Accessibility tips in Libby to make your reading easier

July is Disability Pride month, marking the anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In honor of that, let’s look at some of the built-in accessibility features in Libby that help make the app more accessible to more people. Libby is also designed to work seamlessly with the accessibility settings on your device—honoring larger text sizes, dark mode, color filters, and reduced motion. 

Start with your app settings to adjust accessibility features

Let’s kick off our discussion of accessibility features with the Accessibility menu. These options can be found by going to the Libby Menu, then Settings > Accessibility. On this screen, you can:

▪️Reduce the color variation in Libby and improve contrast

▪️Set animations and special formatting to be used less frequently

▪️Turn off vibrations in the app

Adjust settings within Libby's ebook reader & audiobook player

Several more useful settings can be found within Libby’s ebook reader and audiobook player. With a book open in Libby, tap the center of the screen to open the navigation bar, then tap the capital letter “A” near the top of the screen.

From here, you can customize the book’s appearance:

▪️Move the “Text Scale” slider to the right to increase the text size. Toggle on “Include accessibility sizes” for more granular control and a larger maximum size.

▪️The lighting in the book can be set to “Bright,” “Sepia,” or “Dark.” If you want to maximize the contrast in Libby, select “Bright.”

▪️You can customize the font under “Book Design.” The OpenDyslexic font has larger spacing and may be easier to read for some people

▪️You can also adjust the text size and lighting in magazines. Tap Article near the bottom of the reader, then tap the capital letter "A" near the top of the screen to adjust your text size in magazines.

▪️For audiobooks, you can change the playback speed to set a custom speed (0.6 - 3x). 

Keyboard shortcuts for Libby's ebook reader and audiobook player

If you’re using libbyapp.com on a computer, you can take advantage of many keyboard shortcuts.

While navigating the app, press Shift / (i.e., type a question mark) to see quick navigation options.

Even more keyboard shortcuts are available in the ebook reader and audiobook player. Press Shift / with a title open to see a selectable list of shortcuts.

Reading a book using a screen reader

Did you know that Libby works with screen readers like NVDA and VoiceOver? A screen reader program can be used to navigate the Libby app on a mobile device or libbyapp.com.

Then, with a book or magazine open, you can use “Read From Here” mode to read the title with a screen reader. For more detailed instructions, see this Libby Help article.

Zoom in

In titles with lots of images, like magazines, comics, and picture books, you can zoom anywhere. On touch devices, zoom by pinching the screen. On non-touch devices, zoom by selecting “zoom” from the top menu bar (or using the keyboard shortcut Shift + Z). Then, press Esc (or Shift + Z again) to stop zooming.

In other books, you can zoom in on images. On touch devices, tap and hold an image then pinch to zoom. On a computer, click and hold an image and use the mouse wheel to zoom.

Customize notifications

By default, popup notices from Libby are shown on the screen for three seconds. This can be extended to as long as 30 seconds in the “Timing” section of “Accessibility.”

Alternatively, you can move the slider all the way to the left to turn off popup notices.

Going forward

Libby already has a number of excellent accessibility features, and that number will only continue to grow.

To learn more about accessibility in Libby, check out the Accessibility section of Libby Help and subscribe to Libby Life for the latest feature updates.

RELATED READ: Make reading easier: Enabling the OpenDyslexic font in the Libby app