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In Touch: Textbook tangles and accessible elections

Textbook tangles and accessible elections

BBC Radio 4 - In Touch, Textbook tangles and accessible elections

Why are many digital textbooks still inaccessible to blind students?

There are more snags in the process for making Etextbooks readable by blind students. We find out why. And will the upcoming election be more accessible than the last?

Earlier this year a high court judge decided that the rule which sets out the requirements for a tactile voting device to be available at every polling station is itself unlawful, because it does not allow blind or partially sighted people to vote "without the need for assistance". And this isn't the only concern about our right to a secret and accessible vote. So what changes can we expect before and during polling on the 12th of December?  The Electoral Commission has already set out its proposals for improving matters and Ailsa Irvine the commission's Director of electoral administration and guidance, explains what this means for the upcoming election.

Visually-impaired students are struggling to get textbooks in electronic formats they can access. We ask where the fault lies: with the textbook publishers or with the platforms from which the books are downloaded. Or, is it a bit of both?

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Lee Kumutat

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