For persons with print disabilities, using a traditional library could be a difficult if not impossible task. And, depending on the degree of your disability, a library might not offer enough content that you can meaningfully access. Thankfully, with the advent of the internet, there are services available online to help fill that gap, and today, we are going to explore one of such services.
The Centre for Equitable Library Access or CELA is an online library for Canadians which provides alternative and accessible reading formats to over a million titles. With an emphasis on Canadian titles and authors, the library includes bestsellers, award winning titles, a range of fiction and non-fiction, and plenty of choices for children and teens. As of right now the library also offers access to around 45 newspapers and 150 DAISY (Digital Audiobook) magazines.
CELA services are only available for Canadians with print disabilities, educators, and other disability support personnel. Registering for the service is fairly straightforward, as you’ll only need to provide your local library card number and a few bits of personal information to sign up.
Once you’re signed up, accessing the online library is easy. You can search for specific titles, sort by date, author, title, do an advanced search by keyword, language, format, document type, or by audience. You can also browse by category, which first shows you the most popular genres, then as you scroll down you can search within even more specific categories, e.g. Canadian Fiction, Disabilities Fiction, Canadian non-fiction etc.
These titles are available in a variety of formats, and the availability of each format will vary. The available formats are Braille, DAISY, Electronic Braille, Word, and ePub.
And because the website was designed for persons with print disabilities, it provides lots of helpful accessibility settings and shortcuts. You can adjust contrast, text size, font type, and spacing. The website also provides helpful tips for accessing it via JAWS, NVDA, and Voiceover, giving specific shortcuts for commonly used features.
For persons with print disabilities, CELA provides an incredible service supported by an impressive library of material. The website is also bilingual, so native French speakers can comfortably access its content. To learn more about CELA, click here (new window).
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