Making everything easily readable for everyone

If you are preparing to come to university or looking to apply through clearing, it is never too soon to think about what additional needs you might have.  There are lots of ways the University Library can help you to learn and thrive academically and in your career if you have found struggling to read the printed word holds you back.  Whether you have physical difficulty reading books, have a visual impairment, or have dyslexia or some other diverse neurotype that makes reading harder, your friendly library team is here to help!

Quick wins for everyone

• All our ebooks have built in screen readers and all our eresources are screen reader compatible, so you can listen to them like podcasts.  This helps anyone who takes information in more easily by listening than conventional reading. 
• Anyone can scan or take photos of pages from printed books and convert them to a podcast or more accessible electronic reading formats through the free Robobraille website, helping you learn how you learn best.
• Personalise your learning with free tools from speed reading browser extensions that remove all distractions and can quadruple your reading speed to tools to learn visually with mind maps and image collages 

Struggle to find or carry books? 

Our Click & Collect service lets you to ask us to fetch books to the Atrium without you having to search the shelve, while our Postal Loans service means you can get books delivered free to wherever you live (within the UK), which is great if you struggle under heavy loads or study at a distance. 

If you need books brought to your desk because you cannot carry them (we have wheeled book trolleys that make this a lot easier), you can even ask our staff to help fetch the books you need.

Computing for everyone

• All our electronic resources are accessible and screen reader friendly as standard, with an increasing proportion of our ebooks being delivered in the still more accessible ePub format rather than as PDFs.
• We offer adjustable, ergonomic PCs that you can book in advance.
• Everyone has access to a range of assistive software from multisensory reading support and mind mapping, to screen reader/magnifier tools through Apps Anywhere.
• We can scan chapters from printed books and articles from printed journals (within copyright license imposed limits) and email these to you in an accessible format.

Free additional support for anyone who needs it

While listening to ebooks and scans of printed books read aloud to them suits some people, others have physical, visual or neurological differences that make reading much more difficult than it is for other people.  If that sounds like you, we are very happy to offer you personalised support to make sure you are never disadvantaged.  The catch is this takes time to set up and so we really need you to tell us as soon as you accept your offer (or as soon as possible afterwards).  Please don't leave it until you are struggling to complete your assignments before telling us you 
 

That's why the Library offers a whole host of services to make reading easier for everyone.  The sad thing is that so many people struggle in silence when there are both apps that let anyone quickly convert printed books into podcasts and features in our ebook platforms that read ebooks aloud or change their appearance in ways that may make them easier to read.  If you tell us you have a qualifying disability, we can also give you access to books in a variety of more accessible formats through the RNIB Bookshare platform. 

An initiative by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), RNIB Bookshare is not just for blind and partially sighted people.  You may qualify for access to their accessible ebooks if you are:

• blind or partially sighted (other than simply needing to wear reading glasses or contact lenses)

• neurodivergent and therefore unable to read effectively - perhaps you have difficulty reading as a result of dyslexia, autism or attention deficit disorder (ADD)

• unable to hold or manipulate a book because of a physical disability

• unable to focus or move your eyes enough to read effectively

Tell us early

Coming to university is a big transition for everyone, and finding reading difficult is never something you should have to live with when there are so many ways we can help.  It takes us time to set everything up and make sure you have everything you need from the start of your course, so please don't chance it and hope you will be all right. 

If you have, or think you might have, difficulty reading or with any other aspect of your studies or university life, please tell us straight away.  No one will think any less of you when you are applying for your course, and once accepted onto your course, everyone wants to make sure you have everything you need to succeed from the outset.  Setting up the right support can take time though, so the sooner you tell us, the sooner we can help you!

Start early

If you have any concerns and think you might need alternative formats or other supports to help you thrive at university, please reach out as soon as you have accepted your offer and tell the:

• Disability Advice (formerly 'ASDAC') - especially if you need the university to pay for specialist software, equipment or support.
• University Library - so we can start work digitising anything you might need in an accessible electronic that we only hold in print and setting up access to RNIB Bookshare, if you qualify.  

Stay in touch

Having reached out, please check your emails!  We have lots of students who bravely reach out to us but then stop responding to emails and, well, it's really hard to know how to help at that point.  We understand how overwhelming coming to university can be, but arranging a friendly chat about what you find difficult, whether you might qualify for RNIB Bookshare, and what we can offer to support your learning most effectively takes only a few minutes, and if you get it out of the way early, it makes a massive difference going forward.

Anything else?

You can find much more comprehensive information about all our disability support services on our Disability Support webpages. 

For all your other questions, please chat with a friendly librarian online (available 24/7 but you might get the best answer from our local team, who staff the service 9 am - 4.50 pm Monday-Friday, except on Bank Holidays) or email [email protected] at any time.