For students
MIT students with print disabilities who need electronically accessible course materials can utilize a variety of resources provided by MIT and work with Disability & Access Services for support.
Acquiring alternative formats
MIT has memberships with organizations such as bookshare.org that provide accessible formats. Some publishers also provide digital textbooks for students with print disabilities by request. DAS staff can help…
Scanning and converting materials
When alternative formats cannot be acquired in time, materials may need to be converted to an accessible format on campus.
- MIT Libraries Scan and Deliver Services will scan books and other printed materials, run optical character recognition (OCR), and provide you with text-based or PDF files.
- MIT CopyTech provides scanning to image (TIFF or PDF only) and enlargements of print materials.
Assistive technology for reading
Our office provides software applications to read materials, including Kurzweil 3000, JAWS screen reading, ZoomText Magnifier/Reader, and e-book readers.
Note: Students requesting e-text or other alternate media from a publisher may be required to verify that they have purchased a print copy of the text. If electronic files are not provided by the publisher, a qualifying student may be given permission by the publisher to scan his/her own print copy of the text. Books are provided or scanned according to permission granted by the publisher. Any further reproduction or distribution may be considered an infringement of copyright law.