Libraries Serving People with Disabilities

The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) is free to any resident of the United States and to American citizens living abroad. To qualify for services, the person must not be able to read print materials because of a visual or physical limitation. The limitation can be temporary or permanent. A wide range of medical and social services professionals, educators, and librarians can examine people and certify them to receive services. NLS serves people of all ages.

The NLS provides talking books (audio books), Braille books, audio, and Braille magazines, as well as playback equipment to read them. It also lends free DAISY playback devices. People who want can purchase their own devices from other sources. NLS provides each patron with a DAISY key, which digitally unlocks DAISY books. The same key opens DAISY books from Bookshare, Learning Ally, and Open Library, so using these services becomes easy.

The NLS distributes its materials to patrons through state and regional libraries. These libraries also provide support for playback equipment and readers advisory.

Physical items ship free through the US Postal Service. Digital materials go through the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) service. BARD has mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. These materials are also available on digital cartridges for people with players that require them.

The NLS collection includes 300,000 items. These are books, magazines, and music instruction and appreciation materials in Braille and digital audio. The collection appeals to a wide range of interests. Approximately 65% are fiction, and 35% nonfiction. The collection includes books in Spanish and some titles in other languages. The number of titles in other languages is booming because of the Marrakesh Treaty.

Learn more: https://www.loc.gov/nls/

Bookshare® is an e-book library that makes reading easier. People with reading barriers have access to over one million titles, the most extensive collection of accessible e-books in the world. It includes books for school, career, and pleasure reading, as well as titles in over 34 languages.

Thanks to funding from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Bookshare is free for all qualified U.S. students and schools. Qualified individuals who are not students pay a nominal annual fee, which is reduced for people in some countries outside the U.S.

To join Bookshare, individuals must meet the same criteria as for the NLS. Membership in the NLS or Learning Ally also serves as proof of qualification.

High-quality text-to-speech voices, as well as human narrators, provide audio for Bookshare.

Some features as described by Bookshare:

• Read Your Way: Listen to books, follow along with karaoke-style highlighting, read in Braille or a large font, and customize your reading experience with e-books in formats that work for YOU.
• 1,117,583 titles: Access a huge collection of titles and find virtually any book you need for school, career, or the joy of reading.
• Read on the device YOU choose: Read anytime, anywhere you want with devices including computers, Chrome-books, tablets, smartphones, assistive technology devices, and more.
• Lowest cost: Read as many books as you want: FREE for qualified U.S. students and schools, and less than $1 per week for other members.

Learn more: https://www.bookshare.org

Learning Ally, previously Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), is a volunteer organization that helps parents and educators identify and prevent learning issues. It uses audiobooks to help struggling readers become independent, engaged learners. Subscribers have access to over 80,000 audiobook titles and additional resources, such as webinars with strategies for succeeding in school. Learning Ally has the world’s largest collection of audio textbooks for kindergarten through post-graduate and professional courses, plus a wide selection of popular fiction and nonfiction. 

There is an annual fee to subscribe, with a household membership allowing profiles and borrowing for up to 4 children. Individuals can also request a waiver of the subscription fee. 

Use of Learning Ally audiobooks is restricted to those who have a documented learning disability, visual impairment, or physical disability that makes it difficult to read traditional print. The organization requires documentation for each subscriber from a qualified professional in a wide range of medical, social services, and school professions. Membership in NLS or Bookshare also serves as proof of eligibility.

Learning Ally audiobooks are narrated by humans, not machines. Narrators are carefully matched with titles in order to use the one best suited to bringing a story or curriculum to life.

Many titles are available in VOICEtext, offering highlighted text that accompanies the audiobook to help develop reading fluency.

The books have personalization features, such as adjustable reading rate and text size.

Subscribers access the audiobooks by downloading the free Learning Ally Audiobooks app for PC/Mac/Chrome-books, Apple mobile devices, and Android mobile devices. Learning Ally audiobooks also play on a variety of DAISY Devices, including the ones distributed by NLS and those manufactured by Humanware and PLEXTALK.

Learn more: https://learningally.org

The American Printing House for the Blind has been innovating products and technology to help people with blindness and visual impairment live and learn more independently since 1854. Using their online database, Louis, readers can search for accessible educational materials (AEM) as well as recreational reading. Individuals can discover and order Braille, large-print, and digital textbooks that are already available, or request accessible versions of books for K-12 students. There are no membership, eligibility, or qualification requirements. All products are priced for individuals to purchase. 

APH’s Core Curriculum covers the basics that K-12 students need to be college and career ready.

APH offers more than books for teachers, parents, and individuals with vision loss at all ages, including tactile literacy tools, educational kits, and assistive technology. 

Learn more: https://www.aph.org

The Internet Archive is a non-profit online library with millions of free e-books, movies, pieces of software, music recordings, archived websites, and more.

Participating libraries digitize books from their collections and make them available to be borrowed by one patron at a time, from anywhere in the world, for free. Books published before 1927 and other out-of-copyright or open access books are available for free download in many formats, including EPUB, full text, Kindle, and pdf.

The Internet Archive’s Open Library also includes hundreds of thousands of in-copyright e-books. These are available in two types of DAISYs: open and protected. The open DAISYs are also available in PDF, TXT, and EPUB formats. Anyone can borrow them. In contrast, the protected DAISY books are only for people who qualify for NLS services and have an NLS digital key to open them.

Patrons create a free account using an email address and a password. They can borrow up to 10 books at a time for 14 days each. The books stop working when the loan expires and become available for others to check out. 

Learn more: https://archive.org/, https://openlibrary.org/