Barbara McCarthy's Testimony before the United States Senate on the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act

This document is no longer timely and may be only of historical value.

For information on current issues go to the Education Issues section.

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, and staff: Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today.

What I am about to tell you, and the purpose of this legislation, have not been a Senate priority; there are great economic and international issues before you. What I am going to tell you about, however, is the priority within the community of blind and visually impaired people, and the professionals who work with them.

Technology has opened many opportunities to provide all of us with access to information. This is a matter of allowing technology to provide access to information. Technology offers the potential to provide the materials that all students, including those who are blind and visually impaired, must have in order to receive an equal and quality education. Ultimately, technology will allow for lower materials costs, faster delivery, and better student performance.

If I could have called this hearing - I would have invited you to Richmond, to see what we do at the Library and Resource Center this time of year. In fact, today, if you were to visit any one of the materials centers that are located in forty-five (45) states, you would see similar activity.

At the Library and Resource Center in Richmond, we provide braille and large print textbooks to all Virginia students who are blind and visually impaired, about 550 students. We loan textbooks for the school year. At the end of every academic year, the books are returned - and made available to be loaned to another student for the next school year.

This time of the year we are busy producing braille and large print textbooks for the next school year. Most books have already been ordered, and will likely be ready when school begins. However, last week I received orders for five books to be produced in braille: two algebra, a calculus, a geometry, and a biology book.

June is late in the process to receive orders for braille books. I was able to find people to produce the math books, but the books will not be ready when school starts. I have not been able to locate someone who can produce the biology book. But regardless of when I received the book order, there is a student who needs the book in braille, and will suffer without it when school starts.

Orders for textbooks for the next school year should be received no later than April 30. Any order received after that is at risk for not being ready when school begins. When the order is received, we search our own database, to see if we have either produced the book ourselves, or purchased the book from another transcribing agency. If we have not produced the book, and it is an order for large print, we ask for a copy of the book from the school system, and enlarge it using copy machines.

If the order is for a braille textbook, we search the American Printing House for the Blind's national Louis database for the title. If it is not available from another source, we will transcribe the book using our staff, ask one of our volunteers to transcribe the book, or pay someone to transcribe the book.

A book the size of the biology text I have with me today will take approximately nine months to transcribe. Most transcribers work on several books at one time - and regularly provide volumes of braille to stay ahead of the class syllabus. A book this size - 1,183 pages - would translate into 4,732 pages in braille. The average cost to produce this braille book would be $16,562.

This national practice for producing books in alternative format that I have described is a process that requires everyone in the chain to do their part, on time, and accurately. One break in the chain, and the books will be late for the beginning of school. The process for providing textbooks in adapted format is dependent upon many factors, which determine if students receives books on time.

Some of those factors are:

• if students are assigned subject areas and classes for the next school year, prior to May;
  
  
• if the school has identified next year's textbooks;
  
  
• if the school can provide copies of the textbooks for us to use in production;
  
  
• if the book orders are placed by April 30;
  
  
• if there are transcribers available to produce the book in braille;
  
  
• if students' schedules don't change when school begins;
  
  
• if students don't move into a different school system unexpectedly;

The process that is promoted within the scope of this legislation is very different from the one we currently use. It requires far less time, costs less, and will ensure that blind students will receive their textbooks at the same time as other students.

As soon as an order is received for the book, we would search our database. If we don't have it, we would check the national database, that this legislation creates, to see if the file is listed as available. If it is, we will download the file, print the book in large print or translate the data using braille software, and provide the book in the student's chosen format (visual electronic, large print, digital audio, or for use with an electronic braille display).

If the book isn't available, we will request the electronic file from the publisher, to be deposited in the center. Once deposited, we will download the file. The cost for my Resource Center to produce this biology book in braille, using this proposed process, would be approximately $785, and it could easily be produced within a week.

If this legislation is passed, three (3) years from now I will not struggle to find a means by which this biology textbook is put into braille. When the student moves to Fairfax from Newport News in the middle of the school year, or when the student is doing so well that she changes classes first semester into an honors class, the books can be available.

On behalf of the members of the Association of Instructional Resource Centers for the Visually Impaired, representing every state in the country, we believe that this legislation offers the single greatest contribution to blind and visually impaired children's futures. It will ensure they really do receive the same education as their sighted peers.

Access to information opens doors. This legislation is a door opener. Children's lives will be changed.

For further information, contact:

Barbara McCarthy
Director, Library and Resource Center
Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired
395 Azalea Avenue
Richmond, VA 23227
804-371-3661
mccartbn@dbvi.state.va.us