The University of California, Berkeley, has signed an out-of-court
settlement with the Disability Rights Advocates to make study material
more accessible for students with visual and learning disabilities.
The settlement comes in the wake of complaints brought forward by three
disabled students against the university. The disabilities included
blindness, paralysis and dyslexia, which required special software for
the students to help them in their research work
The settlement details include providing the students with more study
material in alternative format, extra time to submit assignments and
more staff to help.
This pact is not legally binding as the agreement was signed out of court.
"It's very well-written and the issues that it identifies have been
thematically recurrent issues at a lot of universities and through
lower-level complaints through the Office for Civil Rights out of the
Department of Education - so, as a model, it is significant and people
should pay attention to it," said L. Scott Lissner, president of the
national Association on Higher Education and Disability and ADA
coordinator at Ohio State University, reports insidehighered.com.
This settlement is a result of a one year negotiation between the
university and the disability rights advocates representing the three
students. Two of these students, Brandon King and Tabitha A. Mancini,
needed material in screen reading format and David Jaulus, who is
wheelchair bound and visually disabled, needed material in Braille and
other help.
"We live in the age of information," said Gibor Basri, UC Berkeley
vice chancellor for equity and inclusion, according to KTVU.com
"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 added.
Some of the measures to be undertaken by the university include
adopting new technology to make study material accessible in digital
format . Students can now request for specific reading material to be
converted in accessible digital format, which includes digital text ,
large-print publications or Braille.
The pact also requires the professors at the university to give
reading material well in advance to enable students to get alternative
material in the desired format.
Source : University Herald , 13th May 2013
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