The provision of resources that are accessible to all is a key responsibility for libraries. The Equality Act (2010) means that as an institution the University of Cambridge is legally obligated to provide access to content in a format that all of its members can access, or alternative formats as a reasonable adjustment. This includes library resources such as books, articles and other publications and materials in and out of copyright.
The information below explains some of the ways this can be achieved. For further details see the Alternate formats section of our public-facing LibGuide.
Cambridge University Libraries' ebooks team have developed a policy on ebook purchasing, to ensure that purchased ebooks are accessible for as many users as possible. The policy is intended for use by staff at Cambridge University Libraries involved in the purchasing of ebooks. The information may also be useful for staff at other libraries working to ensure that ebooks they purchase are as accessible as possible.
Staff who scan and upload material to Moodle or other virtual learning environments have a duty to make scans as accessible as possible. As a minimum, this means:
The UL's Scan & Deliver team can help with scanning for teaching and learning under the CLA licence. Please email scan-deliver@lib.cam.ac.uk for more information.
It is sometimes not possible to provide resources which are accessible to all at source. The Copyright and Related Rights (Marrakesh Treaty etc) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 allow for the provision or creation of alternate accessible formats for eligible users, without infringing copyright. This is considered a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act (2010).
The following sources of alternate formats are used by the Libraries Accessibility Service. To be eligible, students must have a print disability and be registered with the Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre. There must also be a copy (print or electronic) of the sourced book in a Cambridge library (including college libraries and Electronic Legal Deposit). For further information about eligibility and the legal framework see our student-facing LibGuide.
RNIB Bookshare is a UK-hosted website offered by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). It provides a UK education collection for print-disabled learners including those with dyslexia or other Specific Learning Disabilities, those who are blind or partially sighted and those who have a physical impairment which makes print books hard to use. 
Textbooks, academic monographs, and other materials to support the UK higher and further education curriculum are available via RNIB Bookshare, and there are currently over 1.2 million titles to choose from. A range of accessible formats are offered via the website; these can be downloaded/adapted to suit the personal reading needs of learners.
If the title needed is not available on RNIB Bookshare and if a publisher is registered with RNIB Bookshare, the Libraries Accessibility Service can request that the title be added.
Access the RNIB Bookshare website.
It is also possible to contribute scans of material to RNIB Bookshare. The University Library's Scan & Deliver team upload eligible whole-book scans made for disabled students. This benefits future RNIB Bookshare users at Cambridge and other institutions.
The Libraries Accessibility Services can advise on using RNIB Bookshare and is able to provide Cambridge librarians with access to the service.
The Internet Archive can be a good source for older reading material. At the time of writing the Archive holds over 45 million texts. The University of Cambridge is a Qualifying Authority which means that the DRM-free source texts can usually be made available to students registered with the Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre (ADRC), provided we hold a copy of some sort in a Cambridge library. This is a mediated service, via the Libraries Accessibility Service.
Source files of the 18+ million digitized items from academic and research libraries contained in the Hathi Trust Digital Library can be made available to disabled students. This is a mediated service, via the Libraries Accessibility Service.
Access The Hathi Trust Digital Library
Many publishers are able to provide PDF (and occasionally Word) files for books published since 2000, for the personal use of print-disabled students as alternative formats to copies held by the libraries.
Some ebook platform suppliers will provide DRM-free alternatives to purchased, DRM-restricted books, for use by individual print-disabled students. Two platforms offering this service are ACLS Humanities Ebooks and EBSCOHost.
If it is not possible to acquire electronic files from the sources above, librarians can scan whole books or chapters as needed for individual print-disabled students. You can do this yourself or you can request a scan by emailing disability@lib.cam.ac.uk.
Many disabled students will need OCR (Optical Character Recognition) applied to the PDF so that it can be read out by their screen reader. When scanning for disabled students who need OCR:
If using Adobe Acrobat DC:
1. Open the PDF file containing the scan in Acrobat.
2. Click on Tools in the top left-hand corner and select Edit PDF.
3. Acrobat will then apply OCR to your document and convert it to a fully editable copy of your PDF.
4. Save and send the editable version to the student.
The SensusAccess service is designed to allow disabled students and staff (or those supporting them) to create accessible alternative formats of digital documents. It is a free self-service facility. E-training on how to use SensusAccess is available.
Use the web-form hosted on the University of Cambridge Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre webpages to convert PDFs, JPEGs and other files into an e-book, text file, Word file, OCRed PDF, audio or braille:
The Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre has created a dedicated web page advising on accessible materials. As well as guidance on creating accessible documents for use in situations such as teaching, the page contains instructions on how to convert inaccessible pdf documents, and how specific technologies interact with document formats.
Access the Software and technology for inclusive teaching webpage