ACE Portal
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Did you know the Paterson Library offers alternative format reading materials? In partnership with Ontario Colleges Library Service and Scholars Portal, the Accessible Content E-Portal (ACE) is a service that supports users with print disabilities at participating Ontario colleges and universities by providing access to non-textbook library books in accessible formats.
According to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, “accessible formats, sometimes called alternate formats, are ways of presenting printed, written, or visual material so that people who do not read print can access it. People who do not read print may:
- Be blind or visually impaired
- Have a learning disability that affects reading
- Have a physical disability and be unable to hold or turn pages
Accessible reading materials include but are not limited to, accessible PDFs that can be read by text-to-speech software, audiobooks, Braille, and tactile imaging.”
Are All Electronic Documents Accessible?
No.
A common myth is that electronic documents are always accessible, however, this is not always the case. For example, a PDF can be an image file (similar to a JPEG) and therefore completely inaccessible to screen-reader technology, or a partially accessible file with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) having been run on it but missing markup or tags.
Confederation College students registered with Accessibility Services are eligible to access this service.
For more information on the ACE program, visit https://ace.scholarsportal.info/ or one of our friendly helpful library staff by email, [email protected], phone (807) 475-6219, (800) 465-5493, or visit us in Library at the Public Services Desk, 2nd floor, Shuniah Building, Room 227.