Digital Books
Digital books are available in a range of different formats. Some formats are more accessible to some people than others. We have divided sources of digital books into three groups. Sometimes you will be able to find a book in the format you need; sometimes you may need to convert it from one digital format into another; and if you can't find it you will have to make your own (see the Making Books page).
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Accessible Book providers | Sources (usually charities and/or statutory services) of books in accessible formats. Sometimes you will need to convert the books into a format more suited to your needs (e.g. from Plain Text) - see the Making Books page. |
| Publishers | Some publishers can provide some titles in digital format - usually PDF. |
| Commercial eBook suppliers | Commercial eBooks are now available from several sources, but accessibility of the commercial eBook formats is very poor. |
Accessible Book providers
The table below lists providers of accessible digital books. Most of the providers are voluntary organisations or publicly-funded services offering books for no or low cost but there are also some commercial providers of accessible digital books. Commercial providers of accessible digital books are listed in this section; commercial eBook suppliers are listed elsewhere because the eBook formats are not accessible for most print-disabled readers.
| Provider | Description | Formats | Users |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Books for All Scotland Database (via Scran) | The BFAS Database is a joint development between CALL, LTS and Scran. It is available to teachers and staff in Scottish schools via either Scran or Glow login. All teachers in Scotland should have access via Scran, and many can get in through Glow. If you have any problems accessing the database contact Jennifer McDougall at LTS for help. | PDF, LIT, Clicker 5, Audio e.g. MP3, Large Print PDF, Braille | 'Visually Impaired' readers (i.e. visually impaired and/or physically disabled) |
| The Books for All Scotland Database (via Glow) | The BFAS Database is a joint development between CALL, LTS and Scran. It is available to teachers and staff in Scottish schools via either Scran or Glow login. All teachers in Scotland should have access via Scran, and many can get in through Glow. If you have any problems accessing the database contact Jennifer McDougall at LTS for help. | PDF, LIT, Clicker 5, Audio e.g. MP3, Large Print PDF, Braille | 'Visually Impaired' readers (i.e. visually impaired and/or physically disabled) |
CALL Scotland | CALL Scotland has an agreement with Hodder Gibson to supply textbooks in adapted PDF for print-disabled pupils. The files are provided by Hodder to CALL, and then adapted with, for example, bookmarks for easy navigation. The books are supplied on CD, free of charge. Contact CALL for details. | PDF | Print-disabled pupils in Scotland |
| The Seeing Ear | A charity providing a (free) database of books in Plain Text format for . The text versions can be accessed as they are, or converted into another format such as PDF, Daisy etc. | Plain text | 'Visually Impaired' readers (i.e. visually impaired and/or physically disabled) |
| Project Gutenberg | A free database of 28,000 out-of-copyright eBooks by authors like Robert Burns, Dickens, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, etc | HTML (web), Plain text, EPUB (eBook format), PDF | Anyone |
The Book Depository Free eBooks | 11,000 free eBooks in PDF from 'Dodo Press'. Mainly out-of-copyright titles by authors like Jack London, Oscar Wilde, George Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, etc. | Anyone | |
Page by Page Books | Out of copyright books for reading a page at a time on the internet. | HTML (web) | Anyone |
| University of Virginia Etext library | A free database of over 2,100 out-of-copyright eBooks by authors like Robert Burns, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll, H.G. Wells, etc | LIT (Microsoft Reader), HTML (web), Palm Reader | Anyone |
| Bookshare UK | US online library of books for people with print disabilities. The US site has 43,000 books and about 5,000 are available in the UK and internationally | Daisy 3, BRF (Braille) | Print disabled readers: $75 initial fee; $50 subscription |
| Tar Heel Reader | A collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics, for beginning readers of all ages. Note that these are written by the contributers - they are not accessible versions of 'published works'. | Web, Powerpoint, Impress, Flash | Anyone |
| Crick Software | Some Oxford Reading Tree and Trackers books in Clicker 5 format. The books also have interactive activities and exercises. Audio narration and switch accessible. | CLX (Clicker 5) | Anyone |
