From: Kelly Pierce 
Subject: computer and info. access at u. of illinois
mathematics," the Department of Education states. =20
2.  Develop a written procedure that complies with the cited laws
that permits effective and timely production of written course
materials.  At a minimum a replacement system to provide access
to course materials should permit the receipt of production
requests following course registration or admission to the
university.  The textbook should be available on tape in digital
form, or in braille at the same time the reading assignment is
made to the class, or if the reading assignment is made after the
semester commences, at least one month before the due date of the
assignment.  Handouts should be made accessible at the time they
are handed out to the classmates of the student. =20
3.  Provide proctors who have some background and/or
familiarization in the course the student is being tested for.=20
These could include departmental graduate students or others
familiar with the chosen field of study with the student.=20
Additionally, the request for auxiliary aids extends to the
examination and the answers to the same degree provided to non-
disabled students.  This could be accomplished by recording the
test on an audio cassette, followed by the answer, and a
description of the accuracy of the response or by professors or
teaching assistants reviewing the test and its answers personally
with the student.  Any policy developed that requires the student
to make an appointment with the disability services office may be
unworkable as it may not provide the explanation and context
needed for the student to learn from inaccurate responses on the
examination.   =20
4.  Establish written procedures of how course materials and
exams will be provided in specialized languages, such as
mathematical notation.  The procedure includes identification and
selection of readers and proctors as well as textbook production.
5.  Provide in class readers or note takers in classes to read
blackboards, equations, charts, graphs and elsewhere where
needed. =20
6.  Provide access to the universities computer labs, classrooms,
and software using screen reading software, and electronic speech
synthesizers.  Specifically, I request that the business computer
lab be equipped with speech synthesis and be accessible to the
blind, including any instruction or documentation of software.  I
believe that I should be accommodated with adaptive technology
and not merely supplied with a reader.  The Office of Civil
Rights in the U.S. Department of Education has stated in a letter
of finding dated January 15, 1992 that a state university has a
responsibility under Section 504, as set out in 34 C.F.R.
104.44(d) to "make its computer services accessible to the
visually impaired student upon request."  This accommodation
should include that access to the software for students to use be
available during the same hours and in the same conditions in an
integrated setting that is available to non-disabled students. =20
In a letter of finding dated January 25, 1996 (Docket Number
09-95-2206) the Office of civil rights in the U.S. Department of
Education notes that "the 'information superhighway' is fast
becoming a fundamental tool in post-secondary research.  Rather
than implementing adaptive software, some institutions have
attempted to utilize personal reader attendants as the exclusive
or primary way of making this form of computer information
accessible to persons with visual impairments.  In most cases,
this approach should be reconsidered.  One of the most important
aims in choosing the appropriate auxiliary aid has been to foster
independence and autonomy in the person with a disability.  When
reasonably priced technology is available that will enable the
visually impaired computer user to access the computer, including
the World Wide Web, during approximately the same number of hours
with the same spontaneous flexibility that is enjoyed by other
nondiabled computer users, there are many reasons why the
objectives of Title II will most effectively and less expensively
be achieved by obtaining the appropriate software programs.  (An
institution's reliance on adaptive software to provide access
includes a responsibility to provide the special training
necessary to teach the computer user with the disability how to
use such software programs."
I am currently registered in the following classes for fall 1997:
Accounting 111, Math 205, and IDS 371.  For Math 205, I have two
textbooks that are not available from any source and request that
UIC provide them to me in an accessible format in a timely
manner.  The texts are "Introductory Linear Algebra with
applications, by B.  Kolman, 6th ed.  Prentice Hall, New Jersey;
1997 textbook #2 for Math 205 Prof. Raghavan Chapters 1-5 from
Mathematical Statistics with applications by Mendenhall, et. al.=20
I authorize UIC to communicate with Kelly Pierce regarding this
matter or any related claim.  He is assisting me with this
complaint.  He can be reached by e-mail at kelly@ripco.com or by
telephone at (773) 472-7206.
