Inclusive Access is a program that allows all students to have access to their textbooks starting from the first day of class. The publishers work with the official campus bookstore to have these textbooks available online, and the bookstore sends out instructions just before the start of the semester to instructors on how to set up inclusive access in BlackBoard through First Day Materials.
If you have multiple textbooks and/or materials for a class, publishers bundle up these materials together for inclusive access. Your students have access to all of the materials on the first day and usually for a slightly lower price.
With inclusive access, all students are automatically opted-in to receiving the books on the first day. Note that this does not mean that the books are free - they are billed to the students' accounts. If students would rather purchase a used copy for cheaper, they need to opt out by a certain deadline. The bookstore will also send students an email with instructions on how to do this, and the First Day Materials page you set up on BlackBoard will also state the deadline. If students opt out, and you have multiple textbooks/materials bundled together, the student will no longer have access to any of those and is responsible for getting all of those materials together themselves.
The following sections go into detail about how to set up Inclusive Access for your books. This will be updated before the start of every Fall and Spring semester. (Summer semesters usually just roll over from Spring.)