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250 - AccessText Network(ATN), AMAC Accessibility Solutions, USA

ONTACT

AMAC Accessibility Solutions

Mr. Christopher M. Lee

USA

+1 404 894 8000

VERALL GOAL

MISSION

The AccessText Network (ATN) is the first in the world publisher network portal linking United States universities to 92%

of the U. S. post-secondary publishers. The mission of ATN is to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access

to their textbooks in an accessible format and timely manner while reducing costs and providing accessibility content

transparency. Before 2009, universities in the United States were responsible for producing electronic files of textbooks

for students requiring alternative media. Students with print-related disabilities waited for weeks and sometimes

months to secure textbooks in an accessible format. The delays in getting content only added to the low retention and

completion rates for the students with disabilities enrolled in universities. AccessText Network, founded in 2009 as a

collaborative project of AMAC Accessibility and the Association of American Publishers (AAP), created an on-line portal

of textbooks available in electronic formats.

HE SOLUTION THAT HAS BEEN DEVELOPED

Disability Service Provider (DSP) members at U.S. universities, with just a few clicks, can request textbooks for college

students eligible to receive alternative formats (DOC, EPUB, PDF, Rich Text Format, Text or XML). Publishers process

requests and the DSP is notified by email when the publisher file is ready for downloads. The turnaround time for

getting publisher files is often less than 3 days; over 60% of file requests are filled in a day. If a file is not available, a

publisher may grant permission to scan. Once the university receives the publisher file, DSPs use it to prepare an

accessible format (braille, audio, large print, e-text). The university can provide this file to other eligible students by

requesting publisher permission to redistribute. DSPs now rapidly acquire publisher files or permission to scan books,

determine whether another university has already created an alternate format that is available for licensing, and

determine whether they or individual students can acquire digital versions from publishers. Regular dynamic online

ONIX media data feeds from the publishing houses include copyright, author, and textbook editions. ONIX for Books

Product Information is the international standard for representing and communicating book industry product

information in electronic form.