Bookshare Blog Posts

Students with print disabilities, such as blindness or low vision, a physical disability, or a severe learning disability like dyslexia, can participate in their school and state Battles of the Books! What is “Battle of the Books” you might ask? It’s a voluntary incentive reading program for students in grades 3 to 12. Throughout the year, students read the books on the Battle lists and then compete in local battles or tournaments, answering questions about the books, like the College Bowl. Winning teams may compete in their regional or state tournaments. Participation in Battles would be difficult for students who…

Text-to-speech helps those who cannot read print for a variety of reasons. To understand its use and benefits, let’s explore different reading styles that would benefit from text-t0-speech. These reading styles might qualify someone for a Bookshare membership; a qualified professional would make that decision. Individuals who are blind depend on text-to-speech to navigate a computer. Those with low vision may or may not use text-to-speech, depending on the accommodations they need. Text-to-speech output can be used to read a book on a device, such as the devices from Plextalk and Humanware, or an computer, such as Kurzweil 1000 from…

In January every year, we often make resolutions and look forward in eager anticipation to the year ahead.  However, January is also an opportune time to reflect on the past and remember what life was like just a short time ago. For example, today we have Bookshare and its vast library, ease of access, and tools for reading. However, printed content has not always been this accessible to people with print disabilities. Bookshare represents huge advances in accessibility and availability of content for individuals with print disabilities. The path to Bookshare, under the leadership of CEO Jim Fruchterman, begins in…

Winning an award is a perfect beginning to a new year! eSchool Media has announced the winners of its 2012 Readers’ Choice Awards that recognize educational technology products and services, and Bookshare was chosen as one of the 50 winners! Readers of eSchoolNews.com, eCampusNews.com, and eClassroomNews.com voted for their top hardware, software, websites and services. From among 1400 votes describing how a product improves teaching, learning or school administration, Bookshare was selected as on of the top. The list of all 50 winners is posted on the eSchool news website. Many thanks to eSchool News for the recognition! 2012 is…