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Disability support

Accessibility guidance for eBooks

We subscribe to a number of third party eBook services. This advice is intended to help you change the settings on them so you can read the books more easily.

Ebook Central (from Proquest)
ICE Virtual Library
IEEE Xplore Digital Library
 

Collection: Ebook Central (from Proquest) 

If you decide to read the eBook online, it will be displayed in online PDF format. If you decide to download the entire eBook, you can choose whether to download it as EPUB or PDF. These book downloads will be in .acsm file format. If you decide to download an individual chapter from the eBook, this will download as a PDF (.pdf) file, and will have more accessibility options available to you than if you downloaded the entire book.  

Read online – PDF:

There is an inbuilt zoom tool which offers 4 zoom levels - click the magnifying glass symbols on the top toolbar. The text does not reflow (automatically adjust to fit on the page at the new zoom level) when the text size is changed. There is no inbuilt option to change the background or font colour. 

Full book download - PDF (opened in Adobe Digital Editions):

There are 6 different zoom levels available. You can change the level by clicking on Reading on the top toolbar, then PDF View and clicking on Zoom In or Zoom Out. You can also zoom in by pressing Ctrl (Windows) or command (Mac) and the + key. To zoom out, press Ctrl/command and the - key, and press Ctrl/command and 0 to set the zoom level back to default. The text does not reflow (automatically adjust to fit on the page at the new zoom level) when the text size is changed. There is no inbuilt option to change the background or font colour.

Full book download - PDF (opened in Bluefire Reader):

There are over 40 different zoom levels available. You can change the level by clicking the plus and minus symbols on the toolbar at the bottom. You can also choose from a limited range of zoom levels by clicking on View and then PDF Settings, then selecting a zoom level from the drop-down menu. The text does not reflow (automatically adjust to fit on the page at the new zoom level) when the text size is changed. You can activate ‘Night mode’ (under View > PDF Settings) which inverts the colours.  

Full book download - EPUB (opened in Adobe Digital Editions): 

There are 5 different zoom levels available. You can change the level by clicking on the AA button on the toolbar in the top right hand corner, and selecting the size you require. You can also change the zoom level by clicking on Reading on the top toolbar, then EPUB Text Size and clicking on Increase or Decrease. You can also zoom in by pressing the CTRL and + keys, and zoom out by pressing the CTRL and - keys. The text reflows (automatically adjusts to fit on the page at the new zoom level) when the text size is changed. There is no inbuilt option to change the background or font colour.

Full book download - EPUB (opened in Bluefire Reader):

There are over 30 different zoom levels available. You can change the level by clicking on View and then ePUB Settings, and clicking the plus and minus symbols. The text reflows (automatically adjusts to fit on the page at the new zoom level) when the text size is changed. You can activate ‘Night mode’ (under View > ePUB Settings) which inverts the colours. If you go to View > ePUB Settings > Advanced Settings (tick the box), you can also choose from a range of colour options. 

Individual chapter download - PDF (opened in Adobe Reader):  

The download will open in your web browser, which does not give access to the Adobe Reader settings you need to use to alter the zoom level, background colour or font colour. First, use the Save or Download icon to save the eBook to your computer, and then open it from there with Adobe Reader. Then you can change the page zoom through the full range of zoom levels from 10% - 6400%. You can make the text reflow (automatically adjust itself to fit on the page at the new zoom level). You can change the font and background colour by going to preferences>accessibility and put a tick next to replace document colours. Choose custom colour and select the colour you require for the page background and document text.

 

Collection: ICE Virtual Library

ICE Virtual Library can only be read online.

Browser settings: 

There is no inbuilt zoom option. You can change the zoom level of the whole web page using your browser. To zoom in, press Ctrl (Windows) or command (Mac) and the + key. To zoom out, press Ctrl/command and the - key, and press Ctrl/command and 0 to set the zoom level back to default. When you zoom the text does not reflow (automatically adjust to fit on the page at the new zoom level). There is no inbuilt option to change the background or font colour.

PDF download (opened in Adobe Reader):

The download will open in your web browser, which does not give access to the Adobe Reader settings you need to use to alter the zoom level, background colour or font colour. First, use the Save or Download icon to save the eBook to your computer, and then open it from there with Adobe Reader XI. Then you can change the page zoom from 10% - 6400% using the little plus and minus symbols. Depending on the title of the eBook, you may be able to make the text reflow (automatically adjust itself to fit on the page at the new zoom level). You can change the font and background colour by going to preferences>accessibility and put a tick next to replace document colours. Choose custom colour and select the colour you require for the page background and document text.

 

Collection: IEEE Xplore Digital Library 

IEEE Xplore Digital Library eBooks are available in downloadable PDF format.  

Download: 

The download will open in your web browser, which does not give access to the Adobe Reader settings you need to use to alter the zoom level, background colour or font colour. First, use the Save or Download icon to save the eBook to your computer, and then open it from there with Adobe Reader. Then you can change the page zoom from 10% - 6400% using the little plus and minus symbols. You may be able to make the text reflow (automatically adjust itself to fit on the page at the new zoom level). You can change the font and background colour by going to preferences>accessibility and put a tick next to replace document colours. Choose custom colour and select the colour you require for the page background and document text.

Attribution: Leeds Beckett University (2019) Accessibility of eBooks. Available at: http://libguides.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/resources/ebooks/accessibility (Accessed: 29 July 2019).