[access-uk] Re: RNIB Student Library Booklist on Counselling

  • From: "Barry Hill" <bbinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:15:52 +0100

A good university should offer all the things you suggest.  I interviewed 
the disability officer and the enrolment officer for the department I was 
in.  The enrolment officer said that he would set things in motion as soon 
as a disabled person was accepted on a course, as early as June, and the 
disability officer said that she would arrange things so that the student 
was up and running a week before everyone else.  This is how it should be.

A lot of lecturers use similar if not the same, book lists year after year, 
so it isn't difficult for them to give the list to a disabled student well 
in advance.  This would give them time to scan the book and get it back to 
the library when the other students need it.  I think this might be bending 
the copywrite aws a little , though, as the book is supposed to be in the 
possession of the person with the access version.  I think they might be 
allowed to keep 10% of a book.

Get your friend to talk to the disabilities officer as soon as possible.  I 
think that every university and college has to have one.  If not, get onto 
student services and quote the law at them.

Barry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andy Logue" <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 3:01 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: RNIB Student Library Booklist on Counselling


Hi Barry.

Some very good points there, in particular, the one about securing a book
list, prior to commencing a course.  That is a very good idea and if the
reading list was made available some months , perhaps, during the summer, a
student could spend the summer trying to source them from Talking Book
Libraries.  What I found was that my fully sighted fellow students would run
down to the College Library and get the books out quicker than I could.  On
top of this, I had to wait for several months into my course, before I was
provided with the equipment I needed to complete the course.  If this
equipment was also made available much earlier, the student, perhaps with no
experience of JAWS or HAL, could get used to the system earlier.

I'd love to see students commencing a course with as much equality as
practabily possible.  Perhaps, applications for higher education grants
could be processed earlier if the students were disabled, say, 6 months.

Taking on an academic course is difficult for most people, but vip students
struggle right from the start.  It would be interesting to see any figures
on drop-out, particularly amongst disabled students.

Best wishes.
Andy








----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barry Hill" <bbinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 12:47 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: RNIB Student Library Booklist on Counselling


> In my last year at uni, just when the DDA kicked in, the library allocated
> a
> disabilities officer who would scan any chapters of books or journal
> articles.  They had Kerzweil, so they could make the text accessible.  It
> wasn't ideal, but it was much better than the earlier method whereby I
> scanned the books and articles, almost doubling my work-load.
>
> Perhaps the university library that your friend is going to use would have
> a
> similar service.  Also, I used to ask for book-lists well in advance of
> the
> coming term and, in most occasions, the lecturers were happy to provide
> it.
>
> Barry
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Taylor" <groups.dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 12:13 PM
> Subject: [access-uk] Re: RNIB Student Library Booklist on Counselling
>
>
> Hi,
>
> OK. let me give some context here. I declare an interest in that I used to
> work in a similar area of RNIB though I didn't have control of library
> services.
>
> RNIB has a certain amount of money it can spend on subsidising services.
> In
> recent years, they have been trying to use that to the best effect.
> Therefore, if the service could, or should, be provided by somebody else,
> they don't recreate it. Universities are responsible for ensuring courses
> are accessible now by law, so they should be the people that use the
> library. After all, they provide all their other students with a library,
> so
> why not us too? Why would we not be able to go to our uni library and sort
> things out there and then, rather than having to chase round? Now I know
> it
> doesn't actually work like that, but that is where we should really be,
> and
> unis would pay, just like they would pay for regular library stock etc.
> That
> means, in theory, we still get our books and RNIB can subsidise something
> else.
>
> In reality, such arrangements will not cover everybody in the foreseeable
> future though, so they can't just withdraw library services from us.
>
> I do agree that they don't make it easy to find out about publications
> though and that working age people get the worst deal from RNIB. I do know
> a
> visually impaired person who does a lot of their employment work now, and
> he
> does talk to lots of employers and try to raise awareness as well as
> running
> various new services. You might like to look for their "work matters"
> strategy to see what they've done, or not done! Nobody can do everything
> though!
>
> Cheers
> Dave
>
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