Reading with Bookshare is empowering. It can open up the world of literature and self-confidence for my students.
SHAWN ROBINSON, PH.D. AUTHOR, INSTRUCTOR, RESEARCHER, CO-FOUNDER, DR. DYSLEXIA DUDE
Create an Impact on Giving Tuesday
Fund Free Screenings for Students
Identifying dyslexia early is important to ensure that all youth get the education services they deserve to learn and thrive. But screenings can be expensive and hard to schedule. Online screenings reduce barriers to obtaining vital reading and literacy supports.
Join the growing public-private partnership that is investing to ensure equitable access to Bookshare literacy resources for all eligible students, regardless of their zip code.
For Giving Tuesday, your gift can help break down systemic barriers to reading and strengthen youth and families for generations. For a limited time, your gift will be doubled up to $45,000 thanks to the generosity of the Benetech community.
Stories of youth who have succeeded against the odds are spreading globally. Youth in urban centers like Detroit, Memphis, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. and rural places like Alaska and New Mexico can achieve their dreams with the help of accessible books from Bookshare.
Rural Youth in Alaska Unlock Reading
Dedicated teacher Ben Griese Believes in his Students
Ben Griese uses technology and creativity to engage struggling readers in a rural Alaskan Native community.
Boston Public Schools Assistive Technology Specialist, Scott Richards, helps a new student access grade level material and participate in class with her same-aged peers.
Step 1 toward equitable access to Bookshare: uncover possible cases of dyslexia among students in need. One way to reduce the burden on schools and families is to offer free online screenings to identify cases of dyslexia and other reading barriers.
Access to online screenings children can do at home, at a library or at a community after school program.
Partner with families and educators to prioritize students struggling to learn to read
App-based screener takes about one hour and is easy to access on any computer, smartphone or tablet
Reduces burden of time-intensive and costly evaluations to low-income families and schools
Screening process generates rapid, personalized results and analysis
Together we can put all youth on the path to getting the services they deserve.
Bookshare is a free ebook library available to all students in the U.S. who qualify due to literacy-related and print disabilities. You are invited to join a public-private effort to ensure equitable access to Bookshare literacy resources for all eligible students, regardless of their zip code. With support from the U.S. Department of Education, you can be part of a growing coalition of:
public school educators
parents
community leaders
philanthropists
local employers
charter school leaders
nonprofits
librarians
education technologists
The initiative will invest in impacted communities and youth by providing world-class literacy tools, trainings and unlimited free ebooks to students with reading barriers in disadvantaged urban and rural areas. Among the strategic investments:
Free, early online screening to identify individual cases of dyslexia and other literacy-based disabilities.
Free Bookshare accounts for schools and qualifying students to improve youth reading, learning, sense of belonging and self-esteem.
Jobs for retired special education teachers to train educators, advise school districts, and coach parents on supporting and advocating for their students.
Training and internships in literacy outreach activities for current HBCU students and recent HBCU grads.
Empowering local literacy-focused efforts by schools and nonprofits.
Celebrating community literacy and centering local youth and family voices.
When youth receive science-based reading instruction from caring educators, plus easy access to high-interest, culturally relevant books at their reading level, they can rise to their full potential as confident readers.
Listening to a book and following along as the words are read aloud and highlighted is a game changer for many students with dyslexia (Schneps et al. 2013, Keelor et al. 2020). Using Bookshare, kids can read and listen to books in multiple languages with high quality voices embedded in the device of their choice. Bookshare’s curated special collections, like #ReadingBlackout, Libros para niños, and #NativeReads for Kids and Teens, mean there’s always a just-right book for an eager young reader to discover.
Bookshare’s offering of culturally relevant titles is always growing. Thanks to robust relationships with publishers, hundreds of books are added each week to Bookshare’s collections!
Help Dismantle The School-to-Prison Pipeline Through Better Literacy
Skilled reading uplifts a young person’s self-esteem, helps them stay on track to complete their education, and reduces the risk of school suspensions, dropping out, or getting caught in the criminal justice system.
While the need to read is urgent and growing, the facts are sobering:
More than 79% of Black/African American and more than 77% of Hispanic/Latinx public school 4th and 8th graders are reading below grade level. (Source: Children’s Defense Fund.)
We’d like to hear from you. How have inequities in schooling or learning resources impacted your life? Do you have lived experiences you’d like to share? Help us center the voices of youth and families. Share your story so that the whole community can learn and be heard.
Dedicated teacher Ben Griese Believes in his Students
My students who have dyslexia or specific learning disabilities have the desire to read. They want to experience engaging, grade-level books, but they struggle so much and just give up. In 2016, Mystie Rail, Executive Director of Assistive Technology of Alaska showed us how to read Bookshare books on an iPad […] A couple of kids latched on right away, and I immediately saw the benefits of assistive technology.
One student went from reading only graphic novels to reading chapter books from Bookshare that were over 500 pages long. Her reading scores skyrocketed and she ended up being the valedictorian of her graduating class.
Once students started having success with reading, they requested tons of Bookshare books and it just took off. The pre-made reading lists are a huge timesaver, and Bookshare also has the textbooks the students need. One of the best aspects of Bookshare is that you can download books while you have internet access, and then read offline at home. This feature has been a huge part of improving instruction during the pandemic.
– Ben Griese, Special Education Teacher in New Stuyahok, Alaska
A few years ago I did an AT consultation with a special education teacher for a fourth-grade student who had just arrived from Jamaica. Her IEP indicated that she had a learning disability in reading. She spoke English, but her reading level was first grade. Her resource room teacher began working on improving her reading skills, but realized that she needed a different way of accessing reading material if she was to become a part of her regular class. Knowing she had no gaps in her comprehension, it was crucial to give her an access point for reading on grade level. The student tried some digital reading and writing tools, including Bookshare, which she adopted immediately. Using a Chromebook with headphones, she enthusiastically began reading, and within a few weeks she was participating in discussions, small group activities, and homework as an equal with her peers.
– Scott Richard, Assistive Technology Specialist at Boston Public Schools
Teacher Vicki Numkena Opens the World to Literature
I work with low vision/blind students across the Navajo Reservation. We struggle with poor or no internet during this “virtual learning only” school year. Thanks to Bookshare, my students can still access books for leisure reading and textbooks when necessary. COVID lockdown is a great time to get “into” reading!
My greatest success with Bookshare has been to ‘turn on’ reluctant readers to the joy of listening to books and discovering favorite authors and types of stories that they prefer. I have two beginning readers in third grade, and they are deeply into superheroes, Minecraft, and Fortnite. I look for books at their level and use them in my lessons and for rewards. If I encounter a student who doesn’t seem to have an interest that I can tap into, I ask the school librarian what the popular books are for that grade level and use that information to select a few books that the student might like.
– Vicki Numkema, Teacher of the Visually Impaired in 4 Corners Area (CO, AZ, NM and UT)
These resources ranging from peer-reviewed academic journals to national and local media coverage spotlight the issues and a range of solutions to close the equity gaps in U.S. education.