Other sources of accessible books
Below you will find links to websites with accessible format material that can be accessed for free or purchased.
The websites are divided into online audio books, downloadable electronic texts, online magazines, downloadable electronic braille, and audio Bible readings and players.
These have not been tested for accessibility. Any feedback and/or additions please send to Veronica Hogan, Acquisitions Librarian: phone (09) 355 7326 or email vhogan@rnzfb.org.nz
Please note that the Foundation does not take responsibility for the content of the sites to which it links, nor does linking constitute an endorsement of the company or organisation concerned.
Downloadable electronic braille
Audio versions of the Bible and readings
Online audio books
Auckland City Libraries uses OverDrive WMA Audiobooks for their library borrowers.
http://auckland.lib.overdrive.com/2FE89413-76BA-43C8-933B-CD1F0369EBD3/10/443/en/default.htm
Audible.com has over 50,000 digital audiobooks available for download on to your computer. Their membership plans are in US dollars.
http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/homepage/AnonHome.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
Audiobooks.co.nz has books on CD, cassette and MP3 for purchase. You can also sell your audio books back to them.
http://www.audiobooks.co.nz/
Audio Book Store has over 80,000 combined downloadable audiobooks and CD audio book titles in their online collection from which users can rent audio books on CD, or instantly download audiobooks to their MP3 player, PDA, or MP3 compatible mobile phone.
http://www.theaudiobookstore.com/
Book depository.com and book depository.co.uk have audio CDs and ebooks as well as print books for purchase. They provide free postage to New Zealand.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk
http://bookdepository.com
Free Audio Books Online has a listing of sites that legally offer free audio books, either for online listening or for download.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/free-books-audio
LearnOutLoud.com has over 25,000 educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos through a subscription based service.
http://www.learnoutloud.com/
LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain. Volunteers record chapters of books and release the audio files, either mp3 or ogg files, back onto the net.
http://librivox.org/
Naxos Audiobooks offers a wide range of abridged and unabridged digital recordings of the world's greatest literature. There are Junior Classics and numerous non-fiction titles focusing on the arts. The label also offers classic and contemporary plays, from Shakespeare to Beckett.
http://www.naxos.com/labels/naxosaudiobooks-cd.htm
Open Library distributes over 1 million books free in DAISY. There are two types of DAISYs on Open Library: open and protected. Open DAISYs can be read by anyone in the world on many different devices. Protected DAISYs can only be opened using a key issued by the Library of Congress NLS program.
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23282447M/Book_XXI._chapters_1-30/daisy
Podiobooks has free serialised audio books mostly from new authors of both unpublished and published books.
http://www.podiobooks.com/index.php
ReadHowYouWant offers downloadable books in the DAISY format.
http://www.readhowyouwant.com/formats/audio-format.aspx
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) sells DAISY audio CDs to blind individuals. Due to territorial restrictions on some titles not all titles are available for international purchase. To browse the catalogue go to http://onlineshop.rnib.org.uk/browse.asp?n=11&c=478&sc=0&it=2&l=2. To check availability and order either email exports@rnib.co.uk or phone +44(0) 1733 37 54 00. When ordering RNIB require your VISA or MasterCard credit card number, expiry date and the last three digits from the back of the card.
Wellington City Libraries uses OverDrive WMA Audiobooks for their library borrowers.
http://wcl.lib.overdrive.com/1400D2C9-5493-42DC-8AFB-2CF3B2F91795/10/377/en/default.htm
Weread4you is an online retailer of audio books with thousands of titles from commercial audio producers. Joining is free and the books range in price from US$4.00 to US$30.00
http://www.weread4you.com/
Downloadable electronic texts
Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts is a collection of "classic" public domain documents from American and English literature as well as Western philosophy.
http://infomotions.com/alex/
Baen Free Library provides books in electronic text formats such as rtf and html.
http://www.baen.com/
Bibliomania has free e-books, poems, articles, short stories and plays. This site also has study guides, written by Oxford and Cambridge University graduates, to literature from around the world and offers in-depth summaries, discussions and commentaries on the texts.
http://www.bibliomania.com/bibliomania-static/index.html
Blind Bookworm has accessible ebooks, etexts and textbooks as well as links to other sites of interest to blind and visually impaired people.
http://www.panix.com/~kestrell/sources.html
Bookshare offers accessible books and periodicals for readers with print disabilities for an annual subscription fee in US dollars.
They are available for download to international members, based on copyright permissions granted by publishers and authors. Currently Bookshare has over 5,000 books available to Members in 30 countries.
http://www.bookshare.org
The B&R Samizdat Express sell public domain texts on CD or DVD. They are in plain text format.
http://www.samizdat.com/
The Complete Works of Shakespeare has public domain copies of Shakespeare plays and poetry.
http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html
Classic reader has a collection of free classic books.
http://www.classicreader.com/
Daily Lit sends books in instalments via e-mail or RSS feed. They have over 1000 classic and contemporary books available entirely for free or on a Pay-Per-Read basis.
http://www.dailylit.com/about/
Manybooks has over 20,000 free eBooks.
http://www.manybooks.net/
New Zealand Electronic Text Centre has free online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials, which offers an ever-expanding, fully-searchable, set of images and full-text books, manuscripts and journals.
