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Category: audio books

Carson’s Journey with Technology Makes English Teacher Proud!

Earlier this year, we featured a blog and video by Bookshare Student Member, Carson Maxson. He and his English teacher, Sallie Spencer, from Olivet Middle School, Michigan, created the video “How Read2Go Moved My Life” for the first White House Student Film Festival. They wanted to demonstrate how Carson’s reading ability changed once he was introduced to portable technology and accessible ebooks to accommodate his learning disability. Carson’s story is not so unusual for kids with learning disabilities. They fall behind at an early age and cannot keep pace with other students. By fourth grade, Carson read at a first-grade…

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Winners of the 2014 Summer of Sleuths Contest!

We promised members that Bookshare’s 6th annual Summer of Sleuths reading contest would be the best summer contest to date. And guess what? It was!  Congratulations to everyone who participated! From June 16 to August 1, 2014, 285 individual members, from kindergarteners to adults, grabbed their magnifying glasses and got busy reading and solving fun mysteries from detective stories in the Bookshare library. Did you have fun? Share your favorite book with us on Facebook or Pinterest, or Tweet about your experience at #SummerOfSleuths. Drum Roll Please…Here Are Our 2014 Winners by Category! Congratulations to all of the following contestants. …

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Team-Up for Textbooks: Volunteer to Help Students with Print Disabilities

Post written by Brenda Hendricksen, Volunteer Program Manager for Benetech and published on August 19, 2014 on the Benetech blog. * * * By Brenda Hendricksen, Volunteer Program Manager posted in Bookshare on August 19, 2014 – See more at: http://benetech.org/author/brendah/#sthash.zKQVLSuF.dpuf By Brenda Hendricksen, Volunteer Program Manager posted in Bookshare on August 19, 2014 – See more at: http://benetech.org/2014/08/19/team-up-for-textbooks-volunteer-to-help-students-with-disabilities/#sthash.p2N1sT90.dpuf By Brenda Hendricksen, Volunteer Program Manager posted in Bookshare on August 19, 2014 – See more at: http://benetech.org/2014/08/19/team-up-for-textbooks-volunteer-to-help-students-with-disabilities/#sthash.p2N1sT90.dpuf Across the U.S., thousands of students with print disabilities will start their school year without the textbooks they need for class. These students…

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Technology Spotlight: Read Easily with the Victor Reader Stream

From time to time, Bookshare shares information about technologies to improve the reading experience for our members. This month, we want to feature the updated Victor Reader Stream by HumanWare. The Stream, as many call it, is a popular accessible media player and eBook reader you may already use as a Bookshare member. The newest version takes advantage of advanced Bookshare features available through our Partner Program and combines it with some great wireless capabilities. The Victor Reader Stream makes it easier for members to search, browse and open Bookshare books to get to the content you really want. Through…

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We’re Experiencing Exponential Growth at Bookshare!

We’ve reached two major milestones in our work to advance reading equality to underserved populations, and we’re shouting it out to the world! First, the collection now surpasses a quarter of a million titles, 286,033 to be exact as of today. We achieved this milestone thanks to the sheer dedication of volunteers, our staff, and partnerships with over 500 leading publishers, like Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Wiley, and many others who donate their digital files. Did you know that Bookshare also has well over 14,000 textbooks in the collection? Yes, that’s true! We also have vocational,…

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NEW! Bookshare Parent Ambassador Program

A post by Lisa Wadors Verne, PhD, Manager of Bookshare’s Parent Outreach Program. Over the years, we’ve met many amazing parents who advocate on behalf of their children for accessible books, reading technologies, and educational resources like Bookshare. As a result, we’ve published some great stories about dedicated moms and super dads who have performed heroic acts to ensure their children get equal access to learning. We know that there are many more parents doing similarly amazing things for children with print disabilities every day. They may tell other parents about how their child uses Bookshare at home, advocate at…

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The Summer of Sleuths Contest Is Live. Enter Today!

It’s time to solve some clues! The Summer of Sleuths reading contest for U.S. Individual Members has officially launched! Put on your favorite detective cap, pull out your magnifying glass, and get ready to inspect some great detective books in Bookshare. Through Friday, August 1st, contestants will download, read, and solve clues within great detective books from Bookshare. For every clue you answer correctly, you will be entered into a drawing for awesome prizes like detective gadgets, gift cards and free year-long Bookshare memberships! (Read our initial contest announcement to learn more about the contest). Important Tips for Summer Sleuths…

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From the Eyes of Fathers…Honoring Dedicated Dads!

We’re honored to feature two proud dads of Bookshare students. Mr. Drake Leong from Palo Alto, California, is the father of Kevin Leong, and Mr. Andrew Cooper from Austin, Texas, is the father of Ben Cooper. Both dads care deeply about their sons and are intimately involved in their education and use of Bookshare. These fathers represent the best in parental dedication to students with print disabilities. Today, we’re sharing their thoughts about their sons. Drake Leong “Life before Bookshare was very difficult for my son,” says Drake. Kevin suffered an unexpected brain injury when he was little and had…

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Mr. Mercedes…NEW Stephen King Thriller!

Nothing will start your summer reading engine faster than a suspenseful thriller! And who writes them better than Stephen King? Fans of mystery and suspense fiction are revved up for King’s latest book, Mr. Mercedes, just released! We’re delighted to have this new thriller available to download in the Bookshare collection of over a quarter million titles! If you are a Stephen King enthusiast, the good news is that Mr. King has forged into a whole new category of books—crime dramas. This one is being described as his first true detective novel. For this reason, we felt driven to include…

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Bookshare Community Rocks First Live Twitter #PoetryJam!

In April, we celebrated National Poetry Month by featuring poets and poetry books in our social media channels. We also invited our Twitter friends to join us in creating poetry online together. During the week of April 21st through 25th, we switched our focus from reading poetry to writing poetry and experimented with an interactive Twitter event: our first-ever Bookshare Community Poetry Jam! You, our fun-loving Bookshare members, educators, volunteers, parents, and accessibility advocates, rocked this event with creativity, sentiment, humor, and love. During the week, anyone could tweet lines of poetry day or night using the #PoetryJam hashtag. Our…

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