If there is no response that substantially resolves this
complaint within 30 days, I will assume that UIC is not willing
to provide the accommodations requested above or change its
practices that would allow me to participate on a basis of
equality.
Respectfully,
Robbie L. Miller
7651 South Hoyne Ave.
Chicago IL. 60620
Voice: 773 723-1403
Internet: robb@netcom.com
                      *********************
3257 N. Clifton Ave.=20
Chicago, IL  60657-3318=20
(773) 472-7206=20
Internet:  kelly@ripco.com=20
Saturday, 28 June 1997=20
David Broski, Chancellor =20
University of Illinois=20
601 S. Morgan=20
Room 2833=20
Chicago, IL  60607=20
Chancellor Broski:
     I was disheartened to discover the barriers and hostility
faced by people with disabilities described in an Americans with
Disabilities Act complaint filed recently with your university.=20
I have enclosed a copy.  I am highly concerned about the charges
raised given the expertise and vast resources of the University
of Illinois.
     Your university is one of the leaders in developing advanced
computing and information technology.  It is one of the leaders
in Internet II--a high-speed computer network that is a
generation beyond today's Internet.  Through the National Center
for Supercomputing Applications, the University of Illinois has
helped develop graphical browsers that make access to the World
Wide Web possible for millions of Americans.  The university and
its technological expertise has been featured in recent months in
such elite media as the "New York Times" and on the BBC.=20
Additionally, the University of Illinois has been highly involved
in efforts for access to advanced technology for people with
disabilities. =20
     On January 6, 1997 Joseph Hardin of the University of
Illinois met at the White House with Tom Kallil, Senior Director
of the National Economic Council and top officials from the
Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Education,
the National Science Foundation, the World Wide Web Consortium,
Microsoft, and Netscape Communications among others.  The meeting
discussed a project, in which the university participates,
designed to expand the access people with disabilities have to
the World Wide Web.
     While such high-end access efforts as Java Applette
interoperability and robust HTML standards are laudable, it is
apparent that through its policies and practices, such resources
are not available in your classrooms so that blind students can
participate on an equal basis.  To what benefit is the effort and
handsome expense on access to technology for people with
disabilities if it cannot be used to produce a textbook for a
blind student or allow him to participate on par with his
classmates in a computer classroom?  It is incredible that an
institution with some of the world's top scientists cannot find a
single person to read a test in statistics or advanced
mathematics in scientific notation to a blind student.
     Is this an example of the University of Illinois being only
interested in federal grants and contracts and the status and
prestige of White House meetings?  Whether it is your intention
or not, the failure to translate mathematical symbols and
equations into a means of communication for the visually impaired
has the result of preventing blind students from taking certain
courses and excluding them completely from certain fields of
study. =20
     Attitudes that blind persons have no place in the fields of
math, science and engineering are evident with your professors
and in their classrooms.  This includes the IDS 270 professor
identified in the complaint who apparently told the student on
the first day of class that he could not give a passing grade to
the student because he was blind. =20
     I urge you to take every possible step necessary to
eradicate the disgust and derision facing blind students studying
in math, science, and technology at the University of Illinois.=20
I became blind at age 20, while a junior in college.  Despite
accessibility barriers that cannot exist today, I finished my
degree and now work at the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.=20
In my job I use a computer equipped with speech synthesis and a
scanner that converts printed documents into computer files that
I can read.  For me, such access is essential to do my work on
par with my sighted co-workers.  =20
Respectfully,
Kelly Pierce=20
                        ****************
                               August 6, 1997
Mr. Robbie Miller
7651 South Hoyne Ave.
Chicago, IL 60620
Dear Mr. Miller:
I am writing in response to your letter of June 21, 1997
regarding accommodations for yourself and other students with
visual impairments at the University of Illinois at Chicago
(UIC).  I do appreciate that you have given us
the opportunity to remedy the difficulties you had during your
previous semesters at UIC and I believe Jane Moore has worked
diligently in identifying the solutions outlined below as
beginning steps towards ensuring full  access to the programs,
services and activities at UIC in your future semesters here.
