I apologize if this is in the wrong place. I have a vision impaired, elderly acquaintance who is caring for her blind/ill daughter. They have access to bard/bookshare.
For books not available there, she tries to contact the copyright holder. If they respond, it's often negative. A few authors (and one small magazine publisher) were hostile about ever 'allowing their book in
THAT format'
listing really stupid excuses. Their librarian mentioned legally scanning old books for personal use.
Her question:
"There are a few books my daughter had before she lost her sight that I want to have scanned for a birthday or Christmas gift. I would love to be able to do it myself but after eight decades, I don't easily learn new tricks. We use voice dream on an ipod touch and tts for kindle.
What company or method could I use to make electronic books for a) books that are fairly cheap and expendable and b) books that are difficult/expensive to find due to small printing or age. Thank you very much."