If you search online for “free audio books,” you will find that there are seemingly many sources available. Sites like Audible and All You Can Books offer their services with a free trial period to entice people to try them out. One thing you will find, though, is that few audio book services are truly 100% free. Once the trial period ends, you will have to pay a subscription fee to continue the service. Additionally, you may have to invest in a proprietary player or try to use a smartphone to listen to the books.
Many of the sites that do have free content, like Librivox, tend to offer recordings of public domain titles. You can download the books for free and listen to them on your own devices that will play their files. Overdrive, which operates through the public library system, has free content as well. With Overdrive, you can download a book and keep it until the loan period ends and the file expires.
All of these services are great. If, however, you are looking for user-friendly, free audio books for the blind and visually impaired, there is an even better alternative. Through the National Library Service (NLS), every state provides braille and audio books for blind, visually impaired and print for disabled people. Users can download books, but you do not need a computer to use this service. Libraries provide physical braille books and audio books on cartridges that you receive and return by mail, free of charge. The library will also loan you a free audio book reader to play your books.
If you live in Southern California, you’ve reached the right place! Braille Institute Library is your go-to source for free NLS audio and braille books. All you need to do is fill out an application, have it certified by a doctor and send it back to us. Once you are registered, one of our staff will call you to help you get started with your reading adventures. The best part is that the entire service is 100% free!
For more information, please call us at 1-800-808-2555.
