Law / United States / 
Texas
Texas publisher or manufacturer duty to give an institution of higher education an electronic copy of instructional material for blind and visually impaired students and students with dyslexia
In force since .
A procurement conditions rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Disclosure
What it requires
- If you publish or manufacture instructional material written and published primarily for postsecondary instruction that an institution of higher education assigns for a course and that is required or essential for a student's success in the course, give the institution, on its request, a copy of the material in an electronic format not later than the 15th business day after you receive the request (Tex. Educ. Code sec. 51.970(b) and (c)).
- Make the electronic copy a format that contains all of the information in the material, including any text, sidebar, table of contents, chapter headings and subheadings, footnotes, index, glossary and bibliography, that you and the institution have approved, and that is compatible with commonly used Braille translation and speech synthesis software (Tex. Educ. Code sec. 51.970(f)(1)).
- Include in the electronic copy any correction or revision available when you provide it (Tex. Educ. Code sec. 51.970(f)(2)).
- If you and the institution cannot agree on a format, provide the copy in a format that a word processing application can read and that contains as much of the material as is practicable (Tex. Educ. Code sec. 51.970(g)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Penalty structure
Tex. Educ. Code sec. 51.970(h): the coordinating board may impose a reasonable administrative penalty, not to exceed $250 per violation, against a publisher or manufacturer that knowingly violates the section, after a hearing. The $250 figure is a ceiling.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per violation unit
- Violation
- Per violation amount
- 250
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which may impose an administrative penalty after a hearing (Tex. Educ. Code sec. 51.970(h)).
What this law does
A publisher or manufacturer of instructional material assigned by an institution of higher education for use by students in connection with a course at the institution must provide to the institution, on the institution's request, a copy in an electronic format of the instructional material. The publisher or manufacturer must provide the electronic copy not later than the 15th business day after the date of receipt of the request.
The section applies only to instructional material that is written and published primarily for postsecondary instruction of students and is required or essential for a student's success in a course at an institution of higher education.
A request from an institution must certify that for each blind or visually impaired student or student with dyslexia who will use specialized instructional material, either the institution or the student has purchased a printed copy, and must be signed by the person at the institution with primary responsibility for services for students with disabilities.
Each electronic copy must be in a format that contains all of the information in the instructional material, is approved by the publisher or manufacturer and the institution, and is compatible with commonly used Braille translation and speech synthesis software, and must include any correction or revision available at the time the copy is provided.
If the publisher or manufacturer and the institution cannot agree on a format, the publisher or manufacturer must provide the electronic copy in a format that can be read by a word processing application and that contains as much of the material as is practicable. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board may impose a reasonable administrative penalty, not to exceed $250 per violation, against a publisher or manufacturer that knowingly violates the section.
A publisher or manufacturer is not required to provide or format a copy if the coordinating board determines that compliance would violate a law, rule or regulation relating to copyrights, or that the instructional material is out of print or in a format that makes it impracticable to convert the material into an electronic format. Section 51.970 was added by Acts 2007, 80th Legislature, chapter 1267 (House Bill 3382), effective .
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