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RCPD has been a great resource during my years at State. The staff is great and the books on tape and other assistive technologies have been helpful.
-Ali Faraj

Accessible Textbooks/Media

A core function of the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD) is disability related services to the MSU community including production of alternative format materials for people with print-related disabilities. Alternative format materials including: Braille (literary and scientific), audio, large print, tactile graphic, and electronic formats provide access to information and knowledge for persons with print-related disabilities including blindness, visual impairment, learning disabilities, and certain motoric disabilities. Such services are provided at no cost to RCPD registered students with print-related disabilities who are both deemed eligible for alternative formats and using the material in MSU credit-granting courses. Production of these materials requires the establishment and maintenance of production capacities that ebb and flow with semester academic schedules. During periods when student needs have been met, the RCPD may experience extra production capacity allowing the unit to assist other programs and institutions to meet their goals and obligations for programmatic access by persons with disabilities. The summaries that follow are relevant to students enrolled in MSU credit-granting courses. The Alternative Format Production for Non-RCPD Programs and Institutions document describes production services of relevance for non-student needs.

Please note: RCPD alternative format users are required to follow the Terms and Conditions for accessing alternative format materials. Be sure to review this information carefully.

Procedure for Obtaining Alternative Formats

Prepare a list of textbooks you will need for each course in which you have enrolled (including the syllabus) four to six weeks before the beginning of the semester to enable timely production and delivery of materials for the start of classes. This list can be obtained in several ways:

First, access the bookstore web page and search for required text by semester. Be prepared to enter data such as: department, course, section number, name of instructor, and semester.

Bookstores serving MSU: Spartan Bookstore, Student Book Store , The College Store, Neds Bookstore

  • Call the bookstore and request a list of books for each course. Be prepared to give the department, course number, section number, name of instructor, and semester.
  • Contact your instructor to verify that each reference from the bookstore is correct. Errors or omissions in this step can jeopardize your receipt of appropriate books for your course and can result in wasted time and effort on the part of RCPD staff and volunteers. (If the instructor cannot be reached, call the secretary of the department offering the course to request or verify the list of books.)
  • If you have any trouble getting the list of books contact your Specialist at RCPD for help.

After you obtained the textbook information, search each book's publisher website to see whether the publisher sells the book in E-text (or E-Book) format. If the publisher sells the book in E-text format, buy it direct from the publisher. RCPD will not re-produce a textbook that the publisher already has in E-text format for sale. The most common E-text formats are accessible PDF, Word or Text format. You can usually find publisher's website address by using common Web search engine such as Google, Yahoo, etc.

Before bringing textbooks to RCPD, call or inquire online at each of the following resources below to check on book availability. The edition is particularly important! Please note that RCPD does not produce alternative format materials that are already available in the needed format at other sources. Should your materials be available via one of these sources, you should order or download the needed materials directly.

For each book requested you will need:

  1. Complete title of text
  2. Author's full name
  3. Publisher
  4. Copyright date
  5. Edition number
  6. ISBN

Obtaining Electronic Text

Electronic text is a term used to describe print materials (often excluding graphics) available in machine-readable or computerized form. The text may be saved on media such as flash drives, hard drives, or CDs.

  • The MSU STAR Books Database is an online books database listing thousands of books made available by the RCPD. (Tip: Remember the STAR web address as: BOOKS.RCPD.MSU.EDU)

  • External Sources: If books you require are not listed on STAR, use the page with links to external sources for accessing APH/Louis Database, BookShare , Gutenberg , NLS , and RFB&D . Referenced via STAR, online books database include over 400,000 books. Follow directions to search, order, or download needed materials. (Membership with RFB&D, NLS, and BookShare are required to access books. Applications for membership are available online.)
  • Large publishing companies (McGraw Hill, Bartleby, Princeton Press, etc.) are another source that can be accessed to request needed materials. Recently, some publishers have also produced their books in e-book format. Again, RCPD will not produce a book that already has an e-text version. Publisher information is listed on the cover of the textbooks, and an RCPD Disability Specialist or Media Access Specialist can assist students in requesting needed materials.

If textbooks or other class materials are unavailable from any of the above sources, Tower Guard members and other volunteers may produce them at RCPD. Students may be asked to include a class syllabus when turning in the books for production. (Note: the production of Braille, large print, and electronic text requires the removal of book bindings and thus reduces or eliminates the potential for book resale at the end of the semester. While the textbook is being used for production, RCPD will give the student a completed "Book Loan for Student" letter to assist the student in obtaining a loaner book from the local bookstore. A receipt for the book must be presented with the letter to obtain a loaner book from the bookstore.)

Each eligible student is expected to be familiar with and able to independently use STAR for textbook searching and file downloading functions. Contact your Specialist about scheduling a training session. Scanned text is saved in rich text format (RTF), and zipped before it is uploaded to STAR. Graphics and charts are usually not included as part of the e-text production. Files on parts of the book are usually organized in the sequence the text is presented in the printed book, for example, 00 Front Matter (Acknowledgement, copyright, table of contents, etc.), 01 Chapter, 02 Chapter (or 01 Part I, 02 Part II, etc),...and Back Matter (glossary, indices, appendices), etc.

Frequently Asked Questions

Contact Information

Tom Hwang

Tom Hwang

Media Access Specialist
(517) 884-1910


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