Reading Tools

Bookshare provides two free DAISY readers and free voices for reading Bookshare books. You need to be logged in as a Member to download this software.

Before you proceed, please read these important instructions on how to download and open books.

Microsoft® Windows®-Based Software

  • VictorReader Soft Bookshare Edition by Humanware

    VictorReader Soft version 2.6, launched August 2009, with multiple improvements to existing functionality. We encourage everybody to download and install this new version. It is designed for people who are blind or have low vision. Use this software if you are a screen reader user and want a fuller-featured DAISY reader. For additional information, visit the Humanware website.

  • READ:OutLoud Bookshare Edition by Don Johnston

    This DAISY reader is designed specifically for people with learning disabilities. It is not recommended for use with screen readers. This software features high-quality text-to-speech for multi-modal reading, spotlighting, note-taking and other study skill features, an online dictionary, and more. For additional information, visit the Don Johnston website.

  • Acapela TTS Voices by Acapela Group

    For Windows XP users who are seeking a better quality synthetic voice, Bookshare offers free Acapela TTS voices for download. The file is 200MB, so please only download this file if you need better voices on your computer. For additional information, visit the Acapela Group website.

    • To download this software, you need to be logged in as a Bookshare Member.

Software for Macintosh® computers

  • READ:OutLoud Bookshare Edition by Don Johnston

    This DAISY reader is designed specifically for people with learning disabilities. It is not recommended for use with screen readers. This software features high-quality text-to-speech for multi-modal reading, spotlighting, note-taking and other study skill features, an online dictionary, and more. For additional information, visit the Don Johnston website.

  • Acapela TTS Voices by Acapela Group

    For Mac OSX users who are seeking a better quality synthetic voice, Bookshare offers free Acapela TTS voices for download. The file is 200MB, so please only download this file if you need better voices on your computer. For additional information, visit the Acapela Group website.

    • To download this software, you need to be logged in as a Bookshare Member.

There is also an additional Macintosh reader to be available later in 2009. In the meantime, Mac users can read Bookshare books in their browser.

Additional Tools

In addition, there are a number of other technologies designed to make reading material available to people with print disabilities. The tools listed here work with Bookshare books. They are organized into three broad categories:

Additional resources include:

Tools for People with Visual Impairments

Portable DAISY Players

Scanning, Reading and Writing Software

Screen Reading Software

Screen Magnification Software

Web Access Software

Braille Notetakers and Displays

Scanning and Reading Hardware

Tools for People with Learning Disabilities

Scanning, Reading and Writing Software

Reading Software

General Tools

DAISY Format Readers

Text to MP3 Converters

Accessible Book Providers

Electronic Book Collections

  • Project Gutenberg
    Project Gutenberg has given Bookshare permission to include all Project Gutenberg public domain books in specialized formats for Bookshare library.
  • B&R Samizdat Express Classic Collections of books on CD-ROM
    • Children's Books CD
    • American Literature CD
    • British Literature CD
    • Non-Fiction CD
    • World Literature CD
    • Religion CD
  • Baen Free Library
    This is a website where any author can, at their own personal discretion, put up online for free any book published by Baen that they so desire.

Other Resources

This list of resources is intended as a general overview. Other organizations such as Closing the Gap maintain much more detailed resource lists.