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Category: Conferences and events

Celebrating the Life-Changing Power of Reading at the National Book Festival"Library of Congress National Book Festival" an open book on a multicolored background
Published September 19, 2019

Celebrating the Life-Changing Power of Reading at the National Book Festival

Each Labor Day weekend, the Library of Congress promotes literacy through their National Book Festival. This one day festival is a free event in Washington, D.C., with author events, book signings, family activities, and more. For the second year in a row, Bookshare was one of the sponsors of the festival and had a booth on the exhibition floor. As a frequent Bookshare booth staffer, I always love the opportunity to connect with our members face to face and hear the stories of how Bookshare has opened new doors to reading. The National Book Festival was no different. We had…

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Spring Into April with Bookshare Book Club SelectionBookshare Book Club with Severance by Ling Ma book cover
Published April 5, 2019

Spring Into April with Bookshare Book Club Selection

Welcome again to the Bookshare Book Club! Each month Bookshare staff will choose a book for members to read before hosting a discussion on the last Friday of the month. The conversation will take place on Bookshare Twitter, using the hashtag #BKSBookClub. While we have created this club with adult Bookshare members in mind, everyone is welcome to join, including non-Bookshare members. April’s book is Severance by Ling Ma. Part zombie apocalypse, part office culture, and part coming-of-age novel, Severance follows second-generation, Chinese American, Candace Chen, a disillusioned, millennial office worker in New York. One of the few survivors of…

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Up Close and Personal at the American Council of the Blind ConferenceACB members walk in hallway
Published July 20, 2018

Up Close and Personal at the American Council of the Blind Conference

St. Louis, Missouri, was the location of the 57th Annual American Council of the Blind (ACB) Conference and Convention in early July. Benetech, the parent nonprofit of Bookshare, the world’s largest library of ebooks for people with reading barriers, is a strong supporter of the ACB and sent me and Jake Brownell, another engineer, to the event. The conference provided moments of inspiration, exciting new assistive technology devices, and a chance to network with other participants. One of the keynote speakers, professional low vision actor Marilee Talkington, who played a blind character on the television show NCIS, offered these words…

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Bookshare Coming to FETC and ATIA ConferencesBenetech exhibit booth for conferences
Published January 12, 2018

Bookshare Coming to FETC and ATIA Conferences

Now that we’ve turned the corner into 2018, the Bookshare team is excited to hit the road and participate in two upcoming conferences. If you plan to attend, be sure to find us and network, learn, and share. Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) January 23-26 in Orlando FETC brings together education leaders and technology experts to exchange techniques and strategies for teaching and learning success. FETC provides educators and administrators the opportunity to explore the integration of technology across the curriculum — from pre-K through 12 — through hands-on exposure to the latest hardware, software and successful strategies. Special…

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Benetech Secures U.S. Department of Education Award to Expand Access to Bookshare for Students with DisabilitiesThree young students are using a tablet in a classroom
Published November 1, 2017

Benetech Secures U.S. Department of Education Award to Expand Access to Bookshare for Students with Disabilities

Benetech extends reach to make education more inclusive Benetech, the parent company of Bookshare, is pleased to announce that it has received a five-year award from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, to expand and improve access to books for students who read differently due to blindness, low vision, a physical disability, or dyslexia. Bookshare, the largest online library of accessible books, will remain free for all U.S. school districts, schools, educators, and their qualified students. “Access to knowledge through reading is a basic human right and a critical step on the path to economic, educational,…

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Published June 8, 2017

Bookshare Takes the Show on the Road

Come meet the Bookshare team at four exciting conferences this summer Members of the Bookshare team are packing their bags for Houston, Chicago, Sparks, and Orlando this summer to attend four conferences sponsored by: Texas Assistive Technology Network (TATN), American Library Association (ALA), American Council of the Blind (ACB), and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). We hope to see you at one or more of these events where you can learn about: Bookshare’s huge collection of over 550,000 titles in accessible formats for school, work, and recreational reading Reading tools like Capti Narrator and Voice Dream Reader Better…

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