Certainly these students are at a disadvantage from the get-go, in that they really have to start planning well in advance to try to get their books in an accessible format. It is extremely labour intensive. A recent study done out of Dawson College in Montreal said that for every week in which they didn't have a textbook, their grade mark went down one letter grade for each week. Oftentimes, by the time these materials are readily available to them, the course is finished. It's completely unfair.
It's completely unfair: there is no reason why they should not be able to go into their bookstore and buy an electronic copy of the textbook, just like their peers do. It certainly holds them at a severe disadvantage. The wonderful advances in educational technology that are helping so many other students with disabilities are actually putting up additional barriers to students with perceptual disabilities who can't access digital files.