Make Reading Accessible for ALL

Are you looking for new tools to enhance your teaching of students with dyslexia or other reading barriers? Will you be working with students with learning disabilities, low vision, or dyslexia and wondering where to start? Today I'm thrilled to have my friend, Fred Slone, guest blog  about the AMAZING company he works for! He has just the answer to start your school year!
Bookshare is an ebook library with 700,000 books available in multiple accessible formats. Your students with reading barriers can download books in the format they want, on the device of their choice, when and where they need it. They can read a book on a computer at school in a format that offers audio and highlighted word text. They can download an audio version on their phone for the bus ride and then finish their homework on their parent’s laptop at home.

Sounds interesting, but your school budget is tight and you are worried about being able to fund another paid resource? Bookshare is FREE for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities, thanks to funding from the U.S. Department of Education. Truly, this means all students – we serve thousands of students from K-5, middle school, junior high, high school and students in post-secondary education.
Here are three more reasons to consider Bookshare this fall:
1) Independence – Give your students control over their own materials. Let them choose what
formats work for them, let them experiment and learn without an adult watching over their
shoulder.
2) More Time for TeachingBookshare gives you back the time you spend chasing down
accessible materials. Once you set up your students on Bookshare, they use their login to access
their books all year, whenever and wherever they want.
3) Unlocking Potential – Students with reading barriers, such as dyslexia, may struggle in school because they are not able to access information solely due to the format of their materials.
Unlock the potential for these students by giving them books in a format that works for them and
allow their minds to discover the joy of learning
What Next?
If you would like to learn more, please visit our website at www.bookshare.org. We also offer a couple of short videos that may be of interest:
Sign up!
Bookshare offers free accounts for schools and districts. You can sign up for an account at:
https://www.bookshare.org/signUpOrganization You can also email us, membership@bookshare.org, to see if your school already has an account.

Fred Slone has been the Director of Operations for Benetech since 2011. He manages the Content, Customer Service, and Community teams for Bookshare. He has an MBA from the University of Michigan and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Indiana University. In his spare time, he is an avid reader and long time coach for youth sports.

No comments

Post a Comment