Bookshare.org is a wonderful resource for students with print disabilities. If you have not yet heard about what Bookshare is and how it can change your student's lives, please check out www.bookshare.org, or check out our Bookshare post.
Students wanting to access free books from Bookshare on their iPad, iPod, iPhone, or Andoid phone or tablet can now do so with the help of a couple of nifty apps. These apps will access the bookshare website directly from your device, download books directly to the device via wireless internet, and read them aloud using synthetic computer voices. They are very easy to use and a great tool for mobile device users.
The Bookshare app for iOS devices is called Read2Go. It costs $19.99 on the iTunes App Store and is compatible with any iOS device. The app comes with high quality voices pre-installed. You can change the font size and screen/text/highlighting colors, as well as the speed, pitch, and gender of the voice. You will need to access a wifi network to download books to your device, but do not need to access wifi to read books already downloaded to your device.
One Caution: In order to use Read2Go, you will need to sign in using your Bookshare username and password. This means that if students do not have an individual Bookshare account, they will need a teacher to sign in and download books for them using the Teacher's Bookshare username and password. (Teachers, be careful with your password if using this option). I have had several families who, once they purchased the app on a personal device, and got set up with an individual Bookshare account, take off and use the app completely independent of the schools, which can be a very powerful thing.
If you are an Android user, there is a free, open source Bookshare app called GoRead. The basic setup and idea is similar to the Read2Go app. You will still need wifi to download books, but not to read, and you will still need a Bookshare username and password to use the app.
There are still no direct solutions for reading Bookshare books on a Kindle, Kindle Fire, or Nook. These three devices do not support the DAISY format and, (to the best of my knowledge) do not have DAISY apps available like iOS and Android. There is a way to convert DAISY books to the Nook's ePub format using a $99 software program called DAISYtoEPUB. Since the Kindle uses a proprietary book format, you have to then convert the Epub file to a MOBI file using a program called Calibre. or convert it to plain text (.txt) format. Hopefully these devices will become more user friendly in the future for Bookshare members.
As always, please let me know about any problems or questions in the comments section, and thanks for reading!
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