LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
SB 842, Karnette. Instructional materials: accessibility.
Existing law provides for the adoption and selection of quality instructional materials for use in elementary and secondary schools, and imposes requirements upon publishers and manufacturers of instructional materials. This bill would require publishers to make basic instructionalmaterials more accessible to pupils with disabilities, as specified. The bill would require publishers to facilitate access to Internet resources and digital multimedia programs intended for use by the general population of pupils by pupils with disabilities who are progressing in the general curriculum, as specified.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) All major publishers of instructional materials are developing various ways of delivering general curriculum to pupils in an array of formats, including print, video, CD-ROM, and the Internet.
(b) Federal legislation, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, mandate access to general curriculum for pupils with disabilities.
(c) Powerful new learning technologies are being produced today and more are yet to be defined. If access to those technologies is not installed before production and dissemination to schools, those technologies will have to be retrofitted at great expense, in order to accommodate over 600,000 California pupils with disabilities.
(d) The range of performance and ability of pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, varies greatly. SEC. 2. Section 60061.8 is added to the Education Code, to read: 60061.8. (a) Basic instructional materials, as defined by Section 60010, offered on or after January 1, 2005, shall comply with all of the following:

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(1) Print materials shall have sharp, clear, high contrast, and highly legible fonts. Print materials designed for kindergarten shall use fonts that are at least 20 point. Print materials designed for grade 1 shall use fonts that are at least 18 point. Print materials designed for grade 2 shall use fonts that are at least 16 point.
(2) Video products designed for pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, shall be closed-captioned , as defined by the Federal Communications Commission, except for the following:

(A) Those video products or portions of video products, if any, for which the publisher does not have the rights to do so.
(B) Those video products or portions of video products that are open-captioned, meaning that all viewers see the captioned information.

(3) (A) Internet resources and digital multimedia programs intended for use by the general population of pupils, for pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, shall at least meet the standards for accessibility, as set forth in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. Sec. 794d), and regulations implementing that act as set forth in Part 1194 of Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations, unless meeting those standards would do any of the following:

(i) Fundamentally alter the nature of the instructional activity.
(ii) Result in those resources or programs placing an undue financial and administrative burden on the state agencies, school districts, or schools that would likely access or utilize the resources or programs, as determined by the affected agencies in collaboration with the publishers.
(iii) Cause those resources or programs to fail to meet standards otherwise required by statute or regulation.

(B) In order to facilitate access by pupils with disabilities who are progressing in the general curriculum, to the extent technologically feasible, a digital multimedia program shall allow the user to controlsizing of images and fonts, speed and volume of audio, colors or contrast, or both colors and contrast, and other inherently transformable attributes, but not for modification of content, to match individual performance and abilities. If a publisher is not able to create a multimedia program that satisfies the requirements of this subparagraph, the publisher shall provide the State Department of Education, upon request, with computer files or other electronic versions of textual content of basic instructional materials compatible with braille transcription, meeting department specifications at no additional cost, and as a condition of sale.

(b) This section does not apply to basic instructional materials adopted, prior to January 1, 2005, by the state board pursuant to Section 60200, to the extent those instructional materials do not already comply
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with this section. A publisher of basic instructional materials adopted before January 1, 2005, may voluntarily modify those materials as may be necessary to comply with this section.
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