New York State Higher Education E-Text Training Workshop June 22, 2005 Canandaigua Inn on the Lake, Canandaigua June 30, 2005 CUNY Graduate School and University Center, NYC aap -- Objectives To increase your understanding of • the provisions of Chapter 219 legislation • the needs of students with print disabilities and current options available to meet those needs • the rights, responsibilities and challenges of the stakeholder groups • the processes for creating and converting alternate format materials -- What’s the Big Deal? “College faculty overwhelmingly see textbooks not just as reference materials for their courses, but as an essential part of the instruction. By a lopsided margin of 84% to 7%, professors say their students absolutely must have the required textbooks to get a good grade in their courses. The same survey found that 75% of professors either require or recommend their students purchase textbook packages that include supplemental materials, such as study guides, lab manuals, and digital media like CD- ROMs and online tools.” Zogby International survey of 1,029 U.S. college faculty in December 2004. Results ± 3.2%. http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=950 -- 1/2-1% of higher ed students need alternate format materials for effective access (Visual impairments, specific LDs, and some physical impairments), representing 7,000 or more students in New York State. For many students the benefits provided by current technology that improves access to course materials cannot be realized without digital formats of those materials –digital formats that are accessible to readers with commonly used assistive technology. -- Mere existence in a digital format does not ensure access to the material by a student with a print disability. Many Web sites, digital archives, and available e-books are as inaccessible to persons with a print-impairment as is a hard copy book. -- What do we mean by alternate formats? Audio alone • Tape • CD/DVD (wav or MP3) Braille and tactile graphics • Embossed (hard copy) • Refreshable Braille from electronic text -- Large print • Hard copy • Screen magnification of electronic text Electronic text • Provided in a variety of formats (ASCII, Word, PDF, HTML, RTF XML, DAISY, etc.) -- What technology hath wrought . . . the values of electronic text -- Which students are we talking about? Students who are eligible •visual impairments •specific learning disabilities •physical impairments who can benefit from the alternate format and who are willing to use the alternate format -- Applicable laws and OCR decisions • Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and ADA • Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (requirements related to Web sites, application development, and Information Technology (IT) procurement) • Copyright Law • Chafee Amendment • Office of Civil Rights (OCR) • Chap 219 and Implementation Guidelines -- Section 504 and ADA 504: A recipient . . . shall take such steps as are necessary to ensure that no handicapped student is denied the benefits of, excluded from participation in, or otherwise subjected to discrimination under the education program or activity operated by the recipient because of the absence of educational auxiliary aids for students with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills. ADA Title II regulation: A public entity shall furnish appropriate auxiliary aids and services where necessary to afford an individual with a disability an equal opportunity to participate in, and enjoy the benefits of, a service, program, or activity conducted by a public entity. -- The Copyright Act, Fair Use, and the Chafee amendment Federal law preserves the following rights for the copyright holder: •reproduction • preparation of derivative works • distribution • performance •display • creation of sound recordings -- Fair Use Affirmative defense Four factors: • purpose and character of use • nature of work • amount and substantiality of portion used • effect of use on potential market -- Chafee amendment Exempts certain “authorized entities” from the rights of copyright owners with respect to reproducing and distributing copies of “previously-published non-dramatic works” in “specialized formats exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities.” -- Authorized entities are defined as “a nonprofit organization or a governmental agency that has a primary mission to provide specialized services relating to training, education, or adaptive reading or information access needs of blind or other persons with disabilities.” -- "The courts have held that a public entity violates its obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act when it simply responds to individual requests for accommodation on an ad-hoc basis. A public entity has an affirmative duty to establish a comprehensive policy in compliance with Title II in advance of any request for auxiliary aids or services." OCR decision, CSU LA 1997 -- The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has paid specific attention to communication, including course materials (print-based and otherwise), and requires that the communication to be as effective as that provided to nondisabled students. Effectiveness is defined by three components: • timeliness of delivery • accuracy of the translation • provision