Mike Bastine, Director, 805-654-6396 or
mbastine@atpc.net
Target population:
The populations targeted by the ATPC are the students who face
barriers to education including vision impairment, blindness, and
learning disabilities such as dyslexia, and who are served by the
California Community Colleges (Disabled Students Programs and
Services) programs.
Goals:
The ATPC is the only publicly funded, system-wide resource dedicated
to serving the alternate text formatting needs of the largest
post-secondary educational system in the world. (
www.atpcnet.net ). CCC developed the ATPC to assist
the Colleges in meeting the alternate text needs of their students
with print-related disabilities. Alternate text includes Braille and
tactile graphics, electronic text and large print. The ATPC
completes all requests at no charge to the Colleges.
Description:
The ATPC creates, or obtains from the publishers, an electronic file
of books, course work etc. to transfer into MP3 files, large print
texts, high-lighted texts, or Braille texts. California law AB 422,
which became effective in January 2000, requires textbook publishers
to supply California Colleges with the electronic files of their
books at no cost when requested for students with print-related
disabilities. It also encourages California Colleges to create a
central repository of electronic files so the publisher can fill a
request only once, so that files can be redistributed to any
California College student with a print-related disability who needs
it.
If the College has a Braille machine, the ATPC obtains the
document/textbook from the publisher and then simply passes it on to
the DSPS department. However, there are seven types of Braille and
not all colleges can produce each type (i.e. math, science, foreign
language, etc.). One page of math translated into Braille equals
about 6-7 pages. A 500 pages textbook can cost up to $15,000!
Staffing:
The ATPC is staffed by Mike Bastine and 3 full-time staff.
Additionally, “an army” of volunteers and independent contractors,
complement the ATPC’s efforts. The volunteers and contractors work
to translate the texts and provide guidance.
Facilities, equipment, materials:
A large number of physical tools are
needed to assist in the development of electronic files (typically a
CD) to download and send to DSPS Directors.
Costs, funding source:
The ATPC is funded at $597,000 annually by the CCCCO. However, due
to funding constraints, the level of funding has been static since
2001-2002 although the demand has gone up exponentially. The
California Community College Chancellor’s Office acknowledges that
there are not enough funds, and thus has authorized a waiting list
be developed as of July 1, 2005 that will be available on a
first-come first-serve basis.
Outreach and marketing:
The California Community College Chancellor’s Office provides
information to all the DSPS departments at each college. An ATPC
website is maintained for information and access (
http://www.atpcnet.net
). Due to limited resources, the ATPC is seeking to provide Braille
Embossing fee-for-service jobs from non-California Community College
learning institutions.
Evidence of effectiveness:
The increase in requests coupled with the growing library, and the
students and college testimonials all offer evidence of
effectiveness
Suggestions for replication:
As this service is a centralized system-wide program, replication of
the program would be unnecessary. Adequate funding to meet the
demand is difficult to obtain but crucial to success. Other
fee-based translation companies exist but seldom in the areas of
math, science, music, foreign language, and statistics. Thus
allowing ATPC to serve all the ATP needs of other learning
institutions would allow the ATPC to increase their fee base while
better serving all of California’s students who learning or vision
disabilities. The California Community Colleges should not consider
the ATPC the sole provider of alternate text, but a resource.
Colleges should continue to develop their capacities to scan
material, to use Braille software, and to do Braille embossing.