Short answer: Well worth it if you're eligible. Won't play on your Sony.
Long answer:
Ebook readers are not generally accessible for people who are blind, and many people with physical or learning disabilities may have trouble operating an ereader or using printed text. Yet libraries are considered public accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and have a certain responsibility for providing service to all members of their constituencies. The Library Ebook Accessibility Project (LEAP) is one way that a library can provide readers with disabilities with downloadable books.
The LEAP program allows disabled readers to access books from Bookshare.org, an organization that produces books in specialized formats for people with disabilities. In essence, Overdrive will cover your membership to Bookshare (and probably charge your library to do so.)
You'll need to complete a Bookshare application, and you MUST have a documented print disability, as the application will require you to submit proof of this. After you complete the Bookshare application, and your membership is accepted, you'll use the Bookshare website (
www.bookshare.org) to obtain books that are in DAISY or Braille formats.
DAISY refers to ANSI/NISO standard Z39.86 for digital talking books. (Audio books for the blind have been called "talking books" since the 1930s.) The DAISY format supports books that have both digital text files and files of recorded human narration. A DAISY document is not required to have both of these components, but the standard provides a way to deliver both together. In addition, the standard covers indexing, navigation, bookmarking, and, I believe, digital rights management.
Books from Bookshare seldom, if ever, include the human narration file, so members need a device with synthetic speech to read the file aloud. Most readers use specialized portable playback units like the Victor Reader Stream from Humanware which include keys for navigating through the book and bookmarking. However, Bookshare provides some software to members to use with their books; currently the list includes Read Outloud, Victor Reader Soft, and AMIS DAISY Playback. All of these tie you to a computer. Bookshare also provides a list of compatible devices at
http://www.bookshare.org/_/gettingSt...Tools/overview.
DAISY is not ePUB, so these will not work with your Sony, or on any ereader I know of. However, Bookshare has a great app for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch called Read2Go ($19.99) that displays the text while it's being read aloud. Since you can turn off the audio portion, it's a great alternative for large print readers -- especially on the iPad. (And it allows more customization than iBooks!)
Bookshare has been focusing on the school market, especially since receiving a Dept of Ed grant to provide services to students nationwide, so there are a lot of k-12 textbooks in its collection. However, they have a lot of popular reading as well; turns out blind kids are just as wild about Harry Potter as their sighted peers! And yes, there are books for adults, too; everything from the Steve Jobs bio to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
By the way, if you are print-disabled and enjoy audio books, you might also investigate the
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. It's a great service that will loan you a player by mail and has a more than 20,000 downloadable audio books that never expire.