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Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies
Part2:Country studies
Australia
Materials provision
General
A range of not-for-profit organisations produce alternative format materials, as well as a number of for-profit companies. The Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) produced he Print Disability and Postal Concession for the Blind Review Report 2003 [http://www.facs.gov.au/disability/blind_review_report/03.html] which listed the organizations responsible for producing alternative format materials:
“There are 13 producers of alternative format material across Australia that receive funding under the Print Disability Services Program. These producers comprise:
- The Queensland Narrating Service, Queensland;
- The Australian Listening Library, New South Wales;
- Royal Blind Society of New South Wales, New South Wales;
- Royal Institute for the Deaf and Blind Children: Vision Ed, New South Wales;
- St Edmunds School for the Blind and Vision Impaired, New South Wales;
- Canberra Blind Society, Australian Capital Territory;
- Christian Blind Mission International, Victoria;
- Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind, Victoria;
- Vision Australia Foundation, Victoria;
- ‘Hear a Book’ Service (Tasmania) Inc, Tasmania;
- Royal Society for the Blind of South Australia Inc, South Australia;
- Association of the Blind of Western Australia Inc, Western Australia; and
- Narkaling Inc, Western Australia.
“Twelve of the 13 organisations produce material and services for blind and vision impaired people and one organisation produces alternative format material for people with an intellectual disability.
“A range of alternative format material for State, Territory and Catholic Departments of Education are produced by some of the Print Disability funded services. These services also receive funding from State and Territory disability service programs.
“Private enterprises are also commercially producing Braille, audio and large print materials for people who require material in alternative formats.”
It should be noted again that the Royal Blind Society (RBS), the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (RVIB) and Vision Australia Foundation (VAF) came together the following year in Vision Australia.
Vision Australia is a major provider of materials. It has a digitisation programme in hand.
Braille
Original materials supplied: Print book or e-text
Conversion: VA staff
On-demand: Contract, student and personal support requests
Stock: Projected client requests for the library
Targets for range/depth/speed: No targets apart from a quota of titles for the library each year
Audio - standard cassette and CD
Original materials supplied: Print books or sheets
Conversion: Text narrated by volunteers or professional narrators; synthetic voice production being trialled for some elements of production
On-demand: Contract, student and personal support requests
Stock: Projected client requests for the library
Targets for range/depth/speed: None
Audio Daisy
Original materials supplied: Print
Conversion: VA staff
On-demand: Contract, student and personal support requests
Stock: Projected client requests for the library; also analogue materials are being converted to Daisy based on its availability from other agencies and quailty checking for specific date ranges; envisaged that all audio masters held will be converted to Daisy
Targets for range/depth/speed: None
Daisy text and audio
Original materials supplied: Print
Conversion: VA staff
On-demand: Contract, student and personal support requests
Stock: Projected client requests for the library; also analogue materials are being converted to Daisy based on its availability from other agencies and quailty checking for specific date ranges; envisaged that all audio masters held will be converted to Daisy
Targets for range/depth/speed: None
Supplied in alternative formats
how supplied: Digital masters in 45 min lengths or wav files
who supplies: Commercial vendors
Basis for decision to acquire: Client preferences for genre, client suggestions, Australian content, award winners and popular authors
Targets for range/depth/speed: None
Digital audio downloads/streaming
VA does not yet have material available for digital audio download or streaming but is aiming to have downloads available for library content within 12 months, and is spending AU$1.4 million on its DAISY-based digisation project.
Other materials/formats
Music: There are several producers of Braille music in Australia. Holdings of Braille music are listed in Libraries Australia (the national union catalogue)
Schools
As an example, the Western Australia Vision Education Service, through its Transcription and Resource Unit, produces, loans and stores curriculum materials and textbooks in:
- Braille
- audio tape
- tactile and
- large print formats
Universities
CAUL identifies LaTrobe University’s services as typical:
“After providing evidence of your disability or medical condition, Disability Advisory Staff will evaluate your needs and, if required, ensure the provision of:
- Notetakers, personal readers, scribes, help with assignment preparation and other personal and academic assistance on campus
- Alternative examination or assessment conditions and applications for special consideration
- Arrangements for course materials to be made available in an appropriate format, eg. Braille, audio-cassettes
- Loan of equipment such as wheelchairs, scooters, portable cassette recorders, lecterns, ergonomic chairs
- Access to computer equipment
- Arrangements for lectures and tutorials to be held in physically accessible venues
- Information and support regarding day-to-day university life
- Information and support regarding complaints of disability discrimination
- Information regarding scholarships and awards applicable to students with disabilities/additional needs
- Information regarding accessible accommodation on campus Referral information both internal and external to the University (See http://www.latrobe.edu.au/equity/disas/studinfo.htm visited 28 August 2006)
Macquarie University has established a service called Macquarie Customised Accessibility Service (M-CAS) which provides transcription and consulting services on a fee-for-service basis to tertiary institutions, (and also companies and government departments to support the needs of employees). In liaison with the student’s own institution, it works with the academics and individual students to determine their needs and produces material in-house to support that student. It has direct relationships with academic publishers which facilitates fast access to files.
CAUL gave us the following information which generalizes university practices. In most cases, information from individual universities confirmed this. An exception is DAISY, where CAUL said DAISY format texts for students were not currently obtainable: Macquarie was able to source them from specialists and also suggested that several universities were planning to create texts. Macquarie itself is trialling DAISY format production services at its Macquarie Customised Accessibility Services (M-CAS).
Braille
Original materials supplied: Electronically from publisher as word or PDF file or OCR scanned from hard copy.
Conversion: Conversion of hard copy Braille is outsourced to Vision Australia or other specialised transcription services. Some Universities may have conversion equipment for in house transcription.
On-demand: yes
Stock: no
Targets for range/depth/speed: none
Audio - standard cassette and CD
Original materials supplied: May be hard copy or Electronic (from CD or email)
Conversion: In house through University Disability Services; Outsourced to Vision Australia and other specialised transcription services; Text or screen reading software such as JAWS, Kurzweil, Text aloud or Read and Write Gold may also be used by students to read directly from electronic files
On-demand: yes
Stock: no
Targets for range/depth/speed: none
Audio digital for download/streaming
Original materials supplied: CD, digital, hardcopy
Conversion: In house through University Disability Services
On demand: yes
Supplied in alternative formats
how supplied: Post
who supplies: University Disability Services; Education Libraries; Students own conversion
Basis for decision to acquire: Subject areas taught at the university and depending on availability from usual vendors.
Targets for range/depth/speed: none