Parents can approve full Bookshare Individual Memberships in just a few clicks
Teachers, if there has ever been a time to provide your students with full access to Bookshare, this is it!
With school closures due to COVID-19, empowering students to do things on their own is more important than ever. Public schools with organizational accounts can easily guide parents in how to give their students full access to Bookshare with just a few clicks.
With full individual memberships, students can open or download nearly any book in the collection, without your intervention or assistance. For all students you’ve added to your organizational Bookshare account and to whom you’ve assigned user names and passwords*, parents can help secure these upgraded accounts, more easily than ever before and completely online. Here are step-by-step instructions you can provide to parents.
How Parents Help Students Get Full Access to Bookshare
Follow the steps below or watch this video:
- Go to www.bookshare.org and have your child log in to his/her school Bookshare account using his/her user name and password.
- In the left-hand menu, select Upgrade to an Individual Membership.
- Read the text in the article that appears and select the Sign up link in it.
- Complete the online form, including an email address that will be the student’s new user name, and add a password.
- Complete the parent/guardian information.
- Provide a digital signature and select Create account.
Students can now log in with their new user name and password to access nearly any book in Bookshare!
Note: Bookshare is a free, online library for students with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers that provides access to over 800,000 ebooks in easy-to-read formats. Learn more about who qualifies.
Need Help Reading Bookshare Books?
For help reading Bookshare books, check out these additional resources:
- How to Read with Bookshare Web Reader
- Reading Bookshare books on iOS and Android devices with the free app Dolphin Easy Reader
- Reading Bookshare books in Microsoft Word
*Public school teachers: if you need to add students to your organizational account, or you need to assign user names and passwords to the students already on your organizational account, get step-by-step instructions from this video or this how-to guide.
*Private school teachers: view this video to learn how to add members to your account. After your students are listed on your member roster, you can assign user names and passwords to them, in the same way that teachers at public schools do.
Do the students still need to have an IEP or 504?
Diana: Since Bookshare’s qualifications are determined by U.S. copyright law (not education law), we are required to get proof of disability (learning disability, visual impairment, physical disability) signed by a competent authority. Qualification information: https://www.bookshare.org/cms/bookshare-me/who-qualifies. Please contact Bookshare Customer Support if you need assistance with membership signup. Ph: 650-352-0198 (M-F 9-5 PT). Email: support@bookshare.org
I really think bookshare needs to make the fact that book share is only for a very limited population. Why not say that in the email you send. I am an EL teacher and parents and teachers are constantly emailing and calling about getting our EL’s book share. I am sure as a result of this email, I will get a new round of requests. Look-books hate is offering more accounts. No, they are not. I understand that book share is can’t offer open accounts due to copyright laws but why not take a minute to be clear about that in your advertisement!!!!
Christine: thank you for your feedback. We always include language about the qualifying disabilities for Bookshare on our website and communications, but we failed to repeat that information on this particular blog that was intended for teachers whose students already have Bookshare memberships. I have added information to the blog. Also note that Bookshare has a selection of public domain books that are available to everyone. Here’s a list of freely available Bookshare ebooks plus other resources: https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/learning-center/learning-at-home/more-ebooks. Thanks again for contacting us!