{"id":2199,"date":"2011-05-28T06:31:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-28T06:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.empowerbpo.com\/blog\/?p=2199"},"modified":"2023-02-07T10:55:55","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T10:55:55","slug":"education-department-clarifies-e-reader-accessibility-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/education-department-clarifies-e-reader-accessibility-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Education Department Clarifies E-Reader Accessibility Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Education today released\u00a0a new guide<\/a>\u00a0to laws and rules colleges must follow to ensure e-reading devices and other emerging technologies are accessible to all students. It focuses on students with vision problems, a group whose access issues have triggered official complaints against colleges. The document, in the form of \u201cFrequently Asked Questions,\u201d was published in response to the department\u2019s\u00a0\u201cDear Colleague\u201d letter<\/a> to college presidents on the subject last June.<\/p>\n

If colleges use e-readers, or other emerging technologies, blind students \u201cmust be afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as sighted students,\u201d according to the department.The department doesn\u2019t discourage the use of emerging technologies but indicates that colleges should assess whether a new technology is accessible, or could be modified to be accessible, before using it.<\/p>\n

Colleges can offer alternative versions of a text or technology to students with disabilities, as long as the alternative is \u201cequally effective and equally integrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

This means that offering an e-text on a tablet device, such as the iPad, that has more options for the visually impaired, could be an effective alternative to an e-reader version.<\/p>\n

An audio book might not do the trick, though.<\/p>\n

Christopher Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, explains that the requirements of equal effectiveness and integration mean that an alternative text needs to offer all the capabilities of a traditional or e-text. This includes the ability to navigate to a particular section or page, an audio explanation or larger-font version of tables and charts, and, for e-textbooks, equivalent alternatives to interactive features, such as quizzes and note-taking tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blind student needs to be able to do all the other things that students do,\u201d he says.
\nHe says it is important that the department\u2019s document makes clear that the requirements apply to all new technologies, not just e-readers.<\/p>\n

His organization filed a\u00a0federal complaint last year<\/a>\u00a0against Penn State University for its \u201cpervasive and ongoing discrimination\u201d against blind students through its use of a course-management system, library catalog, and departmental Web sites that were not accessible.<\/p>\n

The Dear Colleague letter last June came in part because of a\u00a0lawsuit filed in 2009 by the Federation and the American Council of the Blind against Arizona State University,<\/a>\u00a0which was planning to offer a pilot program using Amazon\u2019s Kindle e-reader device. Arizona State settled, promising to use only accessible e-reading devices.<\/p>\n

This article was originally posted at \u00a0http:\/\/chronicle.com\/blogs\/wiredcampus\/education-deptartment-clarifies-e-reader-accessibility-rules\/31507<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Education today released\u00a0a new guide\u00a0to laws and rules colleges must follow to ensure e-reading devices and other emerging technologies are accessible to all students. It focuses on students with vision problems, a group whose access issues have triggered official complaints against colleges. The document, in the form of \u201cFrequently Asked Questions,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-2199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empowerelearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}