Flat World and Bookshare To Deliver Accessible Open Content Texts to College Students

Campus Technology Article:

Chronicle

Open-content publisher Flat World Knowledge has announced it will supply college textbooks to Bookshare, the free online library for people with print disabilities. Flat World will be the first publisher of post-secondary texts to contribute material to the organization.

Although many colleges and universities make special accommodations for students with print disabilities, including the blind and visually impaired and those with dyslexia, financially challenged institutions are struggling in the current economy to provide all the necessary materials in formats that accommodate such students.

Flat World and Bookshare said they expect the new agreement will begin to relieve some of that burden. Schools will no longer each have to do their own conversions of commonly used texts, saving time and money, and students requiring materials in special formats will have a one-stop, online destination to meet their needs.