University of West England (UWE)

Provide ... more accessible texts which can greatly enrich their (learners) choices and chances of academic success. (Anja, Library Team)

We have quite a large and well-established Alternative Formats Service here at UWE Bristol Library Services. We always check RNIB Bookshare first before contacting publishers to obtain a file to reformat for our students. It is slowly becoming more common for us to find the kinds of titles we need on RNIB Bookshare which is really great, although it is still a small proportion of the total amount of texts we reformat each academic year. We would, therefore, love to see the collection continue to grow through further contributions from publishers.

The key benefits for us are that we can provide our students with accessible texts much faster so they are not at a disadvantage in their studies in comparison to their peers. It also means we can provide them with more of accessible texts which can greatly enrich their choices and chances of academic success. In addition, it means that we would need to expend less time and resources directly contacting publishers and reformatting to make their original files more accessible.

Thank you very much for the excellent service.