National Forum on tertiary
education material for blind and vision-impaired students
See now:
- Consolidated recommendations from forum;
- HREOC discussion paper for this forum
- perspective papers from participants
- steering committee first meeting minutes and terms of reference
- steering committee minutes from meeting April 2003
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) held a national forum on 29 May 2002 on the availability of tertiary study materials for students who are blind or vision-impaired, or who have another print disability.
Key issues discussed at the forum included:
- financial implications for universities in providing material in accessible formats;
- resource implications for producers of material in accessible formats;
- factors such as copyright restrictions, encryption, and image-based distribution of material, which may prevent equal and independent access;
- strategies for ensuring efficient, effective and timely access to tertiary study materials for students who require them in alternative formats.
The forum brought together groups and individuals with interest and expertise in the area to develop solutions to the problems that are being experienced.
Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski decided to convene the forum after recent media coverage highlighted problems for tertiary students who are blind or vision-impaired in obtaining study materials at the same time as other students, and in formats that they can access, including Braille, large print, electronic formats such as pdf, and audio.
The forum was held to consider the complex access and equity issues facing universities, producers, publishers, and students with print disabilities in the rapidly-changing educational and information environment. Unless these issues are addressed speedily, students who cannot use standard print may find increasing barriers to their tertiary education.
If you have any comments, ideas or suggestions on the issues discussed at the forum, please contact
Bruce Maguire
Disability Rights Unit
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
Telephone: 02 9284 9613
Email: brucemaguire@humanrights.gov.au