What this is
Accessible Book Collection is an independent reference on how books are made readable for people who cannot use print.
The site is filed by format rather than by title. Braille, structured text, recorded audio and large print are four separate manufactures, each with its own workshop, its own standard and its own failure modes, and each entry sets out what that format preserves and what it loses so the trade-offs can be compared directly.
Two further sections carry the material that sits underneath all four. Permission covers the instruments and defined terms under which an accessible copy may be made at all. The Room covers the people and equipment that do the work, and the arithmetic per title that explains why any collection is the size it is.
01What it is not
This is not a library, a publisher, a bookseller or a lending service. There is no catalogue of titles here, nothing to borrow, and nothing to download. If you are looking for accessible editions of particular books, the organisations that produce and lend them are the place to go; this site describes how their work is done, not what they hold.
Nothing here is legal advice. The Permission section describes instruments and defined terms as they are written, which is a different thing from advising on how they apply to a particular case.
02How it is written
Entries are written from published standards, the codes that transcribers and studios actually work to, and the practical accounts of people who produce these formats. Where a number is stated it is the number the production world uses, and where a figure is contested the entry says so rather than picking a side.
Corrections are welcome, particularly from transcribers, proofreaders, narrators and production staff. The contact page explains where to send them.