Accessibility for Library Resources: Ebooks and Audiobooks

Most of KU Libraries' ebook collection is provided through ProQuest Ebook Central (which may come up in search results as "ebrary Academic Complete").

Unfortunately, ProQuest's online ebook reader does not feature any built-in listening functionality, though ProQuest's accessibility page notes that users should be able to listen to the website using a screen reader.

Additionally, ProQuest does not allow full books to be downloaded as PDFs (though partial books can be downloaded).

To download full books from ProQuest, users must install Adobe Digital Editions.

Adobe Digital Editions lacks a built-in Listen mode, but it is designed to function properly with Windows-based screen reading software such as JAWS and NVDA.

ProQuest also notes that some ebooks may not be fully formatted to work with third-party screen readers, and that a few select elements within the website itself may not properly state their function.

Read more about ProQuest's accessibility functions here:

ProQuest Accessibility Statement

• ProQuest Ebook Central
  Provides authoritative, credible e-books from scholarly publishers. Access is also available to mobile devices.

The KU Libraries Online Catalog provides links to open access ebooks held as part of Project Gutenberg. 

Project Gutenberg does not support any sort of built-in listening functionality, or PDF downloads. However, it does allow users to access books in a plaintext format that should be readable by a Windows screen reader such as JAWS or NVDA.

• Project Gutenberg
  Free epub and Kindle eBooks which can be downloaded or read online. Has a focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired.

HathiTrust does not have a Listen functionality built into their ebook pages. However, they do offer an Accessible Text Request Service for eligible users:

HathiTrust Accessibility Information

HathiTrust also offers OCR functionality for their ebooks. However, they note that their OCR process is automated and may have errors. Users can submit feedback asking for HathiTrust staff to re-run the OCR process.

Additionally, non-English books may not automatically work correctly with English-language screen readers and may require the user to manually change the targeted language of their third-party screen reader.

• HathiTrust Digital Library
  A digital repository of collections (books and journals) of some of the major research libraries in the United States. More than 30% of the content is in the public domain or Creative Commons licensed and is freely available to view, download and print.

Libby provides ebooks and audiobooks in a variety of genres, including popular fiction and non-fiction books. Ebooks borrowed via Libby can be read either on a Kindle device or directly in the browser through the Libby App. The in-browser Libby App does not contain any built-in reader, and does not seem to function properly with the Windows screen reader JAWS. However, the site does contain options to reduce color variation, reduce text style variation, and reduce motion.

Ebooks offered through OAPEN can be downloaded as PDFs. PDFs tested by the author of this guide were not consistently formatted as accessible. OAPEN acknowledges that not all portions of their website are consistently accessible.

More information regarding OAPEN's accessibility policies can be found here:

OAPEN Accessibility Policies

• OAPEN
  An online library of open access academic books from hundreds of publishers featuring thousands of subjects in eighty languages.