Thomas E. Petri: “Today my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), and I are introducing the Instructional Materials…”

“Today my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), and I are introducing the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act, which makes sure that blind students will be able to enjoy an equal opportunity to a quality education. It often takes months for a blind student to have the same materials as his or her sighted peers because of the cumbersome process needed to translate a textbook into Braille or other specialized format. This legislation will eliminate these delays by putting in place standards to assist States and school districts in delivering instructional materials to blind students. I would urge my colleagues to support this important bill.”