|
Revealweb is a database that brings together information about books produced in Braille, large print, audio and other emerging accessible formats . It is a free service provided on the internet designed to be fully accessible for independent use by visually impaired people.
There is less than 5% of the UK’s publishing output put into alternative formats. This small amount is produced and supplied by many different organisations, largely in the voluntary sector, with no overarching structure or supporting network making it doubly difficult to track down titles. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Before Revealweb visually impaired people had no single service point which could tell if a book was available in the format they could read. Revealweb replaces many phone calls with a single search.
The web site is designed to be fully accessible and works with a range of assistive technologies. This lets visually impaired people browse the site just as a sighted person would browse a library. Most of the records include a “blurb” which helps users choose the book they want. One user said “Nothing can beat the thrill of being able to access information without needing someone else’s help. Revealweb gives me the ability to search for the books I want to read independently without having to spend hours with my poor wife reading through lists.’
Deb Ryan
|
