The agreement makes getting access to course material quicker and less burdensome for students with disabilities. It also calls for expanding staff, improving accessibility of library websites and digitizing library books and scholarly journals.

The settlement came after a yearlong structured negotiation, a legal process that allowed the university and the students to reach a collaborative agreement. The students and their attorneys from the legal center Disability Rights Advocates met with campus officials from the university library and the Disabled Students Program, consulting experts and using focus groups to identify difficulties.

Getting required course material used to take as long as six weeks, said Rebecca Williford, an attorney at DRA. The new agreement calls for course readings to be available in 10 business days and includes a provision for specific requests for the digitization of library holdings with an average waiting period of five days.

“One big problem (was) those of us students who need screen readers to read at a decent pace,” said Brandon King, a campus fifth-year cognitive science student who participated in the negotiations. “We need to have our books in a visual format, and the library didn’t offer any way to get library books in a digital format before this settlement. So that part is huge.”

Before the settlement, students with print disabilities — visual impairments or learning disabilities, for example — had to submit their required reading list to the Disabled Students Program. The program’s staff members would then scan and digitize books into “alternative media,” an umbrella term for a variety of formats needed by students with disabilities like digital text, braille, large print or specific file formats for use with screen reader programs.

Tabitha Mancini, a Berkeley senior in the sociology department, was also involved in the negotiations.

“I was told (DSP will) only scan books on your syllabus,” Mancini said. “So I kind of went away for a couple semesters … the more I wanted to do research, I realized to be a good researcher, I had to have access to these materials.”

While the new system of distribution for course material is an improvement, it still presents challenges for disabled students, who must take additional steps and face waiting periods to receive course material in a format they can use.

DSP director Paul Hippolitus takes pride in the university’s participation. “Disability rights and advocacy movement started on our campus in the mid-’60s,” Hippolitus said. “We know about that history and cherish it.”

Williford and King praise campus officials for their collaboration during negotiations. But Mancini found the process of getting the university’s attention frustrating.

“They have the technology, but they lacked an organizational system,” Mancini said. “What’s ironic is that (UC Berkeley) is the home of the disability rights movement. I was given the runaround. I met a lot of resistance. Obviously, that was shocking.”

Though King and Mancini are graduating and only took part in the agreement’s pilot program, changes have already begun to appear.

“It was just so nice to go into a library and sit in the rows and work and say, ‘I can read these books and have this access,’” Mancini said. “It’s a very different feeling, because growing up you just get used to not being in these spaces.”

The new provisions will be implemented in fall 2013.

The settlement agreement can be viewed below.

Gautham Thomas covers city government. Contact him at gthomas@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @gautham_t.

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These are sensory details one might take for granted, but they are all-important for Lung, a sophomore at UC Berkeley who has been blind since she was diagnosed with retinal cancer when she was 1 month old.

Most UC Berkeley students do not understand the challenges students like Lung face on a daily basis, but the campus community had the opportunity to become more acquainted with such experiences last week during Disability Awareness Week, an annual event organized by the Disabled Students Union to reduce the barrier between disabled students and others on campus.

“We’re people just like everybody else,” said Hamza Jaka, the co-president of the DSU. “Disability Awareness Week for me is about getting to know the people. We want to help them learn, and the best way to learn is by talking with people and educating yourself.”

Events last week included a resource fair, a panel discussion on the history of the Disability Rights Movement, a guide dog session and a movie screening.

Lung brought her service dog, Van Dyke, to the guide dog session on Wednesday to share her experiences and give an idea of what daily life is like for disabled students.

During her first year, Lung struggled to acclimate to the new environment and become independent. Even today, Lung said, it can be tricky to make sure she doesn’t run into poles or benches.

“There could be more challenges to work through, but there are always ways to get through them,” Lung said.

Lung, an English major, uses a Braille computer to read hundreds of pages for her assignments as well as to listen to music and access Facebook.

According to Ann Kwong, vice president of internal affairs at the DSU, when people are better able to relate to disabled students, they help transcend the one trait that most often defines disabled students: their disability.

“See past the disability — don’t just focus on the disability,” Kwong said. “Through further understanding, I hope that there’s more connections both ways to help dispel misconceptions.”

Lung’s passion for music motivated her to immerse herself in music theory courses and to learn to play the Indonesian gamelan, an instrument resembling the shape of a xylophone.

She said that Disability Awareness Week allowed her to share her story while showing that disabled students are just as competent — and just as human — as others without disabilities.

“I think the general message for the public is that just through having some wit and some resilience, people are going to be able to overcome their challenges to accomplish what they hope to,” Lung said.

Gladys Rosario covers academics and administration. Contact her at grosario@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @gladysrosario93.

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