Electronic books (e-books)

UCL purchases DRM-free e-books whenever it can. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and refers to technical measures to control copying, printing and downloading from e-books.

DRM-free e-books mean that you can simply download content as PDF files, just like you do with journal articles. These PDF files should be compatible with most screenreaders and other assistive technologies, including those built into Adobe Acrobat or your chosen device.

Not all e-books are available DRM-free. You should still be able to download some content as PDF files but downloading the whole book might need a specific app or deliver a protected file that requires Adobe Digital Editions to open it. You may find that reading these books online with your chosen assistive technology or the inbuilt accessibility features on the platform offers a more accessible experience. Kortext and BibliU require a specific app for you to read content offline but there are inbuilt accessibility features in these apps as described below.

You can also check out the below resources available at UCL:

Many e-book platforms have built-in accessibility tools regardless of whether the e-books are DRM-free or DRM-protected. Here we outline how to use these tools on the major e-book platforms which apply DRM:

The same accessibility features are available in the BibliU Web reader and app. 

Use the Read Aloud option by clicking the listener icon in the top right corner. This will open a tab at the bottom of the reader. From there, you can pause and play, change the reading speed, and select different reading voices:

• Change background and text size by clicking the display options icon in the top right corner:

Kortext accessibility features vary between the web reader and the app. There are also more accessibility features for EPUB files compared to PDF files. We aim to provide access to EPUB files wherever possible.

A read aloud function is available in both the web reader and the app. Open the book and highlight the text you want to read. A menu will appear and you can select read aloud. In the app, you can also access the read aloud function by opening the book and clicking the three dots in the top of the screen (tap the bottom of the screen to make the top and bottom menus appear if necessary).

Accessibility features can be accessed by clicking the display options icon in the top right corner of the screen.

In the web reader:

For EPUB files, you can change the typeface to a variety of fonts including OpenDyslexic, choose to read in page mode or scroll mode, change the page width, text size, page layout, and background colour (tone) of the reader display and e-book. The text will reflow when you make size, font and layout changes.

For PDF files, you can zoom in and out on the page. The text will not reflow.

In the app:

For EPUB files, you can change the text size (the text will reflow) and the tone of the e-book.

For PDF files, you can zoom in and out (the text will not reflow) and change the tone of the e-book.

Read aloud option in Kortext web reader

Accessibility tools in Kortext web reader and EPUB file

Accessibility tools in Kortext web reader and PDF file

Accessibility tools in Kortext app and EPUB file

Accessibility tools in Kortext app and PDF file

Enable the built-in Accessibility Mode and switch on use of the OpenDyslexic typeface:

To do this, click Settings in the top right corner of the page, and choose Profile from the drop-down list. You will then be taken to a page where you can make changes to the Accessibility Mode. When doing this for the first time, in order to save the changes, you will have to provide your email address at the top of the page.

In the default selections, both Accessibility Mode and OpenDyslexic typeface are switched off. You can turn on Accessibility Mode using your screen reader or by selecting the Enable Accessibility Mode button. 

You can switch on the use of the OpenDyslexic typeface by clicking the button Use OpenDyslexic typeface. Only when both the Accessibility Mode and the OpenDyslexic font are enabled, the e-book and interface will be displayed in OpenDyslexic. If you enable the OpenDyslexic font without enabling Accessibility Mode, the font of the e-book itself will not change.

• Change the language of the interface (this does not change the language of the e-book):

To do this, click Settings in the top right corner of the page, and choose Language from the drop-down list. You will then be taken to a page where you can choose the language of the Ebook Central interface from a list. 

Select your preferred language and click Save Changes

Use the text-to-audio (ReadAloud) option:

Change the colour of the e-book background: