New Statewide Agreements in Three States Improve Access to Textbooks for Disabled College Students

/PRNewswire/ -- Students with disabilities such as blindness and dyslexia at hundreds of colleges and universities in three states now have quicker and easier access to alternative college textbooks as the result of agreements for those states to fund access to the alternative textbooks for colleges and universities.

Separate statewide agreements for colleges and universities in Georgia and Ohio, as well as 112 community colleges in the California system, have been finalized to fund memberships in the AccessText Network, a national online database of alternative college materials. The AccessText Network makes it quicker and easier for students with disabilities such as blindness, dyslexia, or physical impairments that prevent the use of traditional hardcopy textbooks, to get the alternative electronic textbooks they need for college.

"With these statewide membership agreements in the AccessText Network, thousands of college students who used to wait weeks or even months for their alternative textbooks now have a streamlined process, allowing them to receive their course materials in just a few days," said Tom Allen, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Publishers, whose higher education members donated almost $1 million to launch the non-profit venture. "I congratulate the funders of these memberships in the AccessText Network. It will help level the playing field for disabled students in these states, helping them achieve their higher education goals."

The three statewide agreements being announced for the AccessText Network:
-- California - The agreement will provide memberships for the Alternate
Text Production Center, which serves the 112 community colleges in the
state.
-- Georgia - The agreement will provide memberships for 50 colleges and
universities in the state through the Alternative Media Access Center.
The membership for Georgia's colleges and universities is funded by
the Georgia Board of Regents.
-- Ohio - The membership for The University System of Ohio's colleges and
universities, funded through a joint initiative of the State Board of
Regents and the state's Rehabilitation Services Commission, will
provide membership for 61 public colleges and universities in the
state.


"Textbook publishers are dedicated to helping all students succeed, and we are proud to see the AccessText Network being utilized in these states to make college education a reality for thousands of students with disabilities," Allen said.

Christopher Lee, director of AMAC, said the new network is fulfilling orders for students in about four days on average. "In the past, the system was so slow and bureaucratic that disabled students were often still waiting for their alternative textbooks several weeks into the semester," Lee said. "That's an unacceptable scenario for any student striving to succeed in college."

The AccessText Network is operated by the Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC) in Atlanta. The Network has more than 500 colleges and universities in 49 states enrolled to participate in the system. There are more than 360,000 textbook titles available through the Network.

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AccessText Network Created in Collaboration with University of Georgia Will Improve Student Access to College Textbook Content

The Association of American Publishers has signed an agreement with the Alternative Media Access Center, an initiative of the Georgia Board of Regents and the University of Georgia, to develop and launch the AccessText Network, a comprehensive, national online system that will make it easier and quicker for students with print-related disabilities, such as blindness, to obtain the textbooks they need for their college courses.

The program at UGA is part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.


"AMAC is energized about working in conjunction with the disability community to guarantee AccessText becomes the conduit between the publishing world and post-secondary institutions' disability programs nationwide," said Christopher Lee, department head and director of AMAC."We are charged with making AccessText the national nucleus of post-secondary distribution of approved alternative textbook file exchanges, training and technical support. Our goal is to make the college disability professional's job easier and, in the long run, help save institutions from the high cost of producing electronic textbooks for their students with disabilities."

Many college students with disabilities are struggling to use required or recommended print textbooks that are essential to their course success, said Patricia Schroeder, AAP's president and chief executive officer.

"By improving the efficiencies of our present process, AccessText will facilitate quicker access to content for more students," she said.

The new AccessText Network will improve the way electronic versions of print textbooks are delivered to campus-based disability student service offices from publishers and streamline the permission process for scanning copies of print textbooks when publisher files are unavailable.

"This project would have not been possible without the early support and direction of Noel Gregg, director of the Franklin UGA Regents Center for Learning Disorders," said Lee. "The AMAC project was incubated under that center, and Noel was a co-founder of AMAC making the project a reality."

The network, scheduled for beta launch in February 2009, will ensure that institutions can more easily obtain information about publishers' course materials, request electronic text files and use more efficient acquisition and distribution channels.

AccessText Network is being funded through donations from publishers Cengage Learning; CQ Press; Macmillan; McGraw-Hill Education; Pearson; Reed Elsevier Inc.; John Wiley & Sons; and W.W. Norton.

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