Students with print disabilities may be in for good news regarding their textbooks. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC) have partnered to create the AccessText Network. According to the AAP, AccessText is a "comprehensive, national online database system" which will make textbooks more easily available to students who have print-related disabilities, such as blindness or dyslexia. While the University of Missouri-St. Louis is not a participant in AccessText, the database is constantly growing and includes 500 participating universities and 1600 institutions.
The current process for disabled students to obtain their textbooks is much more complicated than the cross-referencing system AccessText proposes. In the current process, a student is required to purchase the textbook and keep their receipt as "proof of purchase" for the disability office. The disabilities office then makes contact with the publisher and asks for either a digital copy of the file (to save time) or permission to "chop" the book.
Scott Armstead, coordinator of Student Support Services at UM-St. Louis (an office that works closely with the Disability Student Services office on campus) said that chopping a book involves literally cutting the spine off of a book and scanning the loose pages into a computer. Armstead said that UM-St. Louis currently does not have enough people to do the process on campus so textbooks for students at UM-St. Louis are sent to facilities at the University of Missouri-Columbia (to whom UM-St. Louis pays a fee). Only after a book is chopped and scanned can it be converted to the form that the student requires. Depending on the facilities and amount of backlog, Armstead explained that this can be a lengthy process, and the books are often only used for one semester before becoming outdated.
"There's a lot of books that get scanned each semester," Armstead said, "and [we] put a ridiculous amount of work into getting these books accessible for students, and at the end of the semester, the publishers now are coming out with new editions."
While AccessText cannot prevent the jump to new editions each semester, it could at least make the amount of work needed to convert the textbooks more manageable. Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for Higher Education for the Association of American Publishers, said that AccessText will allow participating members to gain access to the course files needed for disabled students with greater ease and efficiency. He said that AccessText will allow schools to complete the process at a greater speed, and that they will be able to keep track of the progress of each individual textbook.
Hildebrand said that the program is currently in its "beta phase" where it is free for participating universities. However, on July 1, 2010, there will be an annual membership fee implemented which will be $375-$500, depending on school size.
"Even right now, in the beta phase, they are able to reduce the number of hours that people spend on all of this stuff, which is a major cost reduction for them," Hildenbrand said. "It could cost $375 to convert one book."
Hildenbrand said that one reason the program is so important is because it is "what the students need." According to Hildenbrand, the longer students have to wait to get course materials, the further they can fall behind in the first critical weeks of class periods. "[AccessText] gets the materials in the hands of the students who need it, quickly and efficiently," Hildenbrand said.
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