Alternative Text for Students with Disabilities

Under various federal and New York State laws and regulations any student who is deemed to be “print disabled” as a consequence of a learning, visual, or other physical disability is entitled to receive copies of any printed instructional materials in any of a variety of accessible alternate formats from the publishers of those instructional materials. These alternate formats can include electronically scanned versions of textbooks, or HTML, PDF, or Microsoft Word formatted documents.

Instructional material is defined as:

Printed instructional material, including the text of the material, sidebars, the table of contents, chapter headings, subheadings, footnotes, pictures, illustrations, graphs, charts, indexes, glossaries, and bibliographies.
Supplementary non-printed instructional materials, including all materials, regardless of original format (CD-ROM, DVD, web pages, video and audio tapes, etc.), with the goal that all electronic materials will meet guidelines and standards required by §508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

► For background and additional details regarding §508, please visit http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/508standards.htm

Students should contact the disability services office on their campus for assistance obtaining these alternate formatted materials prior to the start of the semester.

Faculty can expedite this process by posting information about required textbooks or other course materials prior to the beginning of the semester, on Blackboard, any course Web site, and on CUNYfirst.

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