| Depending on where you buy your e-books or what e-reader you use, you may be subject to ?vendor lock-in? ? the format or method of encryption (DRM) may prevent you from using the book you purchased on your other devices or with other e-book reader software. Adobe, Apple, and Amazon each have their own encryption schemes. We also are seeing a proliferation of formats: Amazon uses AZW (encrypted KF8 or Mobi); Blio uses XPS; stores that use Adobe DRM may give you PDF or EPUB 2; disability-oriented repositories usually supply DAISY; and the situation gets more fragmented with online-only (?cloud?) books or one-off formats, especially prevalent with digital textbooks. All too often, we face a situation where DRM and format-proliferation limit reading ? especially for people with disabilities, who may have e-book readers with specialized features they need for access. This presentation surveys several formats and readers and their capabilities and demonstrates free conversion tools you can use to make your e-books more portable and accessible, while noting some of the copyright issues that may be involved. |