Accessibility - sponsored by Universal Design Newsletter

Blind Students Struggling for Access to Material for College Classes

By Jessica Bernstein-Wax, GoUpstate.com
Published Feb 19th, 2007 on GoUpstate.com

WASHINGTON -- Many 10-year-olds -- and undoubtedly the occasional adult -- have spent an afternoon playing with the "text-to-speech" software that comes free with some computers and converts written words to sound.

It's nothing but fun to hear a robotic voice synthesizing, say, Shakespeare's immortal line:"roh-mee-oh, roh-mee-oh, ware-for art thou, roh-mee-oh." But for 25-year-old Leslie Brown, text-to-speech technology is no joke. The University of South Carolina Upstate senior is blind and depends on it to complete her readings and do academic research.

Rapidly advancing technology is greatly improving the lives of disabled Americans. Despite these advances, Brown and other blind college students still struggle to get their textbooks and course materials on time -- and in a format they can readily absorb.

"In many ways, it's harder for blind students in college to get their textbooks than it (is) in K through 12," said James McCarthy, director of governmental affairs at the National Federation of the Blind. "Frequently, students put in almost as much time preparing to study -- just getting the access -- as they do studying the material."

The problem? In most cases the labor-intensive task of converting traditional textbooks to digital files -- which can then be made into a variety of formats for blind and dyslexic students -- falls to college disability services offices with limited staff. Further complicating the issue is that students with varying levels of blindness have different technological needs. Students with some vision, for example, may prefer large-print versions of readings to audio recordings. But for totally blind students, enlarged text is not an option.

As one potential solution to the problem, blind advocacy groups are pushing for legislation requiring higher-education publishers to produce electronic versions of textbooks for blind college students. The electronic copies would conform to a universal file standard, which could then be converted to multiple formats, such as Braille or text-to-speech.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 requires publishers contracting with state departments of education to provide standardized electronic versions of kindergarten to 12th-grade textbooks. But no such federal law exists for the books used in colleges and universities.

"If the publisher were to submit an electronic format to a nationwide … clearinghouse (for college books) then it would be very, very easy to draw from that bank and turn the book into whatever you need; It could be large print, Braille or tape," said Cali Sandel, a sophomore at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.

Sandel, a 20-year-old political science major, traveled to Washington last month with the National Federation of the Blind to drum up congressional support for the textbook initiative and other issues affecting the blind. Sandel relies primarily on audio-recorded versions of her textbooks, essentially books-on-tape. But keeping up with coursework can be a struggle, with audio tapes sometimes unavailable until well into the semester, she said.

Even when a book is ready right off the bat, the version for blind students sometimes corresponds to a terribly outdated edition, Sandel added. "A new edition will come out, and they won't have time to have a volunteer come and put it on (an audio) track," she said. "Sometimes you're reading about the Congress of 1999 when it's currently 2005."

A disabilities coordinator was forced to step in last year when Sandel fell 150 pages behind in her reading for an American government class after receiving the audio version of her textbook a month and a half late. "The disabilities coordinator … actually was kind enough to stay until like seven o'clock at night," Sandel said. "She read to me for about two hours as I scribbled notes down."

For Brown -- the USC Upstate student -- accessing textbooks has gotten much easier since she started college in 2001 at Spartanburg Technical College, where she earned an associate's degree. As a freshman at the school, Brown relied on Braille texts and volunteers who read aloud to her. But even with text-to-speech technology, getting course materials in a timely fashion remains cumbersome, Brown said.

At USC Upstate, two student assistants spend 15 to 20 hours a week each semester converting textbooks that are not already available on tape into electronic files for the school's five blind students, said Jim Gorske, director of disability services. Textbook pages are scanned and converted into a Microsoft Word document. Students then listen to their readings via JAWS, a computer program that reads text in an electronic voice. The process can be time-consuming, with a standard 300- to 400-page textbook taking about two days to complete, Gorske said.

"It's pretty stressful at the beginning of the semester when everyone needs stuff scanned," said Beth Banks, a 22-year-old blind senior at the school. Gorske said his office tries to schedule scanning according to the most immediate need. But the workload can be heavy at times, he said. "Having (the books) available electronically from the publisher would be fantastic," he said. "For me, the main thing is trying to get things ready and set for the students as soon as the semester begins, and sometimes it takes several weeks."

Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the Association of American Publishers, said his organization supported -- and helped devise -- the federal law requiring elementary- and secondary-school publishers to create standard electronic versions of textbooks.

Converting textbooks to digital files is far more complicated at the college level, he said, due in part to the sheer quantity and variety of the texts and the large number of publishers -- some 4,500 -- serving colleges. "You can't wave a wand and make millions of textbooks suddenly fit a single mold," Hildebrand said. "(K to 12) books are bought in bulk by taxpayers. In higher education, only those books that are chosen by faculty for their classes are sold, and the print runs are generally small." Hildebrand said the association has hired a consultant to help find a solution that will suit everyone's needs.

"This is a highly sensitive, emotional issue where everyone has the same goals," he said. "We will find a way to get this done, but it can't be one size fits all."