Talking books for reading impairments

If you already have an account from another library, you need to link it to Stockholm University Library in order to access course literature.

You can request a transfer yourself when you are logged in to Legimus under ‘My pages’ - ‘My details’. The library must approve the transfer before it is carried out.

Studying with a disability at Stockholm University

Resource rooms

To make it easier for your students in need of talking books, as a teacher you can do as follows:

• Ensure that students have access to updated literature lists in good time before the start of the semester. This means that the student will have time to order any course literature that is not already available as a talking book.
• Submit suggestions to “Ready for course start”. See below the requirements for an order.
• Make sure that the material which cannot be ordered as a talking book, e.g. articles, is available in an electronic and accessible format.

Students in need of adapted course literature receive it through the web service Legimus. The library helps to register a Legimus account for students who are entitled to it. To gain access to Legimus, the student is required to have some form of disability that makes it difficult to read printed text.

The most common format in Legimus is talking books. For students with a visual impairment, it is also possible to get course literature in the form of Braille, or as an e-text.
The adapted literature is produced for Legimus by the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media (MTM).

Order new talking books

Course books not in Legimus can be ordered mainly by students themselves. Students order books by completing the library’s form for talking book orders. When we receive the order at the library, we order the talking books from MTM.

The library’s form for talking book orders

Publish literature lists well in advance before the start of the course.

Production time for a talking book can sometimes take 8-12 weeks. It is therefore important that the students have access to updated literature lists well in advance of the start of the semester in order to have time to order those talking books not already in Legimus.

The teacher can also order talking books on “Ready for course start”

As a teacher, you also have the possibility of requesting that talking books are produced, according to what MTM calls “Ready for course start”. In order for a book to be ordered in “Ready for course start” it must fulfil the following requirements:

• It is likely that the title will be requested by one or more students with reading disabilities.
• Therefore, only order books if you know that there will be students on the course who need talking books.
• The book must not be older than two years.
• The book must be compulsory on the course.

Orders on “Ready for course start” are sent to talbok@su.se.

The fact that a book is ordered on “Ready for course start” does not guarantee that MTM will produce the book as a talking book. Therefore, it is always a good idea that students who need a talking book also make an order themselves if a book is missing in Legimus.

Use articles and compendiums in available electronic format

MTM does not produce articles or compendiums as talking books. Students who want to have those texts read aloud can use a speech synthesis. There are several different types of speech synthesis, but through Stockholm University all students have access to the speech synthesis ClaroRead Plus. Since students may need to use speech synthesis for texts it is always an advantage if the texts used on the course are in an available electronic format. For example, it can be difficult for a speech synthesizer to read out a text if the copy of the text is very unclear.