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Introduced Version Senate Bill 194 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
Senate Bill No. 194

(By Senator Hunter)

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[Introduced January 10, 2008; referred to the Committee on Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §18B-1-12, relating to providing electronic copies of instructional material for blind, visually impaired students and students with dyslexia who are enrolled at public institutions of higher education.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §18B-1-12, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GOVERNANCE.
§18B-1-12. Electronic instructional materials for blind and visually impaired students and students with dyslexia.
(a) The following words when used in the article mean:
(1) "Blind or visually impaired student" includes any student whose visual acuity is impaired to the extent that the student is unable to read the print in the standard instructional material used in a course in which the student is enrolled.
(2) "Commission" shall mean the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.
(3) "Dyslexia" is a condition of dyslexia considered to be a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. §1210 et seq.) of §504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. §794).
(4) "Institution of higher education" means any institution as defined by Sections 401(f),(g), and (h) of the federal Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963, as amended.
(5) "Instructional material" means a printed textbook or
other printed instructional material or a combination of a printed
book and supplementary printed instructional material that:
(A) Conveys information to or otherwise contributes to the learning process of a student; and
(B) Was published on or after January 1, 2004.
(6) "Special instructional material" means instructional material in Braille, large print, audio format, digital text, or any other medium or any apparatus that conveys information to or otherwise contributes to the learning process of a blind or visually impaired student or a student with dyslexia.
(b) This section applies only to instructional material that
is:
(1) Written and published primarily for post-secondary instruction of students; and
(2) Required or essential for a student's success in a
course at an institution of higher education, as identified by the
instructor of the course for which the instructional material will
be used, in consultation with the person at the institution with primary responsibility for services for students with disabilities;
(c) Materials that are considered required or essential for a course or program requirement are those materials that are:
(1) Identified in writing by an academic department or instructor as being essential for the student to compete a course or program requirement;
(2) Listed on a course syllabus, or other written format used to describe the course; or
(3) Identified by agreement between instructor and student as essential for completing a program requirement not part of specific course, such as an independent research project.
(d) In order to facilitate students getting their materials in a timely manner, instructors and academic departments shall comply with their institution's procedures for turning in materials and reading lists by the established deadlines.
(e) Students who qualify to receive instructional materials under this provision will submit their request to the publisher or manufacturer through their institution. To assist the institution in producing special instructional material, a publisher or manufacturer of instructional material assigned by an institution of higher education for use by students in connection with a course at the institution shall provide to the institution on the institution's request in accordance with this section a copy in an electronic format of the instructional material. The publisher or manufacturer, as applicable, shall provide the electronic copy not later than the 15th business day after the date of receipt of the request.
(f) A request made by an institution of higher education under this section must:
(1) Certify that for each blind or visually impaired student or student with dyslexia who will use specialized instructional material based on the requested copy of the material in an electronic format for a course in which the student is enrolled at the institution, either the institution or the student has purchased a printed copy of the instructional material; and
(2) Be signed by the person at the institution with primary responsibility for services for students with disabilities; and
(3) Include all available identifying information related to the material, to include, but not limited to ISBN number.
(g) A publisher or manufacturer may require that a request made by an institution of higher education under subsection (f) include from each student for whom the institution is making the request a signed statement in which the student agrees:
(1) To use the requested electronic copy and related special instructional material only for the student's own educational purposes;
(2) Not to copy or otherwise distribute in a manner that violates 17 U.S.C. §101 et seq. the requested electronic copy or the instructional material on which the requested electronic copy is based;
(3) Agree to return electronic copy of instructional material to the institution's disability services office upon reselling the original printed material, dropping the course for which the material was requested, or withdrawing from the institution; and
(4) Attest that any violation of provisions in the signed statement may jeopardize future provision of electronic formats by the manufacturer or publisher for the student under this section, and may result in further disciplinary measures from the institution.
(h) Each electronic copy of instructional material must:
(1) Be in a format that:
(A) Contains all of the information that is in the instructional material, including any text, sidebar, table of contents, chapter headings, chapter subheadings, footnotes, index, glossary, and bibliography, and is approved by the publisher or manufacturer, as applicable, and the institution of higher education as a format that will contain that material; and
(B) Is compatible with commonly used Braille translation and speech synthesis software; and
(C) Includes any correction or revision available at the time the electronic copy is provided.
(2) If the publisher or manufacturer and the institution of
higher education are not able to agree on a format, the publisher or manufacturer, as applicable, shall provide the electronic copy of the instructional material in a format that can be read by a word processing application and that contains as much of the material specified by that subsection as is practicable.
(3) Materials provided under this section may be delivered by traditional mail, by e-mail, or via a file transfer protocol site with notification provided to an institution as to the availability of the material.
(i) The Higher Education Policy Commission may impose a reasonable administrative penalty, not to exceed two hundred and fifty dollars per violation, against a publisher or manufacturer that knowingly violates this section. The commission shall base the penalty on:
(1) The seriousness of the violation;
(2) Any history of a previous violation;
(3) The amount necessary to deter a future violation;
(4) Any effort to correct the violation; and
(5) Any other matter justice requires.
(j) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, a publisher or manufacturer is not required to comply with any requirement in this section, if the commission, using procedures and criteria adopted by commission rules and based on information provided by the publisher or manufacturer, determines that:
(1) Compliance by the manufacturer or publisher would violate a law, rule, or regulation relating to copyrights; or
(2) The instructional material on which the requested electronic copy is based is:
(A) Out of print; or
(B) In a format that makes it impracticable to convert the material into an electronic format.
(k) The manufacturer or publisher has the sole discretion to allow an institution to maintain a repository of electronic formats of previously requested instructional materials for reuse in order to comply with this section. An institution that is authorized to reuse previously requested instructional materials must comply with all other provisions outlined in this section.
(l) A manufacturer or publisher may deliver an electronic format authorized under this section with electronic security measures (to include encryption) so long as the measures do not interfere with access for the institution of the student who requested the materials.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide electronic instructional materials to visually disabled students.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.
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