in a manner and medium appropriate to the significance of the message and the abilities of the individual with the disability -- OCR Decisions You Should Know California Community College (1998) City College of San Francisco (1998) California State College, Los Angeles (1997) California State College, Long Beach (1999) California State College, Fullerton (2004) Loyola Marymount University (1992) Brooklyn College (1996) -- Chapter 219 What the law and guidelines do not do: • Transfer institutional obligations to the publisher • Change the requirements of federal copyright law -- What the law and guidelines do: • Require that publishers provide an electronic copy of essential textbooks and other text-based materials to DSS offices • If the format is not already accessible, require that publishers provide an accessible electronic copy of non-text supplementary material to DSS offices • Provide a hierarchy of preferred source file formats to facilitate further conversion to the specialized format needed by the student • Ensure that students with disabilities will receive accessible materials at a cost comparable to that paid by nondisabled students no more, no less • Provide protection, to the extent possible, for the copyright holder • Provide a process and forms to facilitate the process -- Rights, Responsibilities, and Challenges Students Higher Ed Institutions Publishers -- Student Rights • To have effective access to all programs and services, without additional cost • To be able to effectively use purchased course materials, text-based and otherwise, library materials, and other necessary materials for academic success -- Student Responsibilities • Provide appropriate documentation of a print impairment disability according to the policies and procedures of the particular institution • Own a copy of the textbook/materials • Request, with sufficient lead time, materials for a particular semester • Cooperate with all published institutional policies and procedures related to provision of alternate format materials • Read, sign, and comply with Agreement on the Use of Recorded, Electronic, or Other Alternatively Formatted Course Material • Comply with the U.S. Copyright Act -- Challenges for Students • Provision of accessible files later than when needed • Inadequate institutional response to requests • Lack of understanding of individual needs • Cost of assistive technology • Inefficient/ineffective alternate formats • Loss of study time dedicated to personal conversion of materials • Errors in electronic files -- Institutional Rights Cooperation from students and publishers -- Institutional Responsibilities • Provide equitable access to all programs and services • Develop policies and procedures for provision of alternate format materials, especially • Eligibility • Request procedures • Timeliness of response • Security • Violations of security • Provide appropriate specialized format of all course materials, whether or not obtainable from a publisher or other third party, library materials,and all other materials available to non-disabled students • Educate faculty and staff as to the obligation to provide and the additional time needed to acquire materials in alternate formats • Provide adequate resources for compliance -- DSS Office Responsibilities Understand appropriateness of format to different functional limitations and materials Request and receive electronic files from publishers Provide appropriate alternate format to student Ensure that student understands his/her responsibilities under the agreement Certify to the publisher that • requested material will be used by a student with a disability that prevents him or her from using standard instructional materials, • proof of disability is and will be kept on file within the institution, • the student is enrolled in the class for which the material is needed, and • the student purchased a copy of the material. -- Faculty Responsibilities Identify instructional materials • required or essential for student success in a particular course • sufficiently in advance to allow creation or procurement of alternate formats -- Challenges for Institutions • Resources • Need to create multiple formats • Need to “clean up” or add structure to publisher-provided files • Timely receipt of files from publishers • Locating the publisher, contact, and individual request forms • Inadequate training and technology -- Publisher rights Protection of copyright interests Protection of economic interests -- Publisher Responsibilities Upon request and properly executed agreements, provide to DSS offices • accessible, structured source files, • in a timely manner (defined as fifteen business days), and • in a format as agreed upon with the NY State Education Department When reasonably unable to provide an appropriate electronic file, provide hard copy of the material and give permission to scan -- Challenges for Publishers • Resources • Administration • Content security • Format issues • Withholding of electronic rights by authors and other contributors, embedded copyrights • Scanning required for older works. • Fear of legal action if files aren't supplied/ fear of legal action if files are supplied -- Nuts & Bolts: Policies and Procedures -- Institutional Policies and Procedures At a minimum, you should articulate • Institutional