Using law and licences to supply accessible books to visually impaired students at the University of Chester

Abstract

Provision of accessible copies of textbooks to visually impaired students has an important role to play in supporting them in their studies, including at university. Recent legislative and copyright licence developments have allowed libraries to supply textbooks to their students in a form best suited to their needs. Whilst these developments are welcome, actually obtaining accessible textbook for visually impaired university students is neither simple nor straightforward and is often a laborious and time consuming process. The University of Chester has provided accessible books to visually impaired students since 2011 and established an Alternative Formats Team in 2012 to manage this service. This article describes the processes, usage and challenges of this service, as well as providing a brief description of the RNIB resource Load2Learn.