Electronic Text (E-Text)

Learning Support Services for Students with Disabilities (LSS) Electronic Text (e-text) Conversion Policy

All students who are eligible for e-text accommodations must sign the appropriate copyright agreement(s).

If a student is eligible for Learning Ally membership:

1. LSS shall not perform e-text conversion of materials that are available from Learning Ally in AudioPlus CD format.
2. Before the start of each term, LSS will expect the student to provide a list of which course materials they need.
3. LSS will order the materials.
4. The student must have software or a specialized player to use materials from Learning Ally. PC Software currentlyis free for a license and portable players are available new for $345, or the student can use their own laptop or desktop computer for free. The student is responsible for the cost of this equipment. LSS staff may assist in ordering the equipment.
5. All Learning Ally AudioPlus CDs must be returned within the semester ordered.

When Pacific University has determined e-text accommodation eligibility, or when a Learning Ally-eligible student's materials are not available in AudioPlusCD format:

1. The student must inform LSS of the course materials that are to be converted. LSS may not be able to convert materials that contain certain foreign languages, significant quantities of mathematical notation, or other unique typographical constraints, all of which have limited transferability to continuous, ASCII plain-text.
2. The student must provide LSS with a copy of the material that is to be converted to e-text. LSS staff may provide assistance to students in acquiring books from the campus bookstore; however, the student is still responsible for the cost of the material. Students may acquire used books whenever possible.
3. LSS will complete converting the course material in as short a time as possible. The student may pick-up the book at LSS when conversion is complete and, as permitted by the bookstore's prevailing return and buy-back policies, return the book to the bookstore.
4. While conversion is in progress, the student may check the book out from the LSS office if needed. This will necessarily lengthen the time it takes LSS to complete the conversion and release the book to the student.
5. Whenever circumstances require a student to purchase two copies of the material, i.e. one for personal use and one for LSS to convert, LSS will make one attempt to acquire a copy from the publisher, in either hard-copy or electronic form, so as to offset the student's cost.

To arrange for taped textbooks/scanned texts:

If your LSS Accommodation Letter recommends taped or electronic texts, it's definitely worth your while to try them out.

• Submit a copy of your course syllabi to Learning Support Services (LSS) Office. We will      attempt to secure an audiobook download from Learning Ally first. If the textbook is      not available on audiobook, then we will need to scan your textbook and convert it into      an e-reader format such as ReadPlease2003 Free.

• To use ReadPlease 2003 Free:

     ReadPlease is a text-to-speech program that reads aloud any text from your computer. It can be downloaded from the website (http://www.readplease.com/english/downloads/) and installed on any computer.

      There are a couple of ways that it can be useful:

      • Writing: You can write a paper and then put it into ReadPlease, and it will read it back

      to you, highlighting words or lines as it goes, and you may be able to catch grammatical       errors or awkward sentences by listening to them read aloud.

      • Reading: You can scan handouts or reserved materials onto a disk in the library (ask       workers there to help with that if you run into problems) and open the documents in       ReadPlease to be read to you. There are different voices to choose from and you can       adjust the speed of the reading too. In addition, you can move selected text out into       another file as your "notes" to study later.