Accessible online book archive

A press release last week from the Associated Press announced a project which plans to put over one million books online for people who have difficulty reading.

The "Internet Archive" in San Francisco have hired hundreds of people to scan thousands of books so they can be put into a digital format that screenreaders can read and make them available to the blind and visually impaired.  The percentage of books even available in audio format is miniscule compared to the number of hard copy textx available to sighted readers.  Only about 5% of published books are converted into an accessible format for the visually impaired.

Brewster Kahle, the organization's founder, says the project will initially make 1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from foundations, libraries, corporations and the government. He's hoping a subsequent book drive will add even more titles to the collection.

"We'll offer current novels, educational books, anything. If somebody then donates a book to the archive, we can digitize it and add it to the collection," he said.

The problems with many of the digitized books sold commercially is that they're expensive, they're often abridged, and they don't come in a format that is easily accessed by the visually impaired.

Quote from Associated Press

It is usually only profitable, popular books from the last few years that are currently converted into accessible forms.  The Internet Archive "working to get all books online".

Now people unable to read standard books will have a choice unavailable to them before.

Visit the Internet Archive by clicking here.  Most texts are free to read or download though some have restrictions.  They also have free audio, movie and image files and links to projects like the Open Library, which has a list of 20 million books that are already available in accessible formats and where to find or buy them.