[Accessibleweb] Senate bill 6501

[Helen Remick]

the legislation requires that there be a university policy on
implementation.  I am responsible for drafting that policy.  as work
progresses, perhaps I can come to one of the lunch meetings to get input
from the group.  I also welcome email comments now.

Helen Remick
Assistant Provost for Equal Opportunity and
ADA Coordinator

On Mon, 10 May 2004, Rick Ells wrote:

>
> Interesting piece of legislation. (Bill text is at
> http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/billinfo/2003-04/Senate/6500-6524/6501-s_sl_03292004.txt
>
> It appears to put the burden on the publisher to provide an electronic
> version of the published material so that the content can be made
> available for students with "print access disabilities."
>
> I see some management puzzles for this law.  The wording of part (2) seems
> to imply that the request for material is on a per case basis. It seems to
> say you have to ask once for each student who will receive the electronic
> version of the document, which could be an administrative headache. Also,
> what entity at the UW does the negotiation to determinal what e-format is
> acceptable?
>
> It also says the e-version will be provided "on media [that] must be
> copy-protected or the public or private institution of higher education
> shall take other reasonable precautions to ensure that students do not
> copy or distribute." Can the e-version be placed on a Web site - is
> password and ID authentication enough to comply?
>
> There are some neat ideas in there, such as the e-version must retain as
> much of the "structural elements" of the original publication as is
> reasonably possible. I find it interesting that their fall-back version
> type is HTML, to be used when the publisher and institution cannot reach
> agreement on some other technology. Good choice, but getting from hardcopy
> to HTML can be an intense process.
>
> Still, given all the work Dan Comden and others are doing to convert
> hardcopy into e-formats for handicapped, I think this is great.
>
>  |- Rick Ells - 543-2875 - rells at cac.washington.edu - Rm 011S MGH Bldg -|
>  |-                http://staff.washington.edu/rells/                  -|
>
> On Sun, 9 May 2004, Jennifer Ward wrote:
>
> > Full text of the bill can be found at
> > http://www.leg.wa.gov/wsladm/billinfo1/dspBillSummary.cfm?billnumber=6501
> >
> > This bill establishes requirements for instructional materials for
> > students with disabilities at public and private institutions of higher
> > education and has pretty serious implications for some units on campus. It
> > was signed on March 26 and goes into effect June 10.
> >
> > How timely that the next accessibleWeb meeting is on making PDF and .doc
> > files more accessible! I know that a few folks from the Libraries'
> > electronic reserves unit will be at the meeting on the 20th.
> >
> > --Jennifer
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > Jennifer Ward
> > Head, Web Services
> > Information Technology Services
> > University of Washington Libraries
> > phone: 206.685.3121
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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> > Accessibleweb at u.washington.edu
> > http://mailman.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/accessibleweb
> >
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