Course Materials

The LAS office produces accessible format course materials. This includes textbooks, custom courseware, and class readings. Here's how to do that.

1. First, register through SAS.  
2. After that, fill in the Transcription Request Form. It is recommended that students contact the LAS office as soon as possible with their course information as it can take 4 - 6 weeks to obtain course material.
3. You must purchase a copy of the textbook and/or courseware and bring the original receipt to the LAS office. While we are working on your transcription we encourage you to use the scanners in Mills L213/G and 213/H to scan your text and keep up with your readings.
4. Students requiring transcription of class readings need to provide the course outline and any readings needed for the class.  Readings will be provided to the student prior to the date they are covered in class so the student may review them in preparation for class.
5. We will share the completed files using Dropbox (we'll need to see receipts before a text can be shared).  

Note: 

• You will be required to sign an agreement each term stating that the texts are necessary for the courses they are taking, the files won't be shared with anyone else and the files will be deleted the end of the term.
• We work on requests on a first come first served principle, with those that have purchased their books being given a higher priority than those that have not. 
• Dropbox links are active for 1 month, links will be terminated after that time.  If you have difficulties using Dropbox please contact the office, we will work with you to find other options.

Library Books

All library material can be requested in an alternate format, the exception being items too fragile for the scanning process.

Requesting a book is easy.  Look for the book in the catalogue.  When you have found the item you are looking for click on the "Request Accessible Copy" link in the record.  Some of the fields will be filled in automatically for you.  The remainder, your name, email address and ACE token are required.  Once you have submitted your request we will process it and contact you as soon as the material is ready.

All students registered through LAS have an ACE token issued at the beginning of the year.  The token is sent in the LAS Info email.  If you have lost your token please contact the office and we can send it out to you.  Faculty and staff who qualify may contact the office to request access. ACE is a collaborative approach to creating accessible material through the Ontario Council of University Libraries. You can find out more about ACE here. 

You are welcome to search the ACE repository for books, you may access any books that you find of interest without requesting additional permission.  Your token is your permission.  ACE supports 5 different formats: PDF, B&W PDF, DAISY, TXT, and ePub.  If you need a different format please contact the office.

If the item you need is not held at McMaster please contact the office with the following information Title, Author, Publication Date, ISBN (if possible) and library and we will work to get an accessible copy to you.