Bookshare.org
https://www.bookshare.org/cms/bookshare-me
Bookshare makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading.
Do You Have a Reading Barrier?
Reading is a critical skill. When students cannot decode words, see text, or physically manage a book, reading and learning can be difficult.
Bookshare® lets students read their way. They can access a huge library of ebooks on devices they already use and customize the reading experience to accommodate their specific learning needs.
Make Reading Easier
Readers can experience Bookshare ebooks many different ways:
- Listen to books with high quality audio
- See text and follow along with word-level highlighting
- Adjust reading speed, font, and color
- Enlarge font size
- Read in braille
- Add bookmarks and notes
- Take advantage of partners apps and study tools
Bookshare ebooks provide more reading options than other ebooks or audio books and make it easier to read.
FREE for US Students
Bookshare is FREE for US Students with qualifying reading barriers. Students 18 years and over can sign up on their own; parents can sign up students under 18 years of age.
Who Uses Bookshare?
Bookshare is the must-have reading tool for students with dyslexia, learning disabilities, blindness, low vision, retinitis pigmentosa, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers. To use Bookshare, students must have a qualifying disability. Learn about qualifications.
■ How to Assign Books to students : This video is lengthy but useful. It covers how to search and assign books by Lexile Level and other options.
I think the best way to read Bookshare books on a Chromebook is to install the Read&Write app and use that to read your Bookshare books.
"How to use Read&Write's premium voices to read Bookshare books.
■ TextHelp PDF Reader by TextHelp (has free and premium features)….personalized support to make documents, web pages and common file types in Google Drive (including: Google Docs, PDF & ePub) more accessible.
*PDF Reader free features include text to speech, translator, commenting, Save to Drive, and Classroom integration. All other features within PDF Reader are premium. "
Bookshare's web reader works online, so you need an internet connection to read books. Buffering and a spotty connection can be distracting when trying to read a book. Additional ways to read Bookshare books like Capti Voice, and Dolphin Easy Reader allow you to download the book as an ePub file and read offline. See the TRAINING RESOURCE LIBRARY for a full up-to-date list of ways to access Bookshare books.
This link takes you to Bookshare's resource page which lists the many different ways you can read Bookshare books on the many devices available. There are more options to read offline here. I'm highlighting Capti Voice for the Chromebooks and Dolphin Easy Reader for devices.
Read Bookshare Books with Capti Voice
https://www.captivoice.com/capti-site/public/entry/explore
"Offline Support Use Capti online or install it to use it offline, e.g., when there is no Internet or for exam accommodations."
Dolphin Easy Reader This app works on both Android and iOS devices. It is excellent, and has a very large selection of voices.