http://www.nzetc.org/
The Online Books Page has over 35,000 free books on the web.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books
Project Gutenberg the first producer of free electronic books.
http://www.gutenberg.org
ReadHowYouWant has a collection of downloadable e-text titles, current bestsellers as well as public domain titles.
http://www.readhowyouwant.com/formats/e-format.aspx
Read Print is an online library, offering free books for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast.
http://www.readprint.com/
Online magazines
Matilda Zigler Magazine for the Blind is available in DAISY format from the Association for the Blind of Western Australia website. This is a full text full audio DAISY digital talking book that will play back in any DAISY player or software including the NLS player. In addition the title also includes MP3 play lists for a wide range of non-DAISY devices.
http://www.guidedogswa.org/
CosmoGIRL! has mobile-sized pieces from their magazine.
http://m.cosmogirl.com
Cosmopolitan has mobile-sized pieces from their magazine.
http://m.cosmopolitan.com
Esquire has mobile-sized pieces from their magazine.
http://m.esquire.com
Good Housekeeping has mobile-sized pieces from their magazine.
http://m.goodhousekeeping.com
Harper's Bazaar has mobile-sized pieces from their magazine.
http://m.bazaar.com
House Beautiful has mobile-sized pieces from their magazine.
http://m.housebeautiful.com
Marie Claire has mobile-sized pieces from their magazine.
http://m.marieclaire.com
Redbook has mobile-sized pieces from their magazine.
http://m.redbookmag.com
Seventeen has mobile-sized pieces from their magazine.
http://m.seventeen.com
Downloadable electronic braille
The Electronic Braille Book Library is a project of the International Braille Research Center and currently contains over 1,000 titles.
http://www.braille.org/braille_books/
ReadHowYouWant has a collection of titles, current bestsellers as well as public domain titles as downloadable braille files.
http://www.readhowyouwant.com/braille/Home.aspx
Accessible versions of the Bible and readings
Audio Bibles has both domestic and international websites for ordering bibles. They have Ipod, MP3, DVD, CD and cassette versions of the King James, New International Version, Catholic Bible, New American Standard Bible New Living Translation, New revised standard version and Children's Bible stories. http://www.audiobibles.com is for US residents only. International ordering is on: http://www.biblebible.com/New_Living_Translation_audio.asp
Audio Bibles for the Blind provide free audio Bibles on cassette and CD to visually impaired persons.
http://www.audiobiblesfortheblind.org/
Audio scriptures provides a free online audio version of the King James Bible as well as an MP3 CD recording for purchase.
http://www.audioscriptures.org/index.htm
Audio treasure provides the World English Bible and the King James version as mp3 CD and DVD as well as free audio downloads.
http://www.audiotreasure.com/#download
BibleGateway provides free online audio versions of English standard version, Contemporary English version, King James Version, New American standard version, New International version Bible and Today's New International Version. They also have for purchase CD and DVD Bibles.
http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/audio/info.php#8
CBM Audio Library The Library is based in Melbourne and is a non-denominational organisation providing a wide range of subject material within the Christian Literature category. It has offered its free books, magazines and devotionals to registered members of the RNZFB who have a DAISY audio CD player. To join this service RNZFB members ring a toll free number 0800 400 544 to talk directly with CBM staff who can provide more information and subscribe them to this service. CBM's phones are answered from 11am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, New Zealand time.
http://www.cbm.org.au/content/what-we-do/audio-library
Christianaudio sells audio books available both as CD and download from the USA. Each month they give away a premium audio book download for free.
http://christianaudio.com/free_download.php
Faith Comes From Hearing provide eleven free audio bibles for download.
http://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com/ambassador/free-audio-bible-download
Genesis has recorded daily morning and evening prayers as well as recordings of the New Testament.
http://www.genesis.net.nz/
The King James Version Bible is a browsable, searchable online version of the King James Bible.
http://etext.virginia.edu/kjv.browse.html
The Listener's Bible sells the English Standard version, the International version and the King James version on CD or as a MP3 download.
http://www.listenersbible.com/
Royal National Institute of Blind People have DAISY audio CD bibles available for sale.
http://www.rnib.org.uk/shop/Pages/Category.aspx?Category=nonfiction_religion
Torch trust produces Christian resources for blind and partially sighted people worldwide in cassette and DAISY audio CD. This includes daily Bible readings, special discounted price for an online Bible, and DAISY audio New Testament.
http://www.torchtrust.org/index.php
Audio Bible players
There are several audio Bible players available. The ones listed here use a voice activated keypad to navigate around the player.
Talking Solar Powered Bible fits in the palm of your hand and uses human narration for the King James or New American Standard Bibles. The batteries are built into the unit and can be powered by the sun or a light bulb or charged from a 9 volt DC adapter (included). Fully charged batteries will allow the unit to play for approximately 10 hours. You can listen via the external speaker or through ear phones which are included.
http://www.speaktomecatalog.com/individual.php?item=TBIBLE
BibleCourier is an electronic pocket Bible designed for the blind or visually impaired. The Bible is powered by two double A alkaline (AA) batteries which will last for 40 hours of continuous reading. This synthetic speech Bible has five male voices to select from as well as 16 translations available and comes with stereo earbuds.
http://www.users.qwest.net/~lbea/BibleCourier.htm