Specialized Formats
Copyright-Exempt Repositories
NOTE: Repositories in this category operate as authorized entities as described in Section 121 of the Copyright Act (the Chafee Amendment) and may only provide specialized format versions of print instructional materials to qualified students.
The Accessible Book Collection (http://www.accessiblebookcollection.org/ [1]) The Accessible Book Collection is a non-profit corporation. Its primary mission is to provide high interest/low reading level digital text to qualified persons with disabilities. Government and non-profit schools and others can subscribe to the very affordable Accessible Book Collection and have a large selection of e-books for all their eligible students for a low price. Books from the Accessible Book Collection are available in HTML and XHTML, the latter designed to work with customizable style sheets that provide adjustable fonts, colors, and spacing.
American Printing House for the Blind (http://www.aph.org/ [2])
APH is responsible for providing specialized materials free-of-charge to eligible blind and visually-impaired students in educational settings with annual support from the Federal Quota Program. The federal quota program divides an annual appropriation from Congress by the number of qualified Blind/Low Vision students in educational settings and apportions those funds for the purchase of specialized-format materials via Instructional Resource Centers for the Blind and Visually Impaired. APH also manages the LOUIS database, an online catalog of approximately 170,000 titles available in Braille, large print, e-text, and audio from nearly 200 contributing agencies.
Books Aloud, Inc. (http://www.booksaloud.org/home.htm [3])
Books Aloud, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supported by donations from individuals, corporations, foundations, trusts, businesses, and service clubs. The Books Aloud "Reading by Listening" Program provides a wide variety of recorded reading literature to eligible individuals of all ages. The service is free.
Bookshare.org (http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html [4]); Bookshare for Education (B4E)
Bookshare.org is an online community that enables people with visual and other print disabilities to legally share scanned books. It is designed exclusively for the use of the blind and other individuals with print-related disabilities. As of October 1, 2007, memberships for qualifying U.S. students of all ages including K–12, post-secondary, and adult education are now free, thanks to special funding from the Office of Special Education Programs. U.S. educators and qualifying students have access to tens of thousands of digital books, including textbooks, literature, current popular reading, teacher recommended reading, reference materials, newspapers, and periodicals. Qualifying U.S. students may access Bookshare.org in two ways, either through a school membership or an individual membership. Books from Bookshare.org are available in two specialized formats, meaning formats specifically designed for people with disabilities. The two formats are the NISO/DAISY digital talking book standard and the Braille digital format BRF.
National Library Service (www.loc.gov/nls [5])
The National Library Service at the Library of Congress coordinates a network of regional and sub-regional librariesthat provides a free library service to persons who are unable to use standard printed material because of visual or physical disabilities. Library patrons can expect to borrow audio or Braille books such as they might find in print at a local public library. Books and magazines in audio form (talking books) and in Braille are delivered to eligible readers by postage-free mail and are returned in the same manner. Specially designed phonographs and cassette players are also loaned free to persons who borrow talking books from their library.
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D) (http://www.rfbd.org/ [6])
For 60 years, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), a national non-profit, volunteer organization, has been the leading producer of accessible audio books for students with disabilities such as visual impairment or dyslexia that make reading standard print difficult or impossible. With titles available in many subject areas and grade levels, RFB&Ds digitally recorded textbooks help students challenged by the printed page. RFB&D distributes Digital Talking Books (AudioPlus) on CD-ROM. AudioPlus books are audio-only, human-voice recordings that conform to DAISY navigation requirements. These products require specialized hardware—desktop or portable "players"—or AudioPlus-compatible computer software for playback.
Commercial Repositories & Distributors (A Sampling)
NOTE: Repositories in this category provide fee-based access (subscription or per-item) to digital and/or audio versions of print materials.
The NIMAS Centers at CAST (http://nimas.cast.org/about/resources/alternate_formats.html#mainstreamsourcestext [7]) maintain an extensive list of mainstream and commercial sources of digital text.
Curriculum Publishers (http://www.readingprograms.info/ed_pubs.html [8]) provides an annotated list ofmajor educational publishers, most of whom offer both digital and print products.
Audible (http://www.audible.com/ [9]) offers an impressive array of commercial audio books.
Audio Editions (www.audioeditions.com/ [10]) offers audio books on CD.
Overdrive (http://www.overdrive.com/ [11]) offers digital downloads of audio books in a variety of formats. Use http://www.ebooklocator.com/ [12] to locate e-books.
Blackstone Audiobooks (http://www.blackstoneaudio.com/ [13]) produces human-narrated trade books available on CD or via MP3-format as downloads.
Public Domain Repositories (A Sampling)
NOTE: Repositories in this category provide access to digital versions of copyright-free or out-of-copyright materials.
Digital Text
Wikibooks (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page [14]) is a Wikimedia community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit. Wikibooks began on July 10, 2003, and since then Wikibooks has grown to include over 29,721 pages in a multitude of textbooks. Wikibooks also houses Wikijunior (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior [15]), a collection of richly-illustrated non-fiction books for children to age 12.
Curriki (http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome [16]) is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. Their name is acombination of the words 'curriculum' and 'wiki' to reflect the technology Curriki is using "to make education universally accessible" (from the web site).
Audio
LoudLit (http://www.loudlit.org/ [17]) delivers public domain literature paired with high-quality audio performances.
LibriVox (http://www.librivox.org/ [18]) maintains a collection of audio files and podcasts of public domain books.
Free Classic Audiobooks (http://freeclassicaudiobooks.com/ [19]) provides just what their name implies.
Learn OutLoud (http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video#directory [20]) offers over 500 free audio and video titles. Their directory features free audio books, lectures, speeches, sermons, interviews, and many otherfree audio and video resources. Most audio titles can be downloaded in digital formats such as MP3 and most video titles are available to stream online.