Bookshare Blog

Published August 31, 2012

A Big Thanks to 400 Dedicated Mentor Teachers!

Four hundred teachers have now signed up to be Mentor Teachers in their local schools and districts. These teachers, because they help others learn how to use accessible educational materials and get accessible education content to students with print disabilities in a timely manner, are key to the long-term education of many students in this country. We thank them for their efforts and congratulate them on their dedication. Depending on their schools, districts and schedules, Mentor Teachers have facilitated group and one-on-one trainings with teachers, parents and students on anything related to Bookshare. Others have developed online training tools and…

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Published August 28, 2012

Top 10 Bookshare Tips for Back-to-School

Many educators working with students with print disabilities seek new ideas to motivate their students to read more. Giving students individual memberships, according to multiple anecdotal reports, does encourage independent reading, change students’ view of their ability to learn, and improve self-esteem, among many other benefits. From teachers around the country, we’ve gathered a list of ten top tips that have worked to get students to start reading more. Perhaps you’ll want to try some of these! Before Back-to-School night, print individual membership forms for all your students. Then at Back-to-School night, get parents to sign them. Gather the forms…

Texas AT Specialist Champions Large Scale District Accessible Book Initiative

You’ve heard it before… all it takes is one person to start a ball rolling. For equal access to reading and educational books for students with print disabilities, that person is Jessica McKay, an AT Specialist in Ysleta ISD, Texas. The Ysleta district will roll out their widespread initiative this fall (2012) across 60 campuses, to hundreds of K to 12th graders who are blind, have low vision, a physical disability, such as cerebral palsy or a severe reading disability, like dyslexia. Jessica, with the support of her supervisor, Leslie Armbruster, championed the initial cause. “Jessica has this amazing ability…

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Published August 16, 2012

This Fall, Think about Students Who Would Qualify for Bookshare

A guest post by Stephanie Caceres, AT Specialist and Special Education Teacher, Maryland I’m a Special Education Teacher in Worcester County, Maryland, and I’m always on the lookout for new tools that will benefit students with learning disabilities. Recently, I had an 8th grader who is intelligent and quite verbal, and now attends the Alternative Education Program at our school due to failing grades and behavior issues. This young man was frequently suspended for acting out in class. Why? Because he couldn’t keep up with his reading assignments; since he couldn’t talk about a book, he made trouble for teachers…

Are You Using Open Educational Resources (OER)?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are digital teaching materials that can be used freely by anyone. They are published under creative commons licenses which allow uses of materials that would not be permitted with materials published under traditional copyrights. As free digital teaching resources, many schools, districts, community colleges, universities, and some states are beginning to use and adopt them instead of textbooks. However, just because OER are digital, they are not necessarily accessible. Several OER publishers including CK-12, Flat World Knowledge, Connexions and Curriki, recognize that their formats are not accessible to all students and contribute files to Bookshare for…

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Published August 7, 2012

Books to Help You Prepare for Those Big Tests!

Good preparation can make that important day when you take the big test so much less stressful. Bookshare has a variety of resources that will help you get ready. You’ll find books from all the popular test preparation publishers, including Peterson’s, Barron’s, and Kaplan. If you don’t find the book you want, search by the name of the standard test in our collection, and you’ll find lots of choices. These books give you lots of opportunities to take practice tests and look more closely at subjects that you want to review more intensively. Here are some general titles to get you…

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Published August 2, 2012

A Computer Science Degree to a Job with Bookshare

I learned about Bookshare in 2004 just before my senior year of high school. Bookshare wasn’t free for qualified students back then, so I paid for my first subscription with money I received for my high school graduation. I joined six weeks before I started college, knowing I would need as many sources of accessible materials as possible. While there weren’t many textbooks, I thought I would find materials that would help with research papers. However, another use was rather surprising. For a political science class, I was required to read the newspaper, e.g. The New York Times, several times…

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Published July 30, 2012

Happy Birthday Read2Go!

This month, Read2Go, the popular accessible eBook reader for the Apple iOS, turns one year old. Happy birthday Read2Go! To celebrate, we are running a Read2Go Giveaway on Twitter and sharing our reflections over the past year. And what a year it has been. Since the launch of Read2Go in July of 2011, over 16,000 apps have been installed in 33 countries around the world! When we originally developed Read2Go with partner Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd, the developer of the PLEXTALK brand of products, we knew we were building an innovative app that could help many people with print disabilities…

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Published July 26, 2012

My Google Summer of Code Experience with Benetech

Many thanks to Thushan Ganegedara for this post about his summer project. I’m Thushan Ganegedara, a 3rd year undergraduate from the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. My interests are Mobile Development and Computational Intelligence. My first-ever experience with Google Summer of Code has been with Benetech. I have realized that Benetech is indeed “technology serving humanity.” I feel fortunate to work with a set of employees who are technically competent yet very friendly and helpful. My project is associated with the ‘Go Read’ Android application. Go Read is a free e-book reader that people…

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Published July 23, 2012

Meet the Bookshare In-House Summer Volunteer Team!

Bookshare is fortunate to have a variety of summer interns and volunteers working in our Palo Alto office this year. Our main focus has been our text book image description project. Our summer volunteers write text book image descriptions, review and revise descriptions, provide technical assistance, and proofread children’s books with new image descriptions. We’re especially grateful for the participation of two blind Bookshare members, who have provided input on how to write the best image descriptions. Volunteers have also helped us prepare for the ACB and NFB summer conferences, and contributed to our marketing, collection development, and international departments. …

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