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Alternate Formats

Students registered with SDAC may be eligible to receive alternative text formats.

Academic Accommodations

Alternate formats include

  • Electronic text (e-text)
  • PDFs converted via Optical Character Recognition
  • Digital audio
  • Large print
  • Braille 

To receive this accommodation, students must submit proof of textbook purchase and the course syllabi. For more information, please contact sdacaltmedia@csumb.edu.

Students must begin the process before the start of each semester. The process to convert materials into a different format can take up to 2 months, so please plan ahead.

Alternate Formats Process

After meeting with an SDAC advisor and the request for accommodation/s is approved, students will receive an email from our Alternate Media Production team. This email requests that students submit their course syllabi and book purchase receipts to SDAC, so that we can proceed with conversion requests. Please respond to emails from sdacaltmedia@csumb.edu quickly to keep the conversion process moving smoothly. 

Please remember to send conversion requests to sdacaltmedia@csumb.edu 1-2 months before the class starts. 

If training is needed for any SDAC-provided software, email sdac@csumb.edu for additional information.

Students requesting an e-text of a course-required book must make their request 1-2 months before the semester. If there is a digital version of the book available, we recommend that students purchase that version.

If the e-text is not available, SDAC’s production team can remove the spine of the hardcopy book, scan it, proofread the scanned text, and convert the e-text to an appropriate format for use with screen-reading software such as Kurzweil 3000, JAWS, or an MP3 Player. 

If there is a class handout you received and it’s in a PDF format, you can email it to SDAC at sdacaltmedia@csumb.edu.  We ensure PDFs have gone through Optical Character Recognition checks to ensure accurate reading in a screen reader.

Braille is a system of reading and writing for blind individuals that SDAC can provide as an alternate format.

The use of a closed-circuit television (CCTV) system & document cameras permits magnification of the textbook page. CCTVs are available in the Library. SDAC also has document cameras available for loan.

Textbooks can be obtained in audio format from Learning Ally or Bookshare. If audio textbooks aren’t available, SDAC recommends students to purchase the audiobook version of their textbook, if that is what is preferred. If the audiobook is not available, the student is advised to have an e–text version of the textbook created as described above.