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According to the Equality Act 2010, all public sector organisations, including Universities, must make their websites and all their online content accessible to the standard of the "Web Contact Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 AA".

For Birmingham Newman Library, this means our website and all of the systems and content that you, our members, can use must be accessible to this standard. This includes Library Search, databases, e-book and e-journal content providers that we subscribe to.

The Birmingham Newman Library website has an accessibility statement, which will tell you what steps we have taken to make sure we are complying with the Law. Our external content providers for our databases, e-book and e-journal subscriptions will also have an accessibility statement.

We choose our external content providers very carefully to ensure that they meet the legal standard. However, there are many different ways that content can be displayed and access that will meet the standard, and different organisations will favour different methods.

Most eBook platforms offer basic accessibility features like zooming in and out. ProQuest eBook Central allows users to enable the ‘Open Dyslexic Typeface’ in their profile settings.
VLEBooks has the most accessibility features, with eBooks available in either PDF or ePub formats. All accessibility features are found in the top right toolbar of the online reader.

Accessibility features for PDF on VLEBooks

• Magnifying glass – zoom in and zoom out of page
• Page view – view a single or double page spread, rotate page
• Colour options – variety of overlay colours available
• Read aloud – computer delivers text verbally. You cannot change speaker tone or speed

Accessibility features for ePub on VLEBooks

• Magnifying glass – enlarges text within the page, making larger text easier to read without scrolling horizontally. The page number of the original format is preserved in the box above, allowing users to cite page number correctly 
• Read aloud – includes advanced settings which vary the type, speed and pitch of voice.
• Change font – options includes Sans Serif and Comic Sans font
• Spacing – change spacings between lines, words and letters
• Colour options - variety of overlay colours available, as well as a high contrast mode.
• Reading ruler

For more information on the accessibility features available on VLEBooks, please watch this video: VLeBooks: Accessibility features in the Online Reader (12 minutes).
Please note that publishers determine which platform eBooks are available on.

All of our e-books are available on accessible platforms. Most use PDF and EPUB formats to show content within your Internet browser. This content will work with all standard accessibility tools, such as those that come with your computer's operating system (Windows, iOS, etc.) and those that are recommended and provided as part of reasonable adjustments for disabled students. Most modern Internet browsers also offer 'extensions' that can make webpages more accessible, such as screen filters and text-to-speech tools.

VLeBooks, which is where most of our e-books are hosted, also has enhanced accessibility tools built in to its Online Reader. We have made a video to show you the features that are available.

Other platforms that host e-books and online content, such as journal articles, may also offer enhanced accessibility tools. As a small library team, it would be difficult for us to produce videos to showcase all of these content providers' accessible features; however, many of them have their own tours and videos to help you make the most of their platforms. This content will usually be available in the 'Help' menu when you access these platforms.

We hope that you won't encounter any issues with our website, or with any external content we give you access to. However, if this does happen, then in both instances, you should contact us.

If it is the Birmingham Newman University Library website that is causing problems, then please use our website feedback and error reporting form. For issues with content on external sites (i.e. not with 'newman.ac.uk' in its address), please contact us by email, explaining the issue in as much detail as you can.