Understanding the Accommodation
An Alternative Format accommodation converts your textbooks and class reading material to an alternate format. Regardless of your accommodation, you are required to purchase a legal copy of your book(s). If you are using Inclusive Access Materials or you are purchasing a digital copy of your textbook then it may already be accessible.
Obtaining Course Materials
Step 1. Review your Course Materials
Many textbooks are available through Inclusive Access or sources such as VitalSource and RedShelf. Materials utilizing these platforms are accessible to screen-reading and text-to-speech software. If your course materials are available through these sources, then they’re likely already accessible for you and the accommodation doesn’t need to be activated. If your course materials are not accessible, move on to the next steps.
Step 2. Activate your Accommodations
Log in to the Access Portal. Then, click on the box next to each class you are requesting accommodations in. Click “Continue to Customize Your Accommodations”. Select the accommodations you would like to activate in each class, then click submit.
Step 3. Request your Books
Log in to the Access Portal. Under “My Accommodations” click “Alternative Formats” and select the books you are requesting. If your books are not listed, obtain the title, author, 13 digit ISBN number and edition for the book and provide this information in the “Reading Material” section.
Step 4. Submit Additional Reading Materials
If additional course materials need to be converted to an alternative format, then contact the EAC or email documents directly to altformat@boisestate.edu.
Note: students who have access to ReadSpeaker can convert materials into an accessible format themselves by uploading the reading into ReadSpeaker.