Bookshare- Free Digital Accessible Books for Students with Disabilities

I count my ability to read as one of the greatest joys and blessings in my life.  Reading provides me with opportunities to learn, think, escape, relax, and grow.  Sadly, there are people who cannot fully enjoy reading due to visual, physical, and learning disabilities.  That is why I love to tell people about a resource for free accessible books called Bookshare.  Here is a description of what Bookshare is, taken from their website (www.bookshare.org):

Bookshare® is an online library of digital books for people with print disabilities. It operates under an exception to U.S. copyright law which allows copyrighted digital books to be made available to people with qualifying disabilities. In addition, many publishers and authors have volunteered to provide Bookshare with access to their works. By requiring individuals to register as Members and provide a Proof of Disability, Bookshare ensures that only qualified individuals use the service.

Bookshare Members download books, textbooks and newspapers in a compressed, encrypted file. They then read the material using adaptive technology, typically software that reads the book aloud (text-to-speech) and/or displays the text of the book on a computer screen, or Braille access devices, such as refreshable Braille displays.

Through an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Bookshare offers free memberships to U.S. schools and qualifying U.S. students

Bookshare opens the door to the enjoyment of reading for people who cannot otherwise access text because of disability.  In order to qualify for a free bookshare account, a person must be a student (K-12 or higher ed) with a qualifying disability.  Students can qualify in one of three ways:

1) be unable to see a book because of blindness or low vision

2) be unable to hold a book or turn pages because of a physical disability

3) be unable to read a book because of a learning or reading disability.  For more info on who qualifies, click here:

  

  They can then qualify for a organizational membership through a participating school and/or an individual membership.  Members who already have an organizational membership simply need to send in a form to bookshare to request an individual membership.  For more info on membership options, click here

 Over the next little while, I am going to work on producing some simple tutorials as a resource to download books from bookshare.org and read them using assistive technology.  So stay tuned and please check out www.bookshare.org for more info!