Schools

UC, Rights Group Announce Agreement to Aid Students Who Have Trouble Reading Print

The agreement could include new technologies for converting materials from print to electronic formats for students with limited vision or other disabilities. The UC Library has a new print conversion system said to be the first of its kind in the U.S.

By Bay City News Service

A disability rights group and the University of California at Berkeley today (Tuesday) announced a pact to improve access to course materials for students who have difficulty reading printed publications.

The university and Berkeley-based Disability Rights Advocates said they reached the agreement in a collaborative approach, after a year of negotiations that didn't involve a lawsuit.

Find out what's happening in Berkeleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We live in the age of information," said Gibor Basri, UC Berkeley vice chancellor for equity and inclusion.

"It is critical that students with print disabilities be able to take the same advantage of academic and employment opportunities as all Berkeley students," Basri said.

Find out what's happening in Berkeleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Print-disabled students are those who cannot read standard printed materials because of limited vision or other disabilities. Alternative formats for such students include digital text that can be made more accessible, large-print publications, Braille or the use of an assistant who can read the material aloud.

The agreement provides for a series of policies and procedures to improve students' access to alternative formats, including through new technology.

One new technique is a UC Library print conversion system said to be the first of its kind in the nation. The system enables students with print disabilities to request that a specific library book or journal be converted to an accessible digital form, with an average turnaround time of five business days.

Disability Rights Advocates Executive Director Larry Paradis said, "UC Berkeley has taken on an important leadership role in addressing the barriers that all too often cause difficulty for students with print disabilities."

The group undertook the negotiations on behalf of three representative UC students with print-reading disabilities.

One of them, Tabitha Mancini, a 41-year-old undergraduate at UC Berkeley, said, "It has always been a dream of mine to have full access to the campus library system so that I can do research."

Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly reported that Tabitha Mancini is an undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara. Mancini previously lived in Santa Barbara but attends UC Berkeley. The article has been corrected.

Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here