Alternative formats

Entitlement or privilege?

Day 1 - 10.10 – 10.50

Alistair McNaught – JISC TechDis

What might a non-Scot expect for £9000?From the academic teaching staff?

• A reading list of books to buy?

• A lecturer speaking at you?

• A lecturer recording information in case you miss it?

• A lecturer collating a wide range of resources on a VLE?

• A lecturer linking you to a range of recommended media – podcasts, videos, blogs, websites, rss subscriptions?

What might a non-Scot expect for £9000?From the library service?

• A library full of books and journals

• An library full of e-books and e-journals?

• E-book platforms that can be adapted to suit my needs and preferences eg: • Colour, font, magnification, reflow, TTS?

• PC, Smartphone, Tablet, e-Reader?

• Signposting to reliable sources of rich media collections?

What might a non-Scot expect for £9000?From the IT/IS services

• A network that works with all my devices?

• The software I need to support my studies?

TASK 1

Scenario:The Scottish Executive asks you to do

student advocacy work to empower print disabled learners to know what they can demand as a minimal “reasonable adjustment” in FE / HE for an educational institution to provide.

Create a rank order of minimal expectations.

The vision

• Mainstream provision of textbooks is accessible enough that alternative formats are available to all users, whether• Disabled or not

• Willing to declare a disability or not.

• Specialist provision (where required) is available at fraction of current times/costs.

Where do you come in?

• How closely does your supply meet potential demand?

• How do you compare with others?

• Who do you work with to make a difference?

Some simple maths

Number of students x number of core texts

20

JISC TechDis / CLAUD survey

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/claud Alternative formats for print

impaired learnersWho supplies them? Who is offered

them?How comprehensive is the service? Who

pays? What are the alternatives?

The actors

24 options.Mean = 3Mode = 0

How many involved?

Average Actors (where 3 involved)

• Librarian (obtaining pdf from publisher) = 7

• Disability specialist (specialist transcription) = 6

• Inhouse scanning (Librarian = 4; Disability specialist = 4)

Seeing more

• For those already familiar with remainder of presentation check out the survey findings at

•http://tinyurl.com/jtdATA

How would you do?

30, 40, 50, 80, 100, 105, 202, 250, 300, 400, 500, 511, 1000, 12,900

Who pays and why does it matter?

Hidden discrimination?

Hidden discrimination?

HESA 2009-10 first year students declaring disability.

And also …..

How many of your organisations have TTS available on every workstation across the institution?

How many are using Heather and Stuart voices?

Alternative alternative formats

The diamond of disempowermentLearner – I take what I’m given and do the best I can.

Tutor – My reading list could include a few websites, podcasts, blogs, videos but what’s the point? There’s a good book!

Disability staff – I can scan this in half a day and at least I know it’s done.

Library staff – we can contact publishers and find digital stuff but nobody asks us.

Alternative alternatives

• Rich media - Podcast / Video

• Web pages

• E-book

• Publisher PDF raw

• Publisher PDF improved

• In house scanning

Alternative alternatives

• Rich media - Podcast / Video

• Web pages

• E-book

• Publisher PDF raw

• Publisher PDF improved

• In house scanning

Tutor

Librarian

Disability officer

A model of alternatives

Alternative alternative formats

The equilateral of empowermentLearner – my tutor, librarian and disability support mentor have shown me loads of options.

Tutor – Since I started varying the resources I use I seem to be engaging more learners and more confident at doing things a different way myself.

Disability staff – I’m spending less time fire-fighting and more time positively influencing.

Library staff – I think tutors and learners are realising how much we actually know about.

Publishers – the truth

• Friends or foe?• 26 HE institutions comment on 69 publishers.

• 60 commended for responsiveness by at least one respondent.

• OUP and Sage had 23 and 16 positive mentions - no negative.

• 39 publishers had only positive comments (OUP,

• 21 received a balance of positive and negative comment.

• Only 9 publishers received only negative mentions.

• Be part of creating the culture change

• We are……

Publishers – cost effective?

Publishers – successful outcomes?

Publishers – timely?

Conclusion

Many people benefit from alternative formats Mainstream alternative formats already exist.Give publishers a chance now but use free Publisher Lookup service. Give feedback on your experiences.Be strategic, equitable and sustainable in your approaches