As we learned earlier, persons with disabilities receive, convey and make use of information in a wide variety of ways.
Some persons with disabilities may not be able to read print but can access the information using other formats such as audio, Braille, enlarged text and screen-reading software.
Although we often think of persons with vision loss needing alternative-to-print formats, many people with learning disabilities also benefit from having access to information in other formats. For example, some people with auditory processing difficulties prefer written rather than spoken information.
Closed captioning, CART (communication access real-time translation), sign language and text are all different types of alternate formats that people with hearing loss use to access information.
Some people with physical disabilities (such as low upper body strength) may find it easier to access information using audio formats, as the effort to hold a book or sheaf of papers can be quickly tiring.
Did You Know?
If an electronic version is not available, it can take weeks to produce a textbook in audio format and depending on the complexity of the material, up to four months to convert an entire textbook into Braille.
Some students with disabilities starting their courses in September often don’t get to use their textbooks until weeks or even months later.
One of the key things that faculty can do to help reduce this lag is to select the textbooks and other text materials they will use in their course as early as possible. This lead time helps the disability and library services offices to procure or produce them in alternate formats, giving students access to the materials at the same time as their classmates.
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