The Irony of Being Blind and Having School Paid For

I have decided to go back to school in January to pursue a Masters in history. (But first I will have to take a couple of undergrad history classes since my BS was not in history.) It will be somewhat difficult to convince Rehab to pay for this but I think I can eventually get them to do it. Although Rehab may pay for my education there will still be difficulties. For instance, accessing textbooks. More and more publishers are moving to electronic textbooks. Unfortunately most of these are not accessible to the blind. The new Kindle Reader, iPad and other devices are not configured to allow access with screen reading software. But the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is working to encourage various institutions to make their products accessible to the blind. Most of the time the NFB contacts the institution and explains how easy it is to rectify the problem and then it gets fixed. However the “carrot” approach hasn’t always worked, especially in the business of electronic textbooks and higher education and so the NFB had to play hardball and enlisted the support of the Department of Justice. The battle for equal access is a constant struggle but we are making solid gains. If you think about it, its ironic. In my efforts to continue my education the challenge of paying for school is removed because I am blind. But then I get to school and can’t read the book, all because someone doesn’t want to implement a simple remedy to their product.