[Nfbnet-master-list] HathiTrust at U-M, NFB to Make 14M+ Books Accessible to Blind and Print-Disabled Users

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
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<mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org

HathiTrust at U-M, NFB to Make 14M+ Books Accessible to Blind and 
Print-Disabled Users



Ann Arbor, Michigan (June 29, 2016): More than fourteen million 
digital books will soon be made available to blind and print-disabled 
users, thanks to a new collaboration involving the National 
Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the HathiTrust Digital Library, a 
digital repository hosted at the University of Michigan.



When launched, the program will dramatically increase the 
availability of books for users who are blind or print-disabled. 
According to the NFB, currently less than five percent of all 
published works are estimated to be available to the blind, most of 
which are popular titles.



NFB President Mark Riccobono says the effort will be an important 
advancement that will specifically benefit print-disabled students 
and scholars within the academic community.



"While most barriers that blind people face are artificial ones 
created by low expectations, access to the printed word has 
historically been a great challenge," he said. "This collaboration 
will, for the first time, make millions of books available to blind 
readers across the nation, giving us access to more books in a single 
repository than we have ever had. The significance of this 
development cannot be overstated, and we are delighted to work with 
HathiTrust to transform this dream into reality."



Founded in 2008, HathiTrust is a digital preservation repository with 
more than one hundred institutional academic and research partners 
that is housed at U-M. Their online archive, a major portion of which 
was scanned by Google, currently contains millions of digitized 
titles in different languages from libraries around the world. Users 
can search not only by title, author or subject matter, but also via 
page-by-page content within a book.



"Supporting print-disabled users has been a focus of HathiTrust since 
the very beginning, and we have long provided students at HathiTrust 
member schools with access to our collection" said Mike Furlough, 
executive director of HathiTrust. "The collaboration with NFB is an 
important turning point, because we are now striving to help 
non-academic print-disabled users for the first time."



Over the coming year, NFB and HathiTrust will collaborate to plan and 
implement these services. User eligibility will be determined by 
criteria used by the National Library Service for the Blind and 
Physically Handicapped and similar services authorized under US law.



According to Furlough, HathiTrust currently provides a similar 
service to qualified print-disabled students at its member schools. 
The new program will expand this service to allow similarly qualified 
users not affiliated with HathiTrust schools access to full-text 
works in the HathiTrust collection.



NFB and HathiTrust, like the federally operated National Library 
Service, will lawfully and securely make books available to qualified 
people in the U.S. who have print disabilities.



<http://nfb.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5557&qid=1309428>HathiTrust

###

About the National Federation of the Blind

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the 
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise 
the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create 
obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life 
you want; blindness is not what holds you back.
National Federation of the Blind
200 East Wells Street
at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
United States
(410) 659-9314 
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