A partially sighted law student at the University of Victoria in British Columbia has filed a complaint against the school and six textbook publishers, reports the Times Colonist, over what he says is a discriminatory procurement system for students who need alternative textbook formats.

For students to get an electronic copy of a textbook, they must first purchase the hardcopy and submit their booklist to the university.

The university places a request for the alternate-format book to the publisher once the student has given them a booklist for all their courses. It may take up to eight weeks to get the book in the right electronic format, UVic said.

[…]

“It’d be different if this was some crazy thing that was really difficult for the publisher to solve, but obviously it’s not. Electronic books are readily available. People download gazillions of them every day,” said [the student].

Via Library Stuff
(Photo: Jinx!)

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