Ordering textbooks? Don’t forget electronic version

Changes concerning Braille, large print and audio textbooks are on the horizon. What does that mean for educators? Starting immediately, schools ordering new textbooks must require the publisher to provide an electronic “publisher’s file” for any textbook purchased.

The South Dakota State Library’s Braille & Talking Book Program can take that electronic file and turn it into Braille format. The service is free, and the availability of an electronic version will speed up production of the Braille textbook. 

For example, converting an 800-page literary textbook used to take an average of 363 hours or 2.6 months. With the use of publisher’s files, new Braille embossing equipment and tactile graphics hardware/software, that project now requires an average of 232 hours or 1.7 months.

In 2004, the South Dakota Legislature passed a law that requires publishers to provide – upon written request by a school district or the South Dakota State Library’s Braille & Talking Book Program – an electronic file within 60 days of the request for textbooks needed in Braille. (See text of law below.)

As schools receive the files, they can send them to the State Library’s Braille & Talking Book Program, which will hold the file for use if the textbook is requested for a South Dakota student.

With the passage of the IDEA reauthorization, federal legislation will require publishers to provide an electronic publisher’s file to a national repository for all books published from that date forward. As a producer of Braille textbooks, the South Dakota Braille & Talking Book Program will be authorized to access this repository for needed files. The establishment of the national repository will take up to two years. In the meantime, South Dakota’s state legislation will require that publishers provide the files.

Initially, the publisher files will be authorized only for Braille production. Eventually the files will be used for color large-print production, computer access via enlarging software such as ZoomText, audio access via computer with speech software such as JAWs, an MP3 player or some similar audio playback equipment.

For more information, contact the South Dakota Braille & Talking Book Library at 1-800-423-6665.

14-1-66.   Publisher to provide electronic versions of textbooks--Cost--Legacy defined--Duty of Department of Education. Upon request, a publisher of a textbook that is adopted for instructional use by a school district shall furnish the South Dakota State Library with an electronic version of the textbook if the textbook is for a literary subject; or, if the textbook is for a nonliterary subject, such as natural sciences, computer science, mathematics, or music, an electronic version shall be furnished if the technology is available to convert the textbook directly to a format compatible with Braille translation software. The publisher shall provide the electronic file to the requesting agency within sixty days of receiving written notice that the file is needed. The cost of the electronic publisher’s file may not exceed the cost of a print copy of the same title. Legacy materials are exempt from the requirements of this section. For purposes of this section, the term, legacy, means images and graphics requiring release and permission from another source other than the publisher. The Department of Education shall oversee the process established in this section to ensure that the textbooks and electronic files arrive by the start of the school year.

Source: SL 2004, ch 138, § 1.

Back to Top