University of Worcester

“What is really good to see is the number of publishers now working directly with RNIB Bookshare.”

Library Services at the University of Worcester have been using RNIB Bookshare for four years, since 2014, and have found it a huge help. They joined the service before many other further higher educational establishments, and have seen how our catalogue of resources has grown to meet the needs of their print disabled students.

“We can now aim to source many more texts for our students as RNIB Bookshare coverage is improving year-on-year, the process is really quick and simple, and the request system for texts not already on the site is so much easier than direct approaches to publishers.”

A key area that RNIB Bookshare is able to support Di and her colleagues with is through navigating and meeting the legal requirements of the Copyright and Rights in Performances (Disability) Regulations 2014.

“Where texts are sourced from RNIB Bookshare all legal requirements are covered consistently, doing away with the many and varied forms of publisher agreement conditions, so less work for both the publisher and the recipient.”

RNIB Bookshare has been able to streamline the process for many schools and universities in obtaining accessible electronic files directly from publishers, saving both sides effort, resources and cost.

“What is really good to see is the number of publishers now working directly with RNIB Bookshare (and the work being done to increase those numbers). Such publishers reduce the number of individual requests they have to process, help those of us who work to obtain alternative formats…”

Most importantly, RNIB Bookshare is supporting educational organisations to help print disabled learners access the educational resources they need.

“… and contribute to making a more level playing-field for print-disabled students.”