Accessible Book Providers
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 eBook suppliers are listed elsewhere because the eBook formats are not accessible for most print-disabled readers.
Books for All How-To Video Guides
- How to find books in alternative formats
- How to find commercial eBooks
- How to find books in Braille
- How to find audio books
- How to find textbooks in PDF
| Provider | Description | Formats | Users |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Books for All Scotland Database | 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. | PDF, LIT, Clicker 5, Audio e.g. MP3, Large Print PDF, Braille | Print-disabled pupils in Scotland |
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. Click here 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 | Print-disabled readers |
| 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 |
| 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 |
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 | |
| Clicker Books | 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 |
Page by Page Books | Out of copyright books for reading a page at a time on the internet. | HTML (web) | Anyone |
| Pete Wells Sensory Stories | A fabulous collection of Pete's renowned disgusting sensory stories - scripts together with animated, narrated powerpoints. The stories aren't published books as such, but they are brilliant fun for all ages. | Powerpoint | 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 |
RNIB Electronic textbooks | Over 100 commonly used textbooks (mainly for the English curriculum) and novels in Word 2003 format. They can be read as they are by the learner using a computer or can be converted by staff or learners into large print, braille, audio or other digital formats. Many of the books also include descriptions of images including pictures, graphs and diagrams to help learners with sight loss. | DOC (Word 2003) | Print disabled pupils in the UK |
| 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 |
| 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 |
