The 2011 Scottish Children's Book Awards is an innovative nationwide reading project in which children and young people from every corner of Scotland read and vote for their favourite Scottish children's books of the year. Last year:

• over 40,000 children registered and an amazing 17,000 votes were cast;
• children and young people from every local authority in Scotland, from Aberdeen to Dumfries; Shetland to Arran, took part;
• nearly 1,000 accessible copies of the books were provided to young judges by RNIB and CALL.

The awards were originally set up by the Scottish Arts Council in 1999 and are now run by Scottish Book Trust.

Children can vote for their favourite book, from a shortlist in each of three categories, either as individual readers or as part of a reading group in a school, library or bookshop. The shortlisted books are:

Early Years (0 - 7 years)

• Dear Vampa by Ross Collins
• The Loon on the Moon by Emily Golden
• Apple Pie ABC by Alison Murray

Younger Readers (8 - 11 years)

• Zac and the Dream Pirates by Ross MacKenzie
• There's a Hamster in my Pocket! by Franzeska G Ewart
• The Case of the London Dragonfish by Joan Lennon

Older Readers (11 - 16 years)

• Wasted by Nicola Morgan
• The Blackhope Enigma by Teresa Flavin
• The Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin

But what about disabled children who can't read the books?

CALL Scotland has worked with the Scottish Book Trust and the authors and publishers to create accessible digital versions of the nine shortlisted books. The idea is that children and young people with physical, visual and reading or dyslexic difficulties, who can't read or access the paper books, can read the digital books instead and take part in the awards. For example:

• children with spinal injury, cerebral palsy or other physical impairments can click a switch or press a key on a computer, to turn pages and read the books by themselves;
• dyslexic readers or children with visual impairments can change the font size and/or colours on screen, or use text-to-speech software to read the books;
• the books can be read out by the computer using "Heather", the high quality Scottish computer voice that is available free for schools and pupils from CALL Scotland's The Scottish Voice web site.

The books are available free of charge. Readers and schools can request accessible digital copies of the book(s) they wish to read via the Books for All website or phoning 0131 651 6236.