[Athen] Confidentiality issue on etext request

[Lissner, Scott]

While I might argue that in this instance the publisher could be
considered an agent of the institution with a need to know, Jim has
nicely covered all of the bases, involved the students in the management
of their own needs and given them the opportunity to think about
intellectual property and it's theft.  Not bad for a day's work Jim.
While I think publisher may be a bit paranoid (anyone know of a case
where a student with a disability emailed his or her digital text to
thousands or even tens of people?)  I don't think FERPA's intent was to
hinder publishers in guarding their rights.  I am positive that the
ADA's and 504's protections against outing a student would not prevent
this flow of information but it is better all around to inform the
student up front.  
 

L. Scott Lissner, ADA Coordinator 
Office Of The Provost 

292-6207(v);  688-8605(tty);  688-3665(fax) 
HTTP://ADA.OSU.EDU <http://ada.osu.edu/>  

 

________________________________

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Marks, Jim
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 1:55 PM
To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Confidentiality issue on etext request


We provide the publisher with the information they request.  To deal
with confidentiality concerns, we have student complete a print to
e-text conversion form that gives our office permission to pass the
student's information to the publisher.  It also verifies that the
student bought a copy of the book and that the person is indeed a bona
fide person with a print disability.  The reason we do it this way is
that we want students to be in the driver's seat.  It's not the
university that has the relationship with the publisher, rather, it's
the individual with a disability.  The role of the university disability
service is to facilitate the relationship between students with
disabilities and the publisher.  Sometimes we DS professionals go
overboard in confidentiality concerns, and we have a bad habit of making
the issue about us and not putting the correct emphasis on the student's
right to read.  Should a student refuse to disclose the information, we
would probably find another way to get that person an accessible book,
such as hiring a human reader.  It's just that we are trying to change
what it means to have a disability so that disability is respectable.
We want our students to be first class citizens, not the objects of an
agency's good works.  Below is a cut and paste version of the form we
have students sign.  We then just plug in the information on our form
onto the publisher's online form.
 
 As a University of Montana-Missoula student with a print disability, I
request that Disability Services for Students convert the title below to
electronic text, which is accessible to me, for my personal educational
use.  I also ask that DSS submit this title in its converted form to
Bookshare.org on my behalf. I certify that I have purchased this book in
print and understand that this form may be submitted to the book
publisher.

 

Signature: ____________________________________       Date:
_______________________

 

 

Today's Date: ______________________

 

Student Name: _____________________________    

 

Student E-mail: ________________________________  Student Phone:
______________________

 

Disability Services Coordinator Name: ___________________________

  

 


Book Title:
________________________________________________________________

 

Authors/Editors:
____________________________________________________________

 

Edition: ________________________    ISBN#:
___________________________________

 

Publisher: ______________________________________   Copyright Date:
_____________

 

Please direct any correspondence to:

 

 

Disability Services Director Jim Marks

Lommasson 154

University of Montana

Missoula, MT 59812

 (406) 243-2243 (Voice/Text)

jim.marks at umontana.edu

http://www.umt.edu/dss

 

 

  
 



Jim Marks
Director of Disability Services
University of Montana
jim.marks at umontana.edu
http://www.umt.edu/dss/
  

 

________________________________

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Sandra Sanders
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 2:24 PM
To: athen at athenpro.org
Subject: [Athen] Confidentiality issue on etext request



In completing my first online request for an alternate text format from
Pearson, I was shocked to see they require the student's name, address
and email on the Request Form - Students with Disabilities.  We're not
about to disclose this information!  How do you get around this?

 

Sandra

Sandra E. Sanders

Assistive Technology Center Supervisor

Counseling Center & Office of Disability Services

University of South Carolina Aiken

471 University Parkway, Box 15

Aiken, SC 29801

Tel 803-641-3609, Fax 803-641-3677

Web: www.usca.edu/cc <http://www.usca.edu/cc> 

Email:  sandras at usca.edu <mailto:sandras at usca.edu> 

USCA - We're focused on you!

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20061215/ce59cdab/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: attd5d5d.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 934 bytes
Desc: attd5d5d.gif
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20061215/ce59cdab/attachment.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: attd5d7d.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 107 bytes
Desc: attd5d7d.gif
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20061215/ce59cdab/attachment-0001.gif>