BILL ANALYSIS
AB 386
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 386 (Ruskin)
As Amended September 4, 2009
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |77-0 |(May 18, 2009) |SENATE: |40-0 |(September 10, |
| | | | | |2009) |
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Original Committee Reference: HIGHER ED.
SUMMARY : Establishes a process whereby a public postsecondary
education institution requests and receives or creates a
captioned format of electronic instructional materials for
students with hearing impairments. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires a publisher that publishes instructional materials
used by students attending, or by instructors for use in
classroom presentations at, the University of California (UC),
the California State University (CSU), or a California
Community College (CCC) to, upon request by an institution on
behalf of a student or instructor at that institution, to do
one of the following:
a) Provide access to a captioned format of the
instructional material directly to the student or the
instructor;
b) Provide to the institution a captioned format of the
instructional material; or,
c) Provide to the institution an electronic format, if
available, of the instructional material, unless the
institution already has an electronic format in its
possession and a license permitting the institution to
create a captioned format of the material, to the extent
the publisher has the right to grant that license.
2)Requires a publisher to respond to a request, as specified, in
the following manner:
a) Within 10 calendar days after the receipt of the
request, the publisher must provide to the institution a
notice, in writing, as to which of the three actions
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(described above) it intends to take;
b) If the publisher does not possess an electronic format
of the instructional material, it must advise the
institution of that fact in the notice;
c) If the publisher lacks sufficient rights to distribute,
or license the institution to create, a captioned format of
some or all of the instructional materials covered by the
request, it must advise the institution of that fact in the
notice and must provide both of the following to the
institution, to the extent that the publisher is able to do
so:
i) An electronic format of the instructional material;
and,
ii) The name and contact information of the person that
should be capable of authorizing creation of a captioned
format of the instructional material.
d) If the publisher notifies the institution that it will
provide an electronic format and a license to create a
captioned format, it must provide the format and license
within seven calendar days of providing the notice; and,
e) If the publisher notifies the institution that it will
provide a captioned format, the publisher must provide that
format as soon as it is possible to do so, but no later
than 14 calendar days after providing the notice.
3)Deems that an institution has received a license permitting
the creation of a captioned format if a publisher fails to
respond to a request within 10 calendar days of receiving the
request.
4)Requires access to a captioned format, an electronic format or
a license to create a captioned format to be provided free of
any fee or royalty that is additional to the initial purchase
of the instructional material.
5)Sets forth what must be included in the request to a
publisher, and authorizes a publisher to require additional
information, including a statement signed by the student
agreeing to only use the captioned material for his or her
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educational purpose, consistent with existing provisions
relative to electronic formats of printed instructional
materials.
6)Authorizes the CCC Board of Governors and the CSU Board of
Trustees, and requests the UC Board of Regents, to adopt
guidelines, as specified, for the implementation and
administration of the provisions of this bill.
7)Encourages the CCC Board of Governors and the CSU Board of
Trustees, and requests the UC Board of Regents, to convene an
advisory group, at least one-third of the membership of which
shall be representatives designated by publishers as having a
substantial volume of transactions with institutions pursuant
to this bill.
8)Authorizes the CCC Chancellor, the CSU Chancellor, and the UC
President to each designate an office, or by agreement
designate a single office, to maintain a registry of publisher
contact information and to each establish one or more centers
to process requests pursuant to this bill.
9)Applies to UC, CSU, and CCC only to the extent that the
respective institutions, by appropriate resolution, make these
provisions applicable.
The Senate amendments:
1)Restructure this bill to create a process whereby a public
postsecondary education institution requests and receives, or
creates, a captioned format of electronic instructional
materials for students with hearing impairments.
2)Allows, but does not require, participation by UC, CSU, and
CCC.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill authorized UC, CSU, and CCC
to provide captioning for nonprinted instructional materials for
students with disabilities if the publisher did not respond to a
request for this service within a two-week period.
FISCAL EFFECT : Minor savings to the segments from reducing the
administrative costs involved in providing accessible
multi-media materials to hearing-impaired students. UC, CSU,
and CCC note that they are already required under state and
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federal law to provide such accessibility, and this bill will
assist in their compliance.
COMMENTS : Existing law requires nonprinted instructional
materials to be compatible with Braille translation and speech
synthesis software but does not list "audiovisual captioning
software." Thus, when captioning or other accessible
information is not already available on audiovisual or other
type of media, the college or university must ask the publisher
to provide the captioning to make the information accessible to
hearing-impaired students.
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN:
0003078