Last Updated: May 11, 2023
What is Bookshare?
Bookshare is an accessible online library for people with print disabilities. They have over 500,000 titles in their collection including popular books in the mainstream as well as textbooks.
How does it work?
There are two types of accounts: Organizational and Individual. Hyde Park Day School has an Organizational account. Teachers can share books with their students through this account.
The Individual account is set up and managed by the parent or student (depending on the situation). The only way a student can access books, save them to their Reading Lists and use the Read Now function is by having an Individual account. It’s like your own personal library except you don’t have to worry about a return date! The Organizational and Individual accounts can be linked. Here is information that can help you make a choice https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/what-kind-account-should-my-students-use
Books can also be downloaded in a variety of formats. At Hyde Park Day School, teachers download the digital books and then students use Capti to access them. Capti has many features that help students engage with the text, such as text to speech. (See Capti Tech Guide or visit their website at https://www.captivoice.com/capti-site/),. Kami is another great tool for reading digital books. (See Kami Tech Guide or visit their website at https://www.kamiapp.com/.
Bookshare does have their own text reader called Bookshare Web Reader. It is a tool within Bookshare that students can use to read their book immediately. After they search for a book, there will be an option to Read Now. This feature is only available when students have an Individual account.
How to search for a book on Bookshare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8hL_R9F2Mo.
How to read a book from Bookshare with Snap&Read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeWtEcnWGmA&t=4s
How to read a book from Bookshare with Capti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rPRto1e-ww
How to read a book from Bookshare with Voice Dream Reader (iPad): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bZBq107quk
How does this help students?
These books are “accessible,” which means you can read the books in many different ways. Because the book is digital, text-to-speech tools can be used to have the book read to the student. This also means if a student has access to both the digital book and other assistive technology tools, they can interact with and take control over their learning by using the tools they need, when they need them to access and understand text at their developmental level.
What are the steps to using it at HPDS with an Individual account?
- Login to your account at www.bookshare.org
- Search for a book
- Read Now in the Bookshare Web Reader.
Bookshare also has many guides with screenshots. https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/training-and-resources/brochures
Quickstart Guide for Students
https://www.bookshare.org/cms/sites/default/files/quick_start_guide_for_students_august_9th_2016.pdf
For example - this one explains how to find books. https://www.bookshare.org/cms/get-started/how-find-books
Here is a video tour of the Bookshare website.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0RUvNRZl8w
Can I use Bookshare at home?
Absolutely! Here are some suggestions:
- Download a favorite book and take turns reading it - embrace the assistive technology along with your child - in other words, if your child uses text-to-speech, take turns where you might read, then your child reads, then let the text-to-speech tool have a turn! It’s important to let your child know that you accept this tool, too, so s/he can learn to read independently.
- Let your child teach you what kind of assistive technology s/he uses.
- Request a book if it isn’t already in the library. To do this, the book has to be one that is used for school. If it is a textbook, the student needs to have a license from the school for that textbook. Here is the link to request a book - https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/request-book
- Join a Book Club at your local library!
What if my child doesn’t like a digital voice? (prefers a human voice)
The most important value of having books in a digital format is that our students have access to content whereas before, their access was limited or non-existent. Text-to-speech gives our students this access. Technology keeps improving over time to sound like a more natural human voice. As it stands right now, text-to-speech provides more entry points to engage with the content. With practice, this tool can literally open up whole new worlds for our students. A human voice may be a preference, but a student may also comprehend the same or more with a computer narrated voice.
Understood.org provides a nice comparison between audiobooks and text-to-speech.
How much does it cost?
Bookshare is free for students with print disabilities up to age 18. The Bookshare Web Reader is a basic text-to-speech tool that enables the student to listen to the book immediately in the browser. The Bookshare Web Reader does require an Internet connection with a fairly good speed, but it is also free.
*Other reading tools to read the digital formats may have a cost. Hyde Park Day School subscribes to various tools to provide more enhanced features to help our students access digital text.
Does it work on other devices?
Yes. Bookshare has books available in a variety of formats that can be used by a variety of different reading tools on a variety of different devices. The trick is discovering which format works best with the tools the student needs and on the device s/he is working.
At HPDS, we mainly download books in a format that is accessible for students to use the tools like Capt or Kamii. Teachers are able to assign students work from these books using Google Classroom. We have found the combination of these tools to be the easiest and best tools for all of our students to access.
If your student is transitioning to an iPad device, the tool we recommend is Voice Dream Reader.
What do I need to know when my student transitions?
- Setting up your child’s Individual account before they leave HPDS will be easier to do when they are still at HPDS. All of the paperwork needs to be completed again if the account is set up after transition. In addition, the transition school may not have a Bookshare account. Having an Individual account also enables other features such as Read Now and submitting a Book Request. Individual accounts need to be renewed every year by the parent.
- Find out what device your child will be using, find and install the best reading tool for your child and then connect your child’s Bookshare account to that tool.
- Find out what from your child’s new school what textbooks and novels your child will be using next year. Do a search for the books and if you do not find them, submit a request to Bookshare or have the school submit a request for the textbook. Bookshare has said that it takes about 2 months to process a request, so best advice is to submit these titles in the summer or as early as possible.
- The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) says that eligible kids with learning and attention issues should be able to access the same learning materials as other students.http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/idea/
What else is good to know about working with Bookshare?
- Bookshare is provided by Benetech, a nonprofit that empowers communities in need by creating scalable technology solutions. It also relies on federal funding. http://www.benetech.org/
- Technical challenges may still surface. For example, a publisher may send a text that is not accessible by the assistive technology. When these types of things occur, Bookshare has a way for you to contact them via email or phone - https://www.bookshare.org/contactUs or 650-352-0198 Hours: M-F 9-5 Pacific Time.
Where can I find more information?
Bookshare - https://www.bookshare.org/cms/
Bookshare’s YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/BookshareTeam
Bookshare’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/bookshare
How is Bookshare different from Learning Ally?
Learning Ally is another resource for students with print disabilities. HPDS uses both Bookshare and Learning Ally. Access to Bookshare provides more options for teachers to teach our students how to use assistive technology that in turn, help our students transition. Access to Learning Ally provides a different format for our students to access and read books.
A few differences are the following:
Bookshare | Learning Ally | |
Amount of books in collection | Almost 1,000,000 | Over 80,000 |
Access to textbooks | Has textbooks and can submit requests for textbooks | Limited |
Format | Digital - assistive technology can be used with it (text-to-speech, annotating, dictionary, etc.) Or can use Bookshare’s Web Reader - https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/training-resources/read | Audiobooks and some books in VOICEtext (highlighting words as they are spoken) |
Voice formats | Voice provided by text-to-speech | Human voice |
Cost | Free for students with print disabilities | Membership is $135 with eligibility requirements |
Additional services | Some resources for parents | More variety of resources for parents |
Differences between Bookshare and Learning Ally and the National Library Service (NLS) - https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/how-bookshare-different-nls-or-learning-ally-rfbd
*Please note that technology and pricing is always changing. This document reflects the most recent known information as indicated by the Last Updated Date at the top of the page.