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Accessible Content E-Portal for Ontario university students with print disabilities

The Accessible Content E-Portal or ACE is a growing repository of accessible format texts available to users with print disabilities at participating Ontario Council of University libraries (OCUL) institutions.

Aimed at making Ontario’s university library collections more accessible, the repository has over 1,250 texts in five accessible formats (2 types of PDFs, Text, DAISY and ePub).
 
ACE operates as part of the Scholars Portal Books platform. Users with verified print disabilities are given access to browse, search and download texts from the secure repository through their home institutions. Users can also request additional texts to be added to the repository through their accessibility offices.
 
ACE began as a pilot project in 2012 and was made possible through a collaboration between OCUL and the University of Toronto, with support from the Government of Ontario as a part of the EnAbling Change Program. This program is an initiative of the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario and provides financial support and expertise to organizations to educate an industry or sector across the province on their obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
 
ACE transitioned to an ongoing Scholars Portal service in 2014: http://www.scholarsportal.info/  If your institution is not currently participating in this service, please contact Katya Pereyaslavska, Project Manager, Accessible Content E-Portal, katya.pereyaslavska@utoronto.ca to find out how to join.

The Accessible Content E-Portal (ACE) Pilot Project is a collaboration of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and the University of Toronto, with support from the Government of Ontario as a part of the EnAbling Change Program. This program is an initiative of the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario and provides financial support and expertise to organizations to educate an industry or sector across the province on their obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

The ACE Pilot Project will enhance the ability of university libraries throughout Ontario to provide barrier-free access to textual resources for students and faculty with various reading and print disabilities.
 
The ACE Pilot Project is a one-year collaborative endeavor involving a number of volunteer OCUL member libraries. There are two related components to the project:

  • The development of a secure, easy to use web application for the discovery and downloading of digital materials in accessible formats.
  • The development of the Accessibility Information Toolkit for Libraries http://www.ocul.on.ca/node/2127, offering librarians and library administrators critical resources with respect to the procurement and distribution of accessible content.

Building on the expertise and hands-on experience of Ontario Universities to provide accessible textual resources, the ACE Pilot Project will continue to foster a collaborative approach to exploring the necessary mechanisms to establish a service to support all of Ontario’s twenty-one Universities.

CONTACT

Scholars Portal
University of Toronto, Robarts Library 7th floor
130 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5S 1A5
Phone: 416 946 8212
Fax: 416 978 1668

http://www.scholarsportal.info/
 




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