Bookshare
USABILITY/STATUS: In Use
INNOVATOR: Benetech
GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS: Global
SOLUTION TYPE: Digital Library
Summary
Listen to books and read your way. Bookshare provides access to millions of publications through the world’s largest library of e-books for people with reading barriers like dyslexia, blindness, low vision, and physical disabilities. Bookshare allows users to listen to books in high-quality audio and customize their reading experience in ways that work for them. Users can read bestsellers, new releases, textbooks and educational books, children’s books, young adult fiction, mysteries, biographies, and more. Bookshare has content in over 100 languages.
Usability/Features
- Operating system: Windows, iOS
- Hardware: Computer, smartphone, tablet
- Connectivity: Online; download to read offline
- Accessibility features: Ability to jump from Chapter to Chapter (navigation that makes for truly accessible content); listen to books in high-quality audio; adjust reading speed, font size, and colors; follow along with highlighted text; navigate by page and chapter; stop reading and pick up from your last spot
- Accessories needed for use: Headphones, speakers
- Other features: See Bookshare Reader on the App Store
- How it supports learning: In 2014, through its ACR GCD–funded Bookshare India project, Benetech recorded audio storybooks in Marathi, an underserved language in India, to accompany printed books so that children with low vision could listen to the audio to improve their braille literacy. With advances in technology, Bookshare now includes more formats in nearly 100 languages. Library corners are an efficient way to support learning using Bookshare. Benetech partnered with public libraries in the Philippines and added an open source screen reader, NVDA (nvaccess.org), to allow access to Bookshare content via existing laptops. It also added Windows 10 Narrator, a built-in screen reader that supports 67 languages. There is limited content in Filipino, but Benetech conducted training on converting PDFs to accessible formats.
- Costs: Free app, Bookshare membership required—costs vary by country, free in most low-income countries
- Other cost considerations: Devices to access content, content creation in local languages where it is not available
Setting/Context
- Settings: Schools, community programs, libraries, homes
- Target Populations: Individuals with print disabilities
- Current Language(s): 100+
- Geography (locations): Global
Research
Use Case
- In 2014, when Benetech submitted the first proposal to ACR GCD, the Bookshare platform had just over 2,200 users in India and about 123,000 English, Hindi, and Tamil books. By 2016, when Benetech submitted a request for supplemental ACR GCD funding, Bookshare had grown to over 5,100 users and more than 223,000 English, Hindi, and Tamil books. Today, Bookshare has served over 20,000 people in India and can supply nearly 800,000 books to readers in the country. While many of those books come from global publishers, almost 1,300 local Indian books were prepared under the ACR GCD project, and well over 4,000 additional books in seven relevant languages have been produced through other funding since 2016. Globally, Bookshare work in the Asia and Africa regions has accelerated in the past seven years to reach thousands of people in 15 lower- and middle-income countries.
Related Training Materials, Toolkits, and Resources
Blogs and Reviews
- “ACR GCD Innovator Benetech Advances as Finalist for $10 Million Award to Scale Accessible Reading Platform”
- “All Children Have the Right to Read Books: Furthering the Legacy of Louis Braille”
- “Count Me In! Ground-breaking Early Grade Reading Assessment Developed for Children with Sensory Disabilities”
- “How a Global Community of Innovators Can Embrace Inclusive EdTech Design for Children with Disabilities”
- “Raising the Bar Around Reading Materials for Children Who Are Blind and Low-Vision”
- “Six Innovators Discuss Challenges and Insights around Implementing EdTech Solutions to Increase Reading Outcomes for Hard-to-Reach Learners”
- “Nine Global EdTech Solutions to Support Out-of-School Children during the Coronavirus Outbreak”
- “What Works and Doesn’t Work to Improve Access, Equity and Inclusion for the 584 Million Children Globally Waiting to Learn to Read”
- “Leading EdTech Innovators Share Accomplishments and Big Dreams for EdTech Innovations”
- “The Amazing Potential of Technology to Level the Playing Field in Global Education”
- “On World Sight Day, 6 Lessons for Literacy Projects for Children with Print Disabilities”
Webinars
- The Power of Technology to Improve Literacy for Children with Disabilities in Developing Countries
- Guidelines for Creating Accessible Images