rightscom
Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies
Part2:Country studies
Australia
Barriers
Respondents were asked about the most important barriers to provision of library services to visually impaired people, and also which they would most like to remove. Funding and copyright featured across the board, but for tertiary institutions, it was also very important to deal with the problem of time lags in delivering material to students. These lags were to some extent due to material not being made available by publishers in a timely fashion but also due to human factors: for example, students not advising libraries of their needs in good time, or faculty not understanding the need to make reading lists available well in advance. For schools, the lack of training for teachers in this area was an important issue.
Vision Australia
Most important barrier
Both funding and copyright restrictions play a role in limiting the amount and timely provision of accessible information to people who are blind or vision impaired.
Most like to remove
While copyright can slow things down it is lack of funding which is restrictive.
Schools
Most important barrier
Education of staff to know what is available. They have never had any Professional Development in this area.
Most like to remove
The lack of trained/qualified staff and lack of funding.
Universities
CAUL
Most important barrier
Providing timely access to course materials in accessible formats. This includes
- obtaining reading lists from academics
- lack of material listed in national databases
- poor response time from publishers responding to requests for electronic files
- charts and other technical content which does not readily convert to accessible format
Funding: The Australian Universities Teaching Committee in 2003 reported that “Funding and resources dedicated to providing supports for students are inadequate and not necessarily distributed to the departments and areas responsible for teaching and supporting students with disabilities” http://services.admin.utas.edu.au/visproj/
Most like to remove
Better advanced notification of required study materials
UTAS
Most important barrier
Academic processes, which do not provide unit outlines and lists of essential readings in sufficient time for the Library to process the materials for the student. Staff resources ? the processes are very labour-intensive and time consuming, for a small number of students.
Lack of compatibility between the JAWS assistive software and PDF files.
Macquarie
Most important barrier
Copyright, funding levels plus ignorance and negative attitudes displayed by a number of publishers, academic staff and service providers.
Most like to remove
Outmoded copyright laws restricting the production and use of accessible materials by students with vision disabilities and funding constraints
Attitudinal barriers which can significantly progress in improving access to tertiary materials by students with vision disabilities and those organisations whose role is to support them in pursuit of their right to equality of educational access.