The following is our response to your enumerated requests for
accommodations:=20
1.   The University agrees that it must make a good faith effort
to provide textbooks, workbooks and related course materials in a
timely manner with competent and qualified readers.  To obtain
qualified readers who are familiar with the scientific notation,
UIC will make every effort to hire graduate assistants or upper
level undergraduates in the area of study to do the reading.   In
addition UIC agrees in the alternative it may scan text into
ASCII text files with enhancements for scientific notation for
use with a computer with a voice synthesizer.
UIC has had a policy whereby students are to bring the texts to
the Office of Disability Services (ODS) for taping when they were
unable to obtain their texts on tape from outside sources.=20
Students were to bring these texts not less than four weeks in
advance of the beginning of the semester in order for them to be
taped in a timely manner.  The policy which was
     agreed upon in an Office for Civil Rights Resolution
agreement is attached.  We are currently reviewing it so that it
ensures that textbooks and other educational materials are
provided to students in alternate formats.=20
2.   The current written procedure is being reviewed with a draft
rewrite of the policy expected to be completed by Tuesday August
12, 1997.  Working on the policy revisions are the Office for
Access and Equity and the The Office of Disability Services.  The
revised policy will address the concern for providing qualified
and competent readers in specialized languages of certain subject
areas and back-up systems for ensuring that materials are
provided in a timely fashion if equipment breaks down.  In
addition the policy will address how faculty members have a
responsibility to provide in advance any printed materials that
will be used in the class so they can be made available in an
accessible format prior to their use or assume the obligation of
providing the material in an alternate formate, i.e. either
through scanned textx of the provision of reader services.
3.   UIC will make a good faith effort to provide you with
proctors who have background and familiarization in the course
the student is being tested for.  We will aggressively attempt to
hire graduate assistants or senior level undergraduates  as
proctors for exams that require specialized knowledge of language
and scientific notation.  Currently the College of Business
Administration has agreed to assign a Graduate Assistant to
proctor your exams and sit with you in your Accounting and IDS
class to serve as a reader and notetaker.  We are presently
working to have the same arrangement with the Math Department in
LAS. =20
4.   In our review of the current policy for providing text
materials in alternate format we will be including a section
regarding how course materials will be provided in specialized
languages.  Procters will be selected in accordance with their
ability to perform the duties in an accurate manner for the
student.
5.   In-class readers and notetakers will be provided to read
blackboards, equations, charts, and graphs. =20
6.   The University is meeting with consultant Dave Porter on=20
August 7, 1997 to discuss making our computer labs accessible to
students with visual impairments.  In attendance at this meeting
will be the Manager of the Student Computer Labs and the Manager
of the Business School Computer Lab as well as a representative
from the Office for Access and Equity.  From this meeting we will
put together a proposal for the funding necessary to provide
access to the University=FEs computer labs and classrooms.  We are
in agreement that UIC has an obligation to make our computer labs
accessible to people with disabilities including individuals with
visual impairments.
In reviewing your textbooks for the Fall 1997 semester we have
received assurances that all the textbooks will be available in a
timely fashion for your use.=20
For Math 205 the textbooks =FEMath Statistics=FE by Mendenhall,
=FECalculus for Business=FE by Hoffman and =FEIntroduction to Linear
Algebra=FE by Kolman are all available from the Recordings for the
Blind and Dyslexic (RFBD).  Tiffany of RFBD confirmed that
ordered them on July 16, 1997.  We also were assured by the
Executive Director and Mair Ben-Koil at RFBD that Chapter 14 of
the Accounting textbook would be available to you in a timely
fashion for the course Accounting 111.  You did not indicate in
your letter that you were having any
difficulty obtaining texts for the IDS 371 class. =20
If during the semester any of the arrangements break down or you
feel you are not being accommodated appropriately, you should
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