NYU Press has joined two other prestigious university publishers to provide digital books for Bookshare Publisher Partner Program’s accessible online library for people with print disabilities. The University of Chicago Press, the University of California Press and New York University Press have all agreed to provide Bookshare with digital book files that will contribute thousands of new scholarly works to the Bookshare collection. Books from Nobel Prize winning authors and academic texts in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and disability studies will expand the choices available for students in higher education and readers of distinguished authors.
The Bookshare library provides legal access to more than 50,000 books and 150 periodicals to readers with print disabilities. Thanks to Bookshare, a person with a print disability can read a newspaper the same day it hits the newsstand or download a best-selling book simultaneously with its print publication.
“The goal of university press publishing is to bring important scholarship to the widest audience possible,” said Steve Maikowski, Director, NYU Press. “We are pleased to be participating in the Bookshare program, giving readers with print disabilities access to our books with greater ease and in a wider range of formats than ever before. Given NYU Press’s strong commitment to publishing in the field of disabilities studies, we are particularly pleased to make our books available in accessible formats.”
Fewer than five percent of the books needed by people with print disabilities have typically been available in accessible formats. An award from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) allows Bookshare to expand its collection through publisher partnerships and to significantly increase the number of users who have access to the service.
