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Cambridge University Press Grants Digital Rights to Bookshare for Accessible Formats Conversion

Cambridge University Press has entered into a license agreement with Bookshare, the Calif.-based nonprofit organization that provides books in accessible formats for people with qualified print disabilities, such as blindness or low vision, a physical disability, or a severe learning disability that affects reading.

Under the terms of the digital rights license agreement, Cambridge will deliver academic and scholarly books from all of its regional publishing centers around the world to Bookshare for conversion into accessible formats. Individuals with qualified print disabilities around the world will be able to download the books for a nominal Bookshare membership fee and read them using a computer or other assistive technology, with voice generated by text-to-speech technology, as well as options for digital Braille. Qualified students in the U.S. will have free access to the books, thanks to a special award from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.

Bookshare operates in the U.S. under an exception to copyright law known as the Chafee Amendment and is expanding internationally thanks to publishers providing digital files with worldwide copyright permissions. In addition to worldwide availability of titles, this agreement supports Bookshare operations because digital files in EPUB format from publishers ease the challenge of creating digital accessible books.

Source: Cambridge University Press