commitment and institution-wide responsibility • Who is authorized to receive requests for alternate forms • How requests can be made • Notice/timeliness requirements • How notice will be provided by all agents of the institution on availability of alternate formats • Security of materials • Violations of security -- Security of electronic materials • Limited access • Record keeping • Education of staff and students • Procedures and repercussions for violation -- In-house Conversion, Reuse, and Sharing of Files “In the case where a disability services office converts material in-house, provides materials to an additional student, or obtains copyrighted electronic material from another office (e.g. through the AMX Database), we recommend that the procedures developed for the implementation of Chapter 219 be followed to avoid possibilities of unintended copyright infringement. Permission should be requested from the publisher by use of the Request form, noting that a file copy is not required. The student should purchase a copy of the materials and sign the Agreement on the Use of Recorded, Electronic, or Other Alternatively Formatted Course Material. All copies, irrespective of format, should contain copyright notice and prohibition against further reproduction.” -- AAP Position on Scanning and Sharing When an accessible product becomes commercially available, colleges should leave to the publisher the role of providing the specialized format to the student. At that time, the material should be removed from any repository or college disability services office’s files. -- The Process Step By Step -- Student identifies him or herself to the DSS office and provides documentation • with objective evidence of a qualifying disability • as required by your institutional policies and guidelines -- Keep records of all steps!!!!! Sample databases and spreadsheet included in Resources CD -- Remember that you will need to certify to publisher that • requested material will be used by a student with a disability that prevents him or her from using standard instructional materials, • proof of disability is and will be kept on file within the institution, • the student is enrolled in the class for which the material is needed, and • the student purchased a copy of the material. -- Request from student • Sample forms in Resources CD • Always get ISBN number, can help track down appropriate imprint publisher usingonline bookstore or search engine • In determining appropriate final format for individual student, pay attention tohardware and software that will be available for student's use on and off campus -- Remember The alternate format must be appropriate to both the student and to the type of material Greatest challenges are with math and science -- What do we mean by alternate formats? Audio alone • Tape • CD/DVD (wav or MP3) -- Braille and tactile graphics • Embossed (hard copy) • Refreshable Braille from electronic text -- Large print • Hard copy • Screen magnification of electronic text Electronic text • Provided in a variety of formats (ASCII, Word, PDF, HTML, RTF XML, DAISY, etc.) -- Requesting from publisher • Online request forms • Use your name, rather than student’s, as requester • Selecting the file format to be provided • Issues with file formats offered by the publisher – often only txt or Word – identify level of structure in offered Word files -- 219 Hierarchy • ASCII, txt • Doc • PDF • HTML • XML -- The differences between common file formats -- ASCII or TXT file -- Inaccessible PDF -- PDF file -- HTML file -- DAISY files RFBD Audio Plus Bookshare DAISY 2 DAISY 3 -- Receiving files from publishers • E-mail – Need for 10MB account to receive files – Changing file extensions to avoid e-mail account constraints • FTP • Disc by mail -- When the publisher cannot reasonably provide an appropriate electronic format • Guidelines requirement of provision of hard copy for college conversion • Permission to scan • When is it reasonable? – Age of title – Availability only of file format that cannot meet the need, e.g. ASCII when need structured file -- Scanning hard copy to create electronic file • Removing spine (picture) -- Scanning • Your life will be much easier with a high speed, duplex scanner • Should be color scanner • Note new Canon 2050C – approx $650 -- Scanning creates an image file (like a photograph of the page) that must be converted to text to be read by a screenreader or text reader. This process is called “ocr” – optical character recognition. Software options include OmniPage, Kurzweil, Scan and Read, and others. Some PDF, all TIFF files, and possibly other files received from publishers will also require an OCR process. -- “Clean Up” after OCR You don’t get a perfect text file from OCRing a scanned textbook. Errors requiring correction/editing include Spelling Page numbers Columns Spacing Headers Formulas Graphs -- Conversion to non-electronic formats • Large print • Braille • Tactile graphics -- Rebinding the hard copy “Shaking” machine (picture) Spiral or other rebinding of book -- Converting between electronic formats • Text to text in a different file format (e.g. XML to HTML, PDF to Word) • Text to audio file (generally MP3 or wav) -- Delivery of electronic file • E-mail • CD/DVDs (data or audio) • Flash drives • Web downloads -- Agreement for student