Accessibility: E-books

An e-book is usually a good option for a person having reading disabilities. The Tampere higher education community has access to an extensive collection of e-books from various fields. We always  order an e-book version of a course book, if one is available with terms of use suitable for organizational use.

• In most cases, e-book services offer a possibility to enlarge the size of the book text or change colors and contrasts to better match your needs.
• In many e-book services,  it is possible to download a book to Adobe Digital Editions, which usually works well with screen readers. You will find a link and instructions for downloading the free reader in the E-resource guide's Reading and downloading -page.
• Some books have a separate accessibility mode or listening option (ReadALoud).
• E-book guide lists e-book services on downloading instructions pages (A-H and I-Ö). You will find a link to the service's accessibility information there, if available. The link can be found under the More information section.
• The e-book's DRM protection, or digital rights management, may prevent the use of screen readers.

Celia and four Finnish university libraries (DIAK, HAMK, Laurea, Metropolia) have tested the accessibility of the most common e-book services. You can go to the test results from this Celia webpage (only in Finnish). These e-book services were tested:

• Alma Talent Verkkokirjahylly
• Ellibs
• Terveysportti and Oppiportti
• Ebook Central
• Ebsco eBooks
• SpringerLink