In order to maintain the integrity of the services offered in accordance with the law, the following rules apply to students who AMS Alternate Media Format services:

Students must complete the AMS Alternate Media Format contract with their Access Specialist.
The student must qualify as having a disability that is covered by 2 U.S.C. Section 135a; 46 Stats. 1487.
The student must currently be registered at the University of Illinois and with DRES at the time of the student’s request for services.
Materials for qualified graduate students who are teaching a class will also be converted, provided that a syllabus with due dates is provided.
Students agree to keep their usernames and passwords private, and also agree they will not copy or reproduce any Alternative Media materials received, nor allow anyone else to do so.
Students who have their books paid for by DHS will need to sign a form giving DRES permission to share their UIN with the Illini Union Bookstore. You may print it and bring it to our office, email it back to dres-accessible-media@illinois.edu, or fax it to our office at 217-244-0014.
It is the student’s responsibility to notify AMS of course changes. 

Sharing of materials that have been produced solely for a student with a print disability will be reported to the appropriate campus personnel, as this is a violation of the Student Code of Conduct and Copyright Law.

Many courses include web-based materials (e.g., Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle) that might contain PDFs and PowerPoint presentations that are not readily accessible to students with screen readers. In cases where that information is known prior to the start of the semester, AMS staff will try to obtain the materials so that they can be converted prior to the start of the semester. In those cases where it is not possible, it becomes the student’s responsibility to obtain the materials from the instructor, or download them from the internet and forward them to AMS staff for conversion. AMS staff is not responsible for monitoring individual course sites for new postings.

Optional course materials that are listed by the instructor as part of the reading material for a course are also eligible for text conversion services, and are handled just like other course materials. Journal articles and book chapters that are necessary for research papers are also eligible, but must be delivered to AMS by the student for conversion.

Students may submit rental books for conversion; however, the files AMS provides for rental books must be deleted from the student’s computer at the time the rental expires. The misuse of these electronic files could result in the loss of Alternate Media services, as well as referral to the Dean of Students.

It is our goal to have materials converted and ready by the start of the semester for all materials that have been brought to AMS by the deadline stated in the DRES newsletter for that semester. Any books or articles brought in after the stated deadline will be put into a queue and converted on a first come/first serve basis.
Students who begin the process for obtaining Alternative Material Services after the semester has started will have their materials converted from the point at which they begin during the semester. Materials will not be retroactively converted.
Converting highly technical material into Braille or tactile graphics will typically require more time and will most likely be outsourced to be completed. Completion time will be based on the outsourcing company’s schedule. These materials should be given at least 6-8 weeks for completion.

The Accessible Media Services office agrees to provide materials in an electronic format for the semester that the student is enrolled in class. Previous semester’s materials are not archived and will be removed from Box accounts one week following finals each semester.

Word (.docx)
Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf)
EPUB
Large print
MathML
Kindle/E-book

HathiTrust is a partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

Students can search for material utilizing the HathiTrust database.
If materials are needed to be converted from the HathiTrust, please contact dres-accessible-media@illinois.edu and AMS will be able to download and convert them.
Alternative media material checked out from HathiTrust must be deleted from your computer when the regular library material loan expires.

DRES also offers paid text conversion services to departments for faculty and staff who require accessible versions of teaching or research material. Rates for AMS services for non-student related work can be located on DRES’ Non-Student Billing page. If the department needs to use separate accounts for the material being converted, it is the department’s responsibility to give DRES the billing information for each type of material. Departments will be charged at the end of the quarter.