Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring the library is accessible and available to all students, faculty, and staff. Accessibility-related requests can be sent to library@myuion.edu.

Electronic Resources

We try to limit our subscriptions to vendors that meet, at minimum, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act or WCAG 2.0 guidelines. Accessible vendors include EBSCO, Fulcrum, Gale, Google Scholar, JSTOR, Project MUSE, ProQuest, and ScienceDirect. If you encounter a library resource that is not accessible, please send an email to library@myunion.edu and we will work with the vendor to rectify the situation.

Library Ebooks

Most of the ebooks in the library collection are from EBSCO or ProQuest. The easiest way to use text-to-speech is to download a chapter or section PDF and use NaturalReader or Adobe’s Read Out Loud feature.

EBSCO Ebook Accessibility Guide
ProQuest Ebook Accessibility Guide

Tutorials & Videos

Library tutorials and videos include captioned videos, alt-text descriptions, screen reader navigation, and other accessibility features.

Text-to-Speech

NaturalReader (PDF, webpages, mutiple file types)

“Upload text and documents or convert to mp3 to listen to anywhere anytime.” -product description. NaturalReader provides natural, high-quality text-to-speech for $9.99/month or $59.88/year. The free version has text-to-speech with unlimited Free Voices and Premium Voices for up to 20 minutes per day.

Read Out Loud, Adobe (PDF documents)

The option to have a PDF file read aloud offers numerous advantages. It’s also an easy feature to master. Perhaps you need your documents read aloud to you because reading print text is too difficult. Or maybe you’ve just downloaded a PDF file of a book to listen to, but you really want to savor the story and language slowly. Adobe Reader enables you to have your files read aloud and even customize the experience by setting the narrator’s voice and choosing the pace of the reading to best suit your needs. -Product Description

Reader View, Firefox Browser (webpages)

Reader View is a Firefox feature that strips away clutter like buttons, ads, background images, and videos while also letting you customize the layout and theme to fit your reading preferences. -Product Description

Immersive Reader, Microsoft Office Suite (Word Documents, Outlook emails, etc.)

Support reading and writing by using Immersive Reader to customize how word documents appear while you read and edit. Immersive Reader provides options for a comfortable and easy to process experience by allowing you to listen to the text read aloud or adjust how text appears by modifying spacing, color and more. -Product Description

Speak Tool, Microsoft Office Suite (Word Documents, Outlook emails, etc.)

Speak is a built-in feature of Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. You can use Speak to have text read aloud in the language of your version of Office. Text-to-speech (TTS) is the ability of your computer to play back written text as spoken words. Depending upon your configuration and installed TTS engines, you can hear most text that appears on your screen in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. -Product Description

Text-to-Speech, Kindle and Kindle App (ebooks)

Most Kindle content and personal documents are eligible for Text-to-Speech. If Text-to-Speech capability is available for your book, you’ll see Text-to-Speech: Enabled on the product detail page before you purchase your book.

  1. While reading, tap the center of the screen, and then tap the menu icon Aa in the upper right corner.
  2. Tap More, and then tap the switch next to Text-to-Speech to turn it on.
  3. In your Kindle book, tap the screen to show the progress bar, and then tap the Play button next to the progress bar to hear the text read aloud. To increase or decrease the reading speed of the Text-to-Speech voice, tap the Narration Speed icon. You can listen to the Text-to-Speech voice through the external speakers on your device or through your earphones plugged into the headphone jack.

Tip: If you’re reading a book in another language, you can download a Text-to-Speech voice for that language without leaving the book. Tap the download prompt at the bottom of the progress bar to install the Text-to-Speech voice. -Product Description