Meet Emery.
Emery is a sixth grade student from Garland, Texas. At the age of seven, Emery was diagnosed with dyslexia and thought she would never learn how to read. Emery would get frustrated because she could not understand the words she was reading on a page or read like her peers.
With the support of her family and dyslexia resources like Bookshare, Emery’s reading and school experience improved. Using specialized audiobooks from Bookshare, she learned how to track sentences and decode words. She discovered that there was more to reading beyond word for word and experienced what it was like to read like everyone else.
In this touching video, hear from Emery as she takes us through her reading journey, as well as insights and advice from her parents, Brandy and Mac.
This video is also available with audio descriptions.
We encourage you to share Emery’s story with others. If you or someone you know has dyslexia, or struggles with reading due to reading barriers like a learning disability, blindness, vision loss, or cerebral palsy, learn how Bookshare ebooks can make reading easier.
The Bookshare team thanks Emery and the Lower family for sharing their story.
Bookshare is an ebook library for people with reading barriers and is FREE for U.S. schools and students with qualifying disabilities.
Emery’s story is so beautiful. I have three students in my first grade classroom that have been diagnosed with dyslexia. I am praying that Bookshare empowers them as it has Emery!
Emery’s story is so inspiring. I have 2 students in special education class that was diagnosed with dysylexia. It is really my hope and prayer that Bookshare and Emery’s story will inspire them.
what is dyslexia? great story
Brittany: Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. Students and adults with learning disabilities, visual impairments, and physical disabilities qualify for Bookshare. Learn more: https://www.bookshare.org/cms/bookshare-me/who-qualifies
I am a parent with a bookshare account for my Dyslexic son, but I am not tech savvy and I have not idea what device to use and how to get it set up so that my son can access this resource.
What device is Emory using? Are there other text to speech programs that need to be downloaded to make it work the way it did in the video? Are there resources or folks that can advise me how to get this working for my son?
Paula: Emery is using an iPad with Voice Dream Reader that offers a variety of TTS voices and many other helpful features such as word highlighting. The Bookshare Learning Center has videos and guides on how to find and read books
including one for VDR: https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/training-resources-library
You can also contact Customer Support for assistance (support@bookshare.org)
I have a high school student who has struggled with dyslexia to the point of hating to read. I worry about her college, even though she gets good grades. We belong to bookshare but have had a difficult time turning her on to it. How can access to Bookshare help with her college. Also, how can I access the resources provided by Scottish Rite? I would love to have these.
Carol
Carol: your daughter can take her Bookshare membership to college and use it to help her read her textbooks and other required books using a variety of reading apps. Many students with dyslexia find that listening to the audio narration while reading the text helps with decoding and comprehension. Please contact our Customer Support team with specific questions at support@bookshare.org.
Wow! What a great story! I watched Emery’s video with my daughter who is 8 and was diagnosed with Dyslexia last year. I hope her story will be like Emery’s one day! What app does Emery use to read her Bookshare books? Read2Go? I’m having a hard time with Voice Dream Reader and am wondering if one is easier to use than the other?
Allison: Emery is using Voice Dream Reader on an iPad. Read2Go is an older app that we continue to support but will not be updating. VDR is one of Bookshare members’ favorite apps. Please contact Customer Support if you have specific questions about VDR (support@bookshare.org). Here is a recent blog with survey results about the apps that members use: http://blog.bookshare.org/2019/03/apps-bookshare-members-use/