Student accessibility

The Australian Copyright Act (sections 113E, 113F) allows people with disabilities (or those acting on their behalf) and Curtin University to copy material into accessible formats. The Act defines a disability as anything causing a person difficulty in reading, viewing, hearing, comprehending or accessing content (see Section 10 for definition). This copyright provision is part of the “fair dealing” copyright exceptions, so the following should be considered at the outset:

• The effect that the copying may have on the potential market for the content (e.g. is it already commercially available in an accessible format?)
• The purpose of the use (e.g. non-commercial, educational)
• The nature of the material itself
• The amount and nature of the material copied

These provisions cover any material covered by copyright, including books, journals, and audio-visual material. When copying material into accessible formats for people with a disability it will often be fair to copy an entire work, and even break technological protection measures present in material such as DVDs and eBooks. Examples:

• Making adjustments to the size and colour of graphs, tables, text, etc
• Scanning a book for use with assistive technology
• Providing subtitles
• Converting work into braille, electronic or audio form
• Emailing or sending files in any format to a user.

The Flexible Dealing copyright exception may also provide access to people with disabilities, depending on the circumstances.

Curtin provides a range of courses that students can undertake while incarcerated, via the Prison Engagement and Outreach program.

Incarcerated students experience significant barriers when it comes to information access, and particularly access to the Internet. Students often have to have course materials pre-downloaded for them or available in print form. If they do have Internet access, it may be through a proxy (e.g. someone else operating a computer).These barriers make certain formats, such as eBooks or streaming video, difficult to access.

Course coordinators can support information access to incarcerated students by making careful choices about course materials. Contact the library for help with selecting and obtaining course materials.

• Books/eBooks: Print books can be copied and provided to incarcerated students via certain copyright provisions. If assigning an eBook to a course, ensure that there is a print version of the book available, or that the eBook allows for pdf downloads. Alternatively, assign an open textbook that allows full-text download.

• Audiovisual materials: Make sure that any audiovisual material you assign is available for students to download and watch offline.