Accessible Books
We're committed to creating books that everyone can enjoy.
Modern advances in digital publishing have helped us make our books accessible to those with many different types of impairments. Our publishing approach has evolved to deliver suitable content for desktop and mobile assistive technology. This will directly help those who are partially sighted, have non-specific or specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia or are physically disabled and read with a switch device. To improve accessibility, we’ve implemented certain design considerations. For example, making key adjustments to our presentation of text, numbers, boxes, tables, borders, layout, images, and symbols.
Accessible eBooks
The key accessibility features we’re adding to our eBook files are:
- Adjustable text size, font, and background colour
- Compatibility with screen reader software, VoiceOver and Text-to-Speech
- Text descriptions for images
- Captions for videos
Making the digital files accessible is one thing, but we are also ensuring that we distribute them through channels that support the many accessibility features, so that they are readable on multiple platforms and devices such as computers, tablets and phones.
We’ve tried to account for as much as is reasonable but if you have any specific requirements then please get in touch by emailing publications@rya.org.uk and we’ll see how we can help.
Audiobooks
Audiobooks provide an accessible and inclusive way of reading. The aim of our audiobooks is to be a useful and easily accessible reminder, refresher, companion, or supporting tool to our eBooks and print books. They are available through a number of channels, including Spotify, Apple Books, and Google Play Books.
You can find a full list of our available audiobooks, alongside sample clips, here.
Accessible Packs & Course Books
Currently, there is no digitally accessible course material (e.g., Day Skipper student packs) by default. This is due to the level of demand and rate at which it changes. However, we can provide accessible versions directly to a student on request, as course material is restricted and not on sale to the public. Where appropriate, we will provide the student with a uniquely coded EPUB file which can be imported into either Apple Books or Google Play Books. This can be used in the same way as our retail eBooks.
If you’re an instructor looking for accessible digital copies of course materials for a student, please contact publications. In your request, you'll need to provide the name of your Training Centre and the course your student is doing. We can then advise as to what accessible material is available (e.g., it is currently not possible to provide accessible charts or almanacs). In order to provide accessible content to the student, we'll need their name, email address and whether they require a book available on Apple Books or a Google Play Book. Turnaround times will depend on the content requested, so please give us as much notice as possible.