AT and Learning Disabilities
Electronic Books (E-Books)
Students with reading problems can work around their problems by listening to recorded text (books, journals, newspapers) rather than reading it from a printed page. Most public libraries and many bookstores sell books-on-CD or other media. Electronic books or “E-books” can often be read using reading software. E-books are books that are in digital format. The format typically is in a different format for a reader with a visual impairment. Sometimes the company offering e-books also provides the reading software. E-books are also available with a narrated recording of the book. Scanning hard copy print takes time. Sources for electronic text are increasing, and more web-based textbooks are becoming available. Some of these sources are listed below.
Other e-book sites:
- AccessTextNetwork – http://www.accesstext.org/
- American Printing House for the Blind - http://www.aph.org/
- Blio - http://www.blio.com/ - Free!
- Bookshare - http://www.bookshare.org/ (free for some students in K-12th grades)
- The Internet Public Library - http://www.ipl.org/div/books/
- Learning Ally- http://www.learningally.org/
- Library of Congress, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped - http://lcweb.loc.gov/nls
- Librivox - http://librivox.org/
- Project Guttenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page - Free!
- Start-to-Finish Books - http://www.donjohnston.com/products/
start_to_finish/library/index.html - University of Adelaide - http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/