Books Archives - Page 6 of 14

Published December 12, 2011

Twelve Holiday Books for All Ages

Thanks to the Collection Development team and Kristina Cohen for their assistance with this post. No matter how old you are, nothing is more delightful than reading a good book or two over the holidays! A wonderful family activity is reading together. The books become traditions and children want them read year after year. If you are looking for something to read this holiday season, perhaps something different, the books below all look like good reads. Young Children The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson: The six horrible Herdmans, the worst children in the history of the world, take…

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Published December 2, 2011

Boy Scout Manuals on Bookshare!

Credit for this post goes to Bryan Wendell, with the Boy Scouts of America. Here’s the original. For some boys, reading doesn’t come easy. And that makes the Boy Scouts of America a challenging place. The Boy Scout Handbook. Merit Badge pamphlets. BSA training manuals. Daunting prospects for boys with print disabilities. Fortunately, the BSA has some great resources for those Scouts. Starting with Bookshare. This summer, the BSA signed a memorandum of understanding that cements a partnership aimed at improving the Scouting experience for boys and girls with print disabilities. Bookshare’s cool online library (bookshare.org) allows Scouts in your…

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Published November 28, 2011

6th Grade Volunteers at Bookshare Surprised!

Three sixth graders from Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto, CA, never thought community service would be so much fun. They volunteered to spend several hours helping organize the collection at Bookshare. However, the students didn’t know very much about Bookshare and what they’d be doing, nor did they realize that they’d also learn how students who can’t read print, (those who are blind or have low vision, a physical disability, or a severe learning disability like dyslexia) can read a digital accessible book. When they arrived, they were introduced to the process Bookshare uses to convert many print textbooks…

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Published November 17, 2011

New Update for Read2Go … Now Available

Apple has now approved this release and it is available in the app store. A new version of Read2Go is now available in the iTunes store. This version has support for iOS 5.0 and further enhancements for handling large books. Large books will be broken into smaller segments, but the segments will be invisible to the user. It’s version 1.0.2.0. Thanks for your patience!

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Published November 15, 2011

Education Week Editor Posts YouTube Audio

Recently, Education Week special education editor Nirvi Shah recently wrote a thorough article about Bookshare, its accessible books, services for students with print disabilities, and the recent LIT award from OSEP to build tools that will make it easier to read digital accessible books and increase student use of books with training for educators and more information for families. Nirvi interviewed educators about their accessible book programs in Washington, DC, Maryland and New York and talked about students’ familiarity and ease of use with technology readers and digital materials. In the piece, she likened “synthesized computer voices” to popular TV…

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Published November 11, 2011

District of Columbia Public Schools Project Changes Students’ Lives

Picture a room with senior administrators from some of our nation’s largest districts. And then add tears in many eyes. You’re picturing the room at the Council of Great City Schools recent conference in Boston, MA, during the presentation given by Norma Villanueva, Director of Low Incidence Disabilities for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). In describing her work with her students with visual impairments and physical disabilities, she told the story of several students whose lives were turned around by assistive technologies and Bookshare. Instead of dropping out, these students have graduated and have a future. Two videos…

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Published September 23, 2011

Does Bookshare Have the Books and Textbooks I Need?

This question comes up frequently and doesn’t have a clear “yes” or “no” answer. Every month Bookshare adds more of the books our Members want! We process hundreds of textbooks based on student requests and add lots of postsecondary titles from university partners. We added over 16,000 new books to our collection from April to June this year, including New York Times bestsellers as well as hundreds of new textbooks. Please consider some facts. Bookshare now has over 125,000 books; teachers and professors regularly assign many of these books as required reading. Over 6000 are classified as textbooks. Publishers have…

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Published September 12, 2011

California Teacher Empowers Learning Independence

Impressions from a School Visit It’s a busy time for Leslie Anido, special education teacher in San Jose, CA. She teaches fifth graders with physical disabilities preparing to transition to middle school. “It is very difficult for students with physical disabilities to access traditional print,” said Ms. Anido, when I was there recently for a training with her class about Bookshare and digital books. At the time of my visit, Ms. Anido invited a former student back to her classroom. She was preparing for college which made Ms. Anido very proud. In the training, we discussed how to search for…

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Published September 1, 2011

Graduate Student Finds Books in Bookshare

Many thanks to Lauren Conner, graduate student, for sharing her story. Lauren Conner stumbled across Bookshare last year looking for postsecondary accessible books for her studies in Community and College Counseling. She attends Longwood University in Virginia and has impaired vision. “When I look for a textbook on psycho-pathology, ethics or behavior modification, I am thrilled that the digital book is already in Bookshare’s online library collection,” said Lauren. “Another member must have taken the same course and requested all the required books that I need. I love that!” Since birth, Lauren’s visual impairment made it difficult for her to…

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Published August 24, 2011

Let Reading Come Alive! Download 5!

If you, our teachers in schools with Bookshare accounts, could do one thing to help turn your non-reading students with print disabilities into readers, would you do it? This fall, we’d like you try something. For each student, download 5: 3 for school and 2 for cool. Get them their textbooks – let’s say at least 3 – and then get 2 more that you think your students will enjoy reading for fun. Many students tell us that using Bookshare for their school work has opened up the world of books. They now read on their own and even download…

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Category: Books