All of these reactive gyrations that we have to go through to produce accessible materials could be alleviated if the materials were in an accessible format when they were published. Many different entities have worked to create specifications that the publishing industry can use to produce accessible formats. But there has been some resistance both by the publishers and by the states to accomplish this goal.
At the time of this writing, in the K-12 environment, the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act (IMAA) has a good chance of getting passed in Fall, 2003. If it passes, it will create a national repository for K-12 text materials and a national file format that can be used by publishers to create an accessible textbook at the time of production. As yet, there is no legislation at the federal level for higher education, but many experts think that will change once the K-12 puzzle is solved.
So the long-term solution to the problem of accessible textbooks is a system where the accessible format is proactively available at the time the book is published. This will eliminate the need for accessible format production.
