Those who are good readers often go to their local public library and check out a big stack of books to read. But, if you are blind, print disabled, or have a physical limitation that prevents you from reading standard print books, there were no libraries for you! Until NOW!
Bookshare is an online library for the print challenged. The Bookshare library has over one million e-books! If you have a characteristic that prevents you from reading standard print you can download these e-books. Once downloaded your computer, smartphone, or tablet can read these books to you.
Like the National Library Service, an applicant must fill out a form indicating the presence of a print disability. If you have already been approved by the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, you automatically qualify for Bookshare.
The Bookshare application can be signed by the following School personnel:
- Assistive Technology Professional
- Dyslexia Specialist
- Learning Disability Specialist
- Librarian
- Physical or Occupational Therapist
- Reading Specialist
- Resource Specialist
- Special Education Teacher
- School Psychologist
- Speech Language Pathologist
- Teacher of the Visually Impaired
- Other Professionals with appropriate experience
Here are Qualifying Professionals Outside of School:
- Clinical Psychologist
- Doctor of Medicine
- Doctor of Osteopathy
- Neurologist
- Ophthalmologist
- Optometrist
- Psychiatrist
- Registered nurse
As can be seen, a wide number of individuals are able to verify that you have a print disability. For example, the simplest could be your classroom teacher or your family doctor!
In the United States, Bookshare is free for all K-12 or college students with a print disability! For other print disabled persons there is a fee of $79.99 per year.
Once qualified, you can download as many e-books as you need. Unlike your public library, you do not have to return books to the Bookshare library. So, there are never any overdue books!
You can read books online or with the free Bookshare app for Apple and Android devices. You can even read Bookshare books using the Amazon Echo with the Bookshare Reader skill.
So, Happy Reading!
I talk even more about Bookshare in my books, check them out here!
James Nuttall, PhD 
One response to “Bookshare”
[…] with no digital rights management is to use Bookshare.org. I wrote a blogpost on that too, read it here. When you download an e-book from Bookshare.org, you can choose for the book to be in Microsoft […]
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