Colleges face obstacles with e-reader technology for disabled students

Perhaps you've heard that the U.S. Department of Education is requiring schools to use e-reader technology that accommodates blind students. A while back, we wrote about the colleges giving iPads to their students. It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? Free devices that could feasibly host text books, the Internet and any of the thousands of available apps? Incredible.

And there are some obvious plus sides to going digital -- as Engadget reported, Stanford removed 70,000 books (mostly periodicals now digitally searchable) from its Engineering Library, which freed up space for "more productive causes."

But before we all start celebrating the joys of e-readers, let's examine the obstacles facing colleges that hope to use the devices as a primary outlet for textbooks.

The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education sent a letter to university officials across the country on June 29 that required all colleges, universities, and K-12 schools to find alternatives for blind students if e-readers are required in the classroom, as covered by our sister site Daily Finance.