My Calibre

Calibre Audio has been providing audiobooks to people who struggle with print since 1974. Their members include people with sight loss, dyslexia, and physical disabilities, and for many of them a screen reader is not optional as it's how they use the internet. So that was kept front-of-mind during the whole development process.

My Calibre is a bespoke streaming platform giving Calibre members on-demand access to a library of over 21,000 titles. Members can browse by category, author, and narrator, build a personal list, and stream directly from the site, or download via third-party apps for offline listening.

Accessibility shaped every decision in the build. The UI strips back anything that doesn't need to be there, so screen readers have a clean, logical path through every page. The site also integrates the ReciteMe accessibility toolbar, giving members additional options for how they read and interact with content. Getting the balance right between a strong brand identity and the clarity that this audience needs was one of the more interesting design problems on the project.

The platform is built with Next.js on the front end, with Neon and AWS handling the backend infrastructure. Authentication is secure and member-specific, keeping the library accessible only to members. A whole payment process was also needed to allow people to join. This was handled via Stripe and a custom customer-flow tied to the membership process.

The whole system also links directly to the Catmin library management system that we developed for Calibre Audio in tandem with this work.