| Oxford Reading Tree Talking Stories | On-screen versions of ORT books with audio narration. Not switch accessible. | Bespoke ORT | Anyone |
| Rising Stars | Ebook versions of Rising Stars reading books and novles. LIT and PDF versions can be read using text-to-speech software. | LIT, PDF, Zinio (whiteboard), Mobipocket | Anyone |
Publishers
Some publishers can provide digital copies of some of their books. You might think that they would have cupboard full of CDs with all their books which they can copy and send to you, but it's not quite like that: digital copies of older books may not exist at all; the print publisher may not have the rights to give you a digital copy; and there may be costs involved in obtaining digital copies (e.g. the publisher may have to pay the typesetter to convert from Quark Express (which is really inaccessible) to another format). If publishers can give you a digital copy it will probably be a PDF. Publishers usually provide digital copies for individual pupils only - i.e. you can't dish out copies to any pupil and you can't put it up on the school intranet or on Glow for anyone to access. Some may charge for a copy (e.g. if they incur costs themselves in producing the digital version); others will provide it for free; some provide it for free provided you have bought a print copy. The Publishers Association has guidelines for meeting permission requests on behalf of reading impaired people which has more information on what publishers can and cannot be reasonably expected to provide.
TechDis provide an excellent Guide to obtaining publications in alternative formats and also host Publisher Lookup UK, which has contact details for academic publishers.
| Source | Description | Formats | User |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher Lookup UK | Contact details for academic publishers in the UK. Primarily a list of FE/HE publishers. | Various | Print-disabled pupils and students (usually) |
| Publishing Scotland | Organisation representing publishers in Scotland. There is a list of Scottish publishers who are members on the site. | N/A | N/A |
| The Publishers Association | The Publishers Association represents book, journal and electronic publishers in the UK. | N/A | N/A |
| Scottish Qualifications Authority Past Papers | SQA Past Papers (free to download) | Anyone | |
| Scottish Qualifications Authority Adapted DigitalĀ Papers | SQA Adapted Digital Papers. Past papers adapted with answer boxes for pupils to type answers on screen. | Anyone |
Commercial eBooks
The recent development of eBook readers like the Kindle, Sony Reader, Iliad Reader and the new iPad, plus software for reading eBooks on iPods, PDAs and mobile phones has encouraged publishers to produce books in electronic formats. There are many different electronic formats and the most common commercial formats are EPUB and AZW (the Kindle format). The development of commercial, affordable eBooks could be very exciting for print-disabled people but the problem is that the readers and the reading software are generally poor in terms of accessibility: the font size is often too small; there is no text-to-speech for readers with visual or reading difficulties; and access for readers with motor difficulties is limited. Even if the book is available in a format that could be reasonably accessible, the commercial eBooks often aren't because they are copy-protected which means that text-to-speech software can't read them. This situation looks like improving due to the arrival of the iPad, but it's not quite happened yet and so for the time being commercial eBooks are not a good option for readers with print disabilities.
Having said that, if you have a computer, do not need text-to-speech, and can see text size of maybe 18 point or less, then the commercial eBooks are well worth a look because there are many thousands available.
| Supplier | Description | Formats | User |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial publishers and retailers | Do an internet search for 'eBooks' and you will find a large number of retailers | Various, but usualy: EPUB, PDF (ADE), LIT, MobiPocket | Anyone |
Amazon Kindle books | You read Kindle books either on a Kindle eBook reader, or on your computer using free Kindle software. The Kindle Reader software is available for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Blackberry devices. | Kindle (AZW), mobi, PDF (Dx only) | Anyone |
| iBookStore | Apple's iBookStore could do for eBooks what the iPod did for downloadable music. Watch this space. | Anyone | |
| WH Smith | Commercial eBooks | EPUB, PDF (ADE), LIT, MobiPocket | Anyone |
| Waterstones | Commercial eBooks | EPUB, PDF (ADE), LIT, MobiPocket | Anyone |
