Accessibility Services: Developmental Disabilities

Libby by OverDrive

Libby provides eBooks, eAudiobooks and eMagazines and offers a number of accessible features. Some picture book eBooks in the Libby collection also include narration.

For an overview of accessible features and how to use them, read Libby for Every Reader, a free short course from Libby.

Individual articles can be found on the Libby help site:

• Does Libby work with screen readers?
• Adjusting accessibility features
• Changing text size
• Using keyboard shortcuts for eBooks and eAudiobooks
• Reading in sepia or night mode
• Turning on dyslexic font
• Zooming in eBooks and eMagazines

hoopla

• You can change the font size in ebooks.
• You can listen to eAudiobooks.
• Some ebooks have a Read Along feature.
  • These can be found by searching Read Along and by selecting the Read Along tag on an ebook's description page.
  • Read Along ebooks can be cast to a streaming device, such as Chromecast, Roku, and Apple TV.
• Some ebooks have a narration feature.
• hoopla also offers a number of eBooks with a read-along feature that can be streamed to devices (Chromecast, Roku, Apple TV). Search read along in hoopla, or select the read along tag.

cloudLibrary

• You can select the dyslexic font option in ebooks.
• You can change the font size in ebooks.

• You can listen to eAudiobooks.

TumbleBook Library

The TumbleBook Library is a collection of animated, talking picture books in English, Spanish and French. The Chapter Books collection allows readers to change the colors of the background and text, as well as the font style, size and line spacing.

While not an Austin Public Library service, we highly recommend the Talking Book Program (TBP) from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. TBP provides free library services to qualifying Texans with visual, physical, or reading disabilities. TBP is part of the National Library Service to the Blind and Print Disabled, a program administered by the Library of Congress. The TBP collection consists of more than 100,000 titles, including hundreds of titles in Spanish, and some in French, German, Russian, and other languages.

Learn more and apply for TBP.

You can access the majority of databases from home with a valid Library Card number and password. Forgot your password? If you do not have a Library Card, you can access databases by logging on to any Library computer or by connecting your personal device to the Library's WiFi network at any APL location. You can also apply for a Library card online.

All TexShare databases are ADA-compliant and each resource should have an associated Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) to render them accessible to users. These can be found by visiting our All Digital Resources page and selecting "TexShare" under the "Access" filter.

All Gale databases, all EBSCOhost databases, and the SciTech Premium Collection database offer the ability to listen to HTML articles.

Accessing adaptive features in Gale databases

Select the Display options icon to change the background color, font (including dyslexic font) and line, letter and word spacing.

Select the Listen icon to expand the player and begin playback. Select the cog, or Settings, icon to access additional assistive features, including:

• text highlighting
• color options for text and text highlighting
• automatic page scrolling
• enhanced text visibility, which displays the current sentence at the bottom of the screen with enlarged font
• speed up or slow down the reading rate

Accessing adaptive features in EBSCOhost databases

Select the red arrow to Listen. Select the cog, or Settings, icon to access additional assistive features, including:

• text highlighting
• color options for text and text highlighting
• automatic page scrolling
• enhanced text visibility, which displays the current sentence at the bottom of the screen with enlarged font
• speed up or slow down the reading rate

Select the Download mp3 icon to download an mp3 of the article.