, you are limited to whatever terms the publisher chooses to supply them under, which can involve costs and a more limited definition of who qualifies.

The Publisher's Licensing Society, which represents publishers on these issues, is now commendably proactive on accessibility and committed to the wider interpretation of Reading Impaired rather than just VI. See http://www.pls.org.uk/ngen_public/default.asp?id=154. Unfortunately the otherwise valuable VIP Guidelines for Publishers (http://www.pls.org.uk/docimages/forcedownload.asp?id=344) badly needs retitling and revising to talk more in terms of Reading Impairment and CLA licences rather than the copyright law. The copyright law itself still needs updating to be properly inclusive.

These Guidelines do, however, say "Applications from these [ie other reading impaired] users should still be treated in a way that does not discriminate against them, although this may include access to reasonable alternatives, such as a licensing scheme." I understand this to be a recommendation to provide a licence similar to the template in Appendix 1, which, unfortunately and confusingly, still uses the words "visually impaired" rather than "reading impaired". However, the recommendation is there and you could quote it to any publisher who was not being helpful.

When the Publishers' Guidelines are updated you will be able to quote them, I hope, more clearly and unambiguously. They say at the beginning: "It is the intention that these Guidelines can be refined and improved over time, and any comment or suggestion should be sent to Graham Taylor at the PA ([log in to unmask])." So please do!

Can I also remind people of the website www.publisherlookup.org.uk which tells you who it is at each publisher to approach for electronic versions of texts?

Regards

Ian Litterick

(Associate Member, Right to Read Campaign) and

Executive Chairman

www.iansyst.co.uk

www.dyslexic.com

www.re-adjust.co.uk

07860 926159

direct 01223 436680

See following,

http://www.cla.co.uk/vip_licence.php

http://www.dyslexic.com/copyright (scroll down to aug 2008 update)

Not sure if anyones had any luck invoking this yet for dyslexia with publishers, its enough trouble to get the texts for visually impaired students!

Rich

Richard Nind

Technical Advisor

Disabled Student Support Portfolio

Sheffield Hallam University

From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of BERNARD DOHERTY
Sent: 27 January 2009 15:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Digitisation for dyslexic students

Unless British publishers have finally reached a new agreement (after years of prevaricating), dyslexic students are obliged to follow the same fair use arrangements as other students. Only blind and visually impaired students are allowed to have personal copies of whole texts made. The obvious source for more information is a university library, which generally is obliged to keep up with legislation and legal standing in this area.

Regards, Bernard

--- On Tue, 27/1/09, Pauline McInnes <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Pauline McInnes <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Digitisation for dyslexic students
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Tuesday, 27 January, 2009, 2:44 PM

Dear all,

I may have asked this question before, but it’s just raised its head again here at Roehampton.

We have a digitisation service, whereby we can digitise books and journal articles for students with visual impairments and those whose physical impairments make it very difficult to manipulate a book.

We have just had a request in, asking us if we can digitise materials for severely dyslexic students. My understanding is that this would break the copyright laws, does anyone know this for sure?

Also, if we could do this for severely dyslexic students, how would we measure who out of our 400 or so dyslexic students really and truly needed their books in a digital format, does anyone have any ideas on what indicator we might use to determine this?

I look forward to hearing from.

Kind regards

Pauline McInnes

Head of Disability Services

Student Services

Roehampton University

Roehampton Lane

London

SW15 5PJ

Tel: 020 8392 3366

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