What Access Really Means: My Story with Bookshare

Story from Bookshare user, Ron Wright:

As a kid, I impressed my parents’ friends by rattling off powers of 2. However, in 6th grade, I failed my spelling test. No one connected the dots. It wasn’t until graduate school—after earning a PhD in mathematics and enrolling in psychology and medical programs—that a neurology professor finally diagnosed me with dyslexia. The assigned reading in
medicine and psychology was staggering. I couldn’t keep up.

That diagnosis opened doors, beginning with access to books from the Library of Congress. However, early solutions were limited: cassette tapes from Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, followed by manually scanned files and tedious OCR work. The options were narrow and exhausting.

Then I discovered Bookshare: a community library where the scanning work was already done, the selection was vast, and my difficulty was understood. Publishers began offering books directly. The formats multiplied—DAISY, text, audio, and Word. Bookshare became the center point of how I manage my slow reading.

I used Bookshare books for my own development as a psychotherapist, to stay up-to-date with news and politics, and even for our book club on the island where I now live in Maine.

I was struck by Sally Shaywitz’s observation from her 1995 research: “Many dyslexics have told us how tiring reading is for them, reflecting the enormous resources and energy they must expend on the task.” I have accomplished a great deal in my career, but all of it has come at a cost. I don’t read for enjoyment; I read to gain experience or understanding of something I want to learn about.

Bookshare has fundamentally reduced the exhausting cost of my disability, allowing me to invest my energy in my work and life, not just in decoding words. That’s what access means.