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2. Reaching Today’s Struggling Readers with Digital Accessible Books and Technology

3. Kristina King Cohen Education Program Manager kristinac@benetech.org (650) 644-3452 3 Introductions Bookshare is a project of Benetech - www.benetech.orgwww.benetech.org Benetech’s nonprofit motto: Technology Serving Humanity

4. Agenda  Benefits of Digital Accessible Books  What is Bookshare  How can I Access Bookshare  Next steps 4

5. Digital Learners Today 5

6. Benefits  From a recent survey of students using digital accessible materials:  95% graduated on time  85% improved academic achievement  55% increased time spent in gen ed classrooms, decreased the time spent receiving SpEd services  95% decreased reliance on human assistance  55% experienced increased levels of parent satisfaction  http://aim.cast.org/experience/training/aim_implementation_guide http://aim.cast.org/experience/training/aim_implementation_guide  85% of Bookshare members say digital accessible books help students keep up with their schoolwork. 6

7. Benefits  Supports compliance with IDEA 2007 requiring timely access to accessible materials for qualified students.  Provides access to the general curriculum for students with print disabilities.  Reduces costs of support for students with special needs.

8. Benefits  Helps create the Least Restrictive Environment for students with print disabilities.  Provides tools that support UDL.  Reduces costs associated with SpEd, accommodations, etc.  Books, memberships, training all FREE  No need to scan or copy books 8

9. 9 Free, Digital, and Accessible  Bookshare® is an online library of accessible media for readers with print disabilities.  Over 155,000 Members  Over 10,000 schools and other organizations  Over 127,000 titles  Over a thousand new books added every month Bookshare believes that people with print disabilities should have the same ease of access to books and periodicals that people without disabilities enjoy. Funded by an award from OSEP, the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. as of 11/01/2011

10. What Bookshare Offers  Digital books for individuals with print disabilities  FREE memberships for qualified U.S. students through OSEP award 10  FREE assistive technology software  24/7 access to books

11. The Bookshare Library  Textbooks  +3,300 K-12 textbooks w/images  College/University textbooks  Classroom Reading Books  Special Collections  New York Times Best Sellers  Newbery, Caldecott Winners  1,000 books in Spanish  More than 135 publisher partnerships  270 nat’l/reg’l newspapers/magazines As of January 2011 Bookshare is committed to high-quality books. Please report any quality issues on the book download page. 11

12. Bookshare Eligibility DisabilityQualified/Not Qualified Examples of Certifying Professionals Visual Impairment (VI), such as blindness or low vision Qualified A family doctor, ophthalmologist, neurologist, psychiatrist, optometrist, physical therapist, or other medical professional. Teacher of the visually impaired, special education teacher, learning disability specialist, school psychologist, clinical psychologist with a background in learning disabilities, resource specialist or other educational professional Certification from the National Library Service Proof of membership with RFB&D Physical Disability (PD) which affects the ability to read print, such as inability to hold a book or turn pages Qualified Severe Learning Disability that affects the ability to read standard print Those with a severe enough disability, and a professional certifying that the disability is severe enough and the individual needs accessible formats. Autism Emotional disabilities ADHD Not qualified, unless accompanied by a visual or physical disability, or a qualified reading disability that has a physical basis Not applicable Other Learning Challenges ESL and ELL Record of disability kept at school! 12

13. What is the DAISY Format?  Digital Accessible Information System  Read books on a computer using visual presentation and/or synthetic speech (multimodal)  Makes files more readable and easier to navigate  Includes page numbers and paragraphs  Like HTML, plus some extra tags  Convert and play on MP3 player  Requires third-party software application

14. AT Hardware for DAISY / BRF  HumanWare Victor Reader Stream/ClassMate Reader  Plextalk Pocket  BookCourier and BookPort  Braille displays such as the HumanWare BrailleNote, Freedom Scientific PAC Mate, and GW Micro Braille Sense  LevelStar ICON™  Intel Reader  DAISY player for Symbian and Windows phones  MP3 players (educator or Member converts)  Read2Go iApp for iOS devices  Soon to be released – Android open source reader 14

15. DAISY-Compatible AT Software  HumanWare Victor Reader Soft  Don Johnston READ:OutLoud Windows and Macintosh  Kurzweil 3000, 1000  TextHelp Read & Write Gold  Freedom Scientific WYNN  Freedom Scientific OpenBook  Gh Player  Dolphin EasyReader  DAISY Consortium AMIS  Nextup TextAloud  Innovative Rehabilitation Technology eClipseReader Free versions available for download for Members! Free high-quality Acapela voices 15

16. DEMO  www.bookshare.orgwww.bookshare.org  Sign up online  Getting Started – free reading tools  Finding Books  Requesting Books  Training resources  Read:OutLoud Bookshare edition 16

17. 17 What can you do?  Get a Bookshare membership  Align accessibility with needs of student and available resources at school and home  Collaborate with school staff on digital, accessible, and mobile in the general education classroom As required by IDEA, place students in the

18. Your Dream Classroom? 18 mobile digital interactive Open educational resources MP3 iApps publishers DAISY accessible creative engaging universal global peer learning