AIM-HIGH Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3410 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to improve access to postsecondary instructional materials for students with print disabilities. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 5, 2020 Mr. CASSIDY (for himself and Mr. CASEY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to improve access to postsecondary instructional materials for stu- dents with print disabilities. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Access to Instructional 4 Materials in Higher Education Act of 2020’’ or the ‘‘AIM- 5 HIGH Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:00 Mar 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3410.IS S3410 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3410 IS SEC. 2. PROGRAMS TO SUPPORT IMPROVED ACCESS TO 1 POSTSECONDARY INSTRUCTIONAL MATE- 2 RIALS FOR STUDENTS WITH PRINT DISABIL- 3 ITIES. 4 Title VII of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 5 U.S.C. 1133 et seq.) is amended— 6 (1) in section 771, by striking ‘‘in nonspecial- 7 ized formats, including an individual described in 8 section 121(d)(2) of title 17, United States Code’’ 9 and inserting ‘‘in nonaccessible formats, including 10 an individual who is blind, has a visual or perceptual 11 impairment, has dyslexia, or has another form of 12 reading disability that renders the individual unable 13 to read printed works to substantially the same de- 14 gree as an individual without an impairment or dis- 15 ability, or who has a physical disability making the 16 individual unable to hold or manipulate a book or 17 focus or move the individual’s eyes to read’’; and 18 (2) in section 773— 19 (A) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘instruc- 20 tional materials in specialized formats’’ and in- 21 serting ‘‘commercially produced or open source 22 instructional materials in accessible formats’’; 23 (B) in subsection (b)(1)— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:00 Mar 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3410.IS S3410 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3410 IS (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 1 ‘‘an institution’’ and inserting ‘‘one or 2 more institutions’’; and 3 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 4 clauses (i) and (ii) and inserting the fol- 5 lowing: 6 ‘‘(i) demonstrated expertise in devel- 7 oping accessible instructional materials in 8 accessible formats for postsecondary stu- 9 dents with print disabilities; 10 ‘‘(ii) demonstrated capability to part- 11 ner with national consumer organizations 12 that have the capacity to engage postsec- 13 ondary students with print disabilities in 14 the development and implementation of ac- 15 cessible instructional materials; and 16 ‘‘(iii) the technical development exper- 17 tise necessary for the efficient dissemina- 18 tion of such materials, including proce- 19 dures to protect against copyright infringe- 20 ment with respect to the creation, use, and 21 distribution of instructional materials in 22 accessible formats; and’’; 23 (C) in subsection (f)— 24 (i) in paragraph (1)— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:00 Mar 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3410.IS S3410 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 3410 IS (I) in subparagraph (A), by strik- 1 ing ‘‘specialized’’ and inserting ‘‘ac- 2 cessible’’; 3 (II) in subparagraph (B), by 4 striking ‘‘instructional materials in 5 specialized formats’’ and inserting 6 ‘‘commercially produced or open 7 source instructional materials in ac- 8 cessible formats’’; 9 (III) in subparagraph (C), by 10 striking ‘‘specialized’’ and inserting 11 ‘‘accessible’’; 12 (IV) in subparagraph (D)— 13 (aa) by striking ‘‘instruc- 14 tional materials in specialized 15 formats’’ and inserting ‘‘commer- 16 cially produced or open source in- 17 structional materials in accessible 18 formats’’; and 19 (bb) by striking ‘‘may’’ and 20 inserting ‘‘shall’’; 21 (V) in subparagraph (E), by 22 striking ‘‘specialized’’ and inserting 23 ‘‘accessible’’; 24 (VI) in subparagraph (F)— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:00 Mar 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3410.IS S3410 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 3410 IS (aa) by striking ‘‘special- 1 ized’’ and inserting ‘‘accessible’’; 2 and 3 (bb) by striking ‘‘may’’ and 4 inserting ‘‘shall’’; and 5 (VII) in subparagraph (G)— 6 (aa) by striking ‘‘special- 7 ized’’ and inserting ‘‘accessible’’; 8 and 9 (bb) by striking ‘‘utilizing’’ 10 and inserting ‘‘that are born ac- 11 cessible and utilize’’; and 12 (ii) in paragraph (2), by inserting 13 ‘‘and evidence’’ after ‘‘recommendations’’; 14 (D) in subsection (g), by striking para- 15 graphs (1) through (3) and inserting the fol- 16 lowing: 17 ‘‘(1) Approaches for the provision of commer- 18 cially produced or open source instructional mate- 19 rials in accessible formats that advance the state of 20 the art in producing instructional materials used in 21 smaller categories of postsecondary courses, such as 22 advanced topics in mathematics and science. 23 ‘‘(2) Approaches supporting a unified search for 24 commercially produced or open source instructional 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:00 Mar 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3410.IS S3410 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 3410 IS materials in accessible formats across multiple data- 1 bases or lists of materials available to all postsec- 2 ondary students with a qualified print disability. 3 ‘‘(3) Market-based approaches for making com- 4 mercially produced or open source instructional ma- 5 terials in accessible formats directly available to eli- 6 gible students at prices comparable to standard in- 7 structional materials.’’; 8 (E) in subsection (h)(3), by striking ‘‘spe- 9 cialized’’ and inserting ‘‘accessible’’; 10 (F) in subsection (i)— 11 (i) by inserting ‘‘complete national ex- 12 pansion of the models or expand to’’ after 13 ‘‘expand the program under this section 14 to’’; and 15 (ii) in paragraph (1), by striking 16 ‘‘specialized’’ and inserting ‘‘accessible’’; 17 and 18 (G) by adding at the end the following: 19 ‘‘(j) DEFINITION OF ACCESSIBLE FORMAT.—In this 20 section, the term ‘accessible format’ has the meaning given 21 the term in section 121 of title 17, United States Code.’’. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:00 Mar 11, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3410.IS S3410 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS