Who pays for conversion

Who pays for conversion of materials?

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, both publishers and educational providers have a legal obligation to provide equal access to products and services for all people, regardless of disability. This means, if a TAFE sets a reference book as a part of its learning resources, it has an obligation to ensure that the material is accessible to students with a print disability. As someone selling a product, publishers also have a responsibility to provide access for people with a print disability.

Currently, there is not a big range of materials readily available in alternative formats. So it is likely that you will need to convert works into accessible formats for some students. You might try to negotiate with the copyright holder to provide the material in an accessible format within a reasonable time. It is most likely, however, that you will need to arrange for the conversion.

Converting materials into a format different from its original can take a lot of time and a lot of money.

& You can talk with the VET Disability Support Service (VDSS) about helping to meet the cost of the conversion. See the section on VDSS for contact details.

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Who owns copyright of converted materials?

The original copyright holder holds the copyright to the converted materials unless there is a written agreement between with the conversion producer and the copyright holder.

If your Institute converts the materials into another format, you can provide it at cost to another educational institution for the use of a person with a print disability or a person with an intellectual disability.

If you are investing heavily in editing the instructions within a guide – for instance, replacing mouse commands with keyboard commands – then you need to have permission of the copyright owner to do this for a person with a print disability.

If you pay an external organisation to produce a converted version of the materials, be clear in your written agreement with them about who holds the copyright of the converted version. Unless specified otherwise, the State Government owns the right to use the converted materials.

This site is a working draft only! For more information on this project, send an email to: unidesign@optusnet.com.au