Online and downloadable textbooks are hard to find, but a great plus for college students with disabilities.

We’re not talking about the usual printed textbooks that you buy online and have shipped to you, but about texts you access via computer. This is a whole new field full of exciting possibilities for people with disabilities.

Check out the offerings at CourseSmart. Almost 8,000 titles are available in nearly 1,000 course areas, so chances are good you can purchase at least part of your required class books here. There are two options for purchase, so you’ll need to think about how you use material on your computer before you buy.

•    Online. Opt for the online textbooks, and you can access your information from any computer, anywhere, as long as it has an internet connection.

•    Downloadable. Choose to download content if you will be using the same computer all the time, and don’t want to depend on an internet connection.

No matter which version you buy, there are a lot of benefits over printed textbooks:

•    Cost. This is the factor that often makes your decision, we know! Compare for yourself, but CourseSmart reported an average savings of more than $60 per eTextbook the month this was written.

•    Convenience. Regular textbooks can be difficult to handle, weigh more than bricks (at least it seems like it) and are a pain to get in and out of backpacks. Plus, it’s easy to forget the one you need.

Downloaded textbooks are always on your personal computer, ready whenever you are. Online textbooks are accessible from your personal computer, the library, your school computer lab, your friend’s computer … you name it!

If you are using a talking browser or other accessible technology with your computer, it’s exponentially easier to read and study electronic text.

•    Search. In a paper textbook, you have to count on a well researched index (which, sadly, is often lacking) to find content. Then you’ve got to consult all the listed pages to find exactly the reference you had in mind.

With online textbooks, just type in your search word and let the information come to you.

•    Highlighting. How many times have you plunked down good coin for a highlighting pen, used it twice, then lost it or realized you left the cap off and it has dried up?

 If you switch to online textbooks, the highlighting key is free, easy to find, and always at your command.

•    Note-taking. You want to be able to resell your expensive paper textbooks, so all your notes are on Post-Its. Only problem is they stick on other pages, to each other, to your folder. 

Laugh at your past problems with online textbooks, since you’ll simply take advantage of their built-in note-taking capability.

•    Environmental. Printed textbooks rely on paper, saving trees.
Electronic texts leave trees intact, and chances are you’re already using a computer.

Finally, if you have an iPhone you can get a free eTextbook application that will let you access your CourseSmart textbooks whenever you want. You can use your iPhone to read, browse and search pages that are laid out exactly like the originals, including diagrams, illustrations and charts.

You can make a personal, online library of your online textbooks in My eTextbooks and then use your iPhone to search through either a single text or your entire library, access a table of contents, zoom in on text or illustrations, and scroll through or jump to individual pages.