When copyright materials are produced at the request of system users, we rely on copyright exemptions that extend equitable access for public library materials to people with print disabilities.

Section 32(1) of the Copyright Act states: “It is not an infringement of copyright for a person with a perceptual disability, for a person acting at the request of such a person or for a non-profit organization acting for the benefit of such a person to (a) make a copy or sound recording of a literary, musical, artistic or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability".

Access to digital books and the costs for equipment to digitize books have lowered substantially for libraries and consumers over the years. Possibilities for production have shifted for talking book collections and for digital distribution. At this time, library services, alternate format materials and digital delivery offer many options. The NNELS collection of materials is produced using open source software on library-owned community infrastructure.

The NNELS system:

• provides digital files in text, audio, and text-and-audio formats to meet the needs of multiple users.
• prefers publisher-supplied electronic text over manual digitization of material.
• supports digital transition in libraries.

We do not produce large print materials, or create productions from large-print items. Almost all of our digital files allow for enlargement of text.

Accessibility Features

Ebooks produced by NNELS/BC Libraries Cooperative will have the following characteristics:

• Allows speech synthesis to respect the rules of pronunciation and spelling of the language of the text.
• Allows the enlargement of the text characters and the modification of the colors and contrasts for the text and the background ("Customizable display").
• Contains a table of contents that allows direct access to all chapters of the text via links. Headings are identified as such to facilitate navigation ("Table of contents navigation", "Heading navigation").
• Content follows a logical and correct reading order. Note references are linked and allow you to access notes and external sites, if any.
• Images, graphs, tables (and all other non-textual content) have an alternative description ("Described images").