signature before delivery of book • Samples in Resources CD • Requirements and sample format in 219 Memo -- Screenreaders vs Text Readers Screenreaders read everything on screen e.g. JAWS, WindowEyes, HAL Text Readers read only text in a document e.g. Kurzweil, EaseReader, E-Text reader, Read Please, Universal Reader (generally a visually-impaired user will also need a screenreader application) -- Security • Physical Security is not presently feasible • Encryption may be ineffective because of ability to share passwords • Student Agreement • Student Code of conduct • Applicable copyright laws and penalties • Possibilities for thumbprinting or marking files for tracing • Possibility of secure media in future -- Evaluation & Closing Thanks to aap -- The following slides are from the more advanced Technical session in NYC. This session took place simultaneously with the Process Step by Step session. -- Technical Nuts & Bolts -- Technical Standards Committee Standards and Curricular Material The objectives of this technical standards committee are two-fold: I. to create and agree to standards on minimum institutional resources required on college end as well as on publisher ends to ensure that both parties are able to communicate effectively and expeditiously to the benefit of students with disabilities. II. to ensure that technical training material is developed for dissemination via training sessions designed to communicate information to DSS providers and publishers. -- Introduction to Assistive Technology Alternate input Alternate output Blindness and low vision Physical and motor disabilities Other print disabilities -- Options for Reading Alternate Format Material (Software) Kurzweil 1000 and Kurzweil 3000 Premier Suite Adobe Acrobat PDF Files DAISY Software Other -- Options for Reading Alternate Format Material (Hardware) Recorded speech (taped reading) Digital/hard Braille MP3/other audio playback Hardware DAISY RFB&D audio Plus PDA/other devices -- Hardware and Software Demonstrations/Examples Kurzweil 1000 Kurzweil 3000 Premier Suite Hardware playback DAISY Playback PDA/Other -- Introduction to Accessible File Creation What is accessible file creation? Methods of accessible file creation Chapter 219 Hierarchy of file formats Why a hierarchy -- Publisher Data Files Adobe PDF Quark In Design Postscript -- HTML Access Guidelines Section 508 Guidelines Graphics and layout Linear text access Headings and sections -- PDF Access Guidelines Text access restrictions (security) Accessibility tags Layout concerns Graphics -- Microsoft Word Access Guidelines Text access restrictions (security) Accessibility markup Layout concerns Graphics -- Electronic Text Transmission by e-mail Electronic mail and file sizes ..Institutional commitment Notification concerns -- Electronic Text Transmission by FTP/HTTP & other Account size recommendations Institutional commitment Notification concerns Physical postage -- Alternate Format Conversion (Tools and Techniques) HTML Dreamweaver accessibility tools Front Page accessibility tools The value of “CSS” -- Alternate Format Conversion (Tools and Techniques) PDF Acrobat Professional Preparing Accessible PDF files PDF to HTML Converting PDF files to other formats (software and tools) -- Alternate Format Conversion (Tools and Techniques) Braille and Large Print Preparing files Braille translation software Math and science material Large print production hardware and software -- Alternate Format Conversion (Tools and Techniques) Audio Synthesized reading Conversion to MP3 and CD Software and hardware solutions -- Introduction to Scanning What is scanning? The scanning process Time resources and commitment Cleaning scanned material Creating accessible files from scanned material -- Tools of the Trade (Hardware) Page-by-page scanning High-speed scanning Book-edge scanning Binding considerations -- Tools of the Trade (Software) Scanning and OCR Omnipage Fine Reader Kurzweil 1000 and Openbook Kurzweil 3000 and WYNN Other utilities -- Tips and Tricks: Preparing for a Scan Print quality Color considerations Charts, illustrations, sidebars, and other graphics Compiled packets -- Tips and Tricks: OCR and Cleanup Preparation times three OCR strengths and weaknesses Proof reading and OCR corrections -- Other input and Output Considerations Omnipage and Fine Reader capabilities File input types File output types Methods of ensuring access for file types -- Scanning and File Conversion Demonstration High-speed scanning OCR with Fine Reader/Omnipage Kurzweil products Premier Suite -- Other Text Resources Bookshare.org RFB&D recorded material Project Gutenberg Other text repositories -- Introduction to the Future: What Is Daisy & Why? What is DAISY Why? DAISY capabilities Advantages for students Advantages for publishers and DSS providers DAISY Structure DAISY text DAISY audio DAISY text & audio XML DAISY structural component -- Availability of DAISY in U.S. Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic Bookshare.org NLS future plans -- DAISY Reading & Writing Tools Commercial reading software Commercial reading hardware Freeware reading software DAISY creation tools -- Where We Go From Here Future of DAISY in New York State Compatibility with commonly-used document creation software Stream-lined creation methods Easy to use reading and writing software