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University Accessibility Center

Alternative Textbooks

What is Accessible Book Creations?

The UAC's Accessible Book Creations (ABC) program offers alternative textbook formats. The most common program we use is Kurzweil. By putting textbooks into alternative formats, students who have difficulty with concentration, reading, seeing, turning pages, and/or carrying books are able to access their books. Interested clients should first consult with their UAC coordinator to determine their eligibility for this accommodation. If approved, clients will be directed to schedule an appointment with the ABC Coordinator at the UAC to learn about the available formats and determine the most suitable option for their individual needs.

Booktracker

After an initial meeting with the ABC Coordinator, students can go to booktracker.byu.edu to request books, provide proof of purchase, cancel a request, and this is where the book will be available for download when it is completed. Students must create a BYU Box account in order to use accessible books. Directions for creating a Box account will be given in the initial meeting with the ABC Coordinator.

Policy:

Students with disabilities who require alternate access to printed material and have received approval for this accommodation may receive textbooks in an alternate format. Eligibility for this accommodation is determined on an individualized basis, and students must demonstrate a substantial disability that requires alternate materials.

In order to ensure that textbooks are available at the beginning of each semester, all textbook requests must be submitted to Accessible Book Creations (ABC) no later than eight weeks prior to the start of the semester/term. Failure to do so may prevent the student from receiving alternative format textbooks on time. Students are responsible for obtaining textbook information as soon as they register for classes. Students needing assistance to obtain this information may contact accessiblebooks@byu.edu. Requests will be processed in order of the date they were received.

Reasonable accommodations depend upon the nature and degree of severity of the documented disability. While consideration will be given to the specific format requested by the student, if another suitable format is available that addresses the student's functional limitations, that format may be granted.

A student adding a course after submitting book requests will follow the original procedure for requesting alternative textbooks through booktracker.byu.edu. If a student drops a course, a cancellation request for the associated books should be submitted at booktracker.byu.edu. Any additional books requested will be processed according to the date the request was received, and will not be processed with the original requests. Therefore, a student's class schedule should be finalized as soon as possible when submitting book requests to avoid delays.

Proof of purchase (preferably store receipts) for all books requested must be provided before the ABC will process a student's requests. Proof of purchase is submitted through booktracker.byu.edu. If materials are purchased from a private individual, the individual selling the books should draft and sign a receipt containing the book title and purchase price. Pursuant to copyright law, alternative textbooks will not be provided without a valid proof of purchase.

Note on E-book requests: E-books can be made accessible (with text to speech) by utilizing the Kurzweil extension via Chrome and typically do not require reformatting by the ABC. All requests submitted for E-books will be cancelled and the student will be notified by email. Students may e-mail accessiblebooks@byu.edu with questions or concerns.

Procedure:

  • Qualify as having a disability as demonstrated through appropriate documentation and approved by your UAC coordinator.
  • Determine which books you will require by accessing your book list on booktracker.byu.edu. If booktracker is showing no book list submitted by the professor, contact the professor and ask for the title, author, edition number and ISBN number and then email that information to accessiblebooks@byu.edu. They can manually enter book requests for books that are not showing up on booktracker.
  • We only process books that are required for your classes. Suggested but not required readings will be worked on after required books are processed for all students.
  • The ABC will make every reasonable effort to obtain your electronic books from public consortiums or publishers. If your books cannot be obtained electronically, ABC will require the hard copy of your books to convert them manually. Please note that ABC may cut the binding from the original books and rebind them in spiral binding, which will prevent the books from being resold to the BYUStore.
  • ALL electronic books will be removed from the web server by the end of Finals Week of the semester/term.
  • Your electronic books are protected by copyright©. Therefore, you MAY NOT copy, reproduce, sell, or place on the internet any of the alternative format texts, nor allow anyone else to do so. You must comply with all applicable copyright laws.