Guide to obtaining textbooks in alternative formats
The guide is for anyone who needs to source text books in an alternative format for a reading impaired learner. This is potentially a complicated area. Disability law protects
disabled learners by requiring the educational institution to make appropriate provision. Copyright law protects publishers from inappropriate copying of textbooks. Between these two sets of rights are the staff who have to provide alternative formats in a timely manner to disabled learners. In most cases the optimum accessibility solution is to obtain the textbook in electronic format. This allows immediate personalisation of text size, colours and contrast. In addition, electronic text is usually an important intermediate stage for the production of non-text formats such as audio or braille.
This guidance is specifically designed for library staff, learner support staff and subject tutors and lecturers supporting disabled learners. It should help anyone trying to get digital versions of textbooks to:
- understand the processes involved.
- recognise additional in-house work that may be required once the digital version has been obtained.
- maximise the likelihood of a successful outcome.
- evaluate your own institutional processes.
- assess alternative interventions.
To obtain a hard copy version of this guide email
helpdesk@techdis.ac.uk.
Introduction
For too long the concept of alternative formats has been linked solely to visual impairment. But people with a range of disabilities benefit from alternative formats. Dyslexic learners can significantly benefit from text to speech – something that can easily be provided from a digital copy of text. Similarly, people with mental health issues may cope with listening to text read aloud better than they might cope with sitting reading a book. Learners with motor impairment can use assistive technology to read onscreen in a way that might be impossible with a physical copy of a book. In many cases learners with disabilities are struggling with traditional texts when alternatives are available.
The Publishing Process
Adapting the book for the learner
Good practice in getting alternative formats
Evaluating outcomes and conclusions
The "Open Rose Group: opening up access for disabled users of Academic Libraries in Yorkshire".
The group was formed in January 2003 by library staff involved in some capacity in supporting users with disabilities. Our aim is to exchange ideas and discuss policies and procedures in order to move from base-level to best practice in the provision of services to disabled library customers.
The ORG comprises library staff from eight universities in the Yorkshire region:
- Bradford,
- Huddersfield,
- Hull,
- Leeds,
- Leeds Metropolitan,
- Sheffield,
- Sheffield Hallam
- York.
The group won the SCONUL Award for Staff Development 2003. This successful application funded the collaborative development of
a staff training DVD and supporting materials for use in training library staff on disability issues.
The project involved videoing students with different disabilities talking about their experience of using their library. There are four main sections, each focusing on key themes:
- mobility difficulties – access
- visual impairment – assistive technology
- deafness or hard of hearing - communication
- dyslexia – using the library.
The group has recently had an article published in
SCONUL Focus magazine (No. 45) - the article is on page 86.
The group are also currently working on procedures to obtain accessible formats from publishers for print impaired students and have produced a
letter ( - 888 KB) which they are all using when contacting publishers and the mind map above shows the issues and processes involved that they have experienced to date.
Click to download the
letter template ( - 888 KB)
Click to download a
PDF version of the flowchart ( - 20 KB)
Click to download an
Inspiration version of the mindmap ( - 106 KB)
The group welcomes input and feedback into these documents and can be contacted on:
openrose@email.com
