Educators, how can your students read Bookshare books?

Bookshare books can be read on many types of devices with a selection of reading tools including Bookshare’s own Bookshare Reader for web and mobile. The Bookshare Reader has been completely revamped with new features and offers a great reading experience. Additionally, Bookshare collaborates with other Assistive Technology (AT) partners so students have many options to read their books.

Bookshare Tools

Bookshare Reader

Bookshare Reader is our free reading tool that allows students to read in ways that work best for them. Students log into their Bookshare account, search for a book and select the “Read Now” button to launch the Bookshare Reader. Students can customize the voice, speed, colors and font size as well as add bookmarks and navigate by page and chapter. NOTE: The Bookshare Reader is intended to be used by student members to read books. Teachers or sponsors, are not able to read books on their own, unless they themselves meet the eligibility criteria for Bookshare. Teachers or sponsors are able to search the collection, and assign books to their students.

Bookshare Reader for web can be used on any device that has internet access. This is a tool that students often use on Chromebooks and laptops.

Bookshare Reader for mobile is an app for Android and iOS mobile devices such as a smartphone or tablet. Students log in to Bookshare directly through the app and access their assigned books.

NOTE: One of the new features built into our Bookshare Reader is that the student’s reading position syncs across devices. Therefore, if a student reads on a Chromebook at school, and then logs in on a smartphone or tablet at home, they can pick up exactly where they left off.

AT Partner Tools

Bookshare has built relationships with many AT companies to ensure that our members can read books in ways that work for them. Below are two examples of tools commonly used in schools.

Dolphin Easy Reader is an app that can read Bookshare books on Chromebooks, Windows PC, and on mobile devices. Easy Reader has both a free and paid version. To use Easy Reader, you must first download the Easy Reader app onto your device. Learn more about reading Bookshare books with Dolphin Easy Reader

Read & Write from Texthelp is a literacy tool that can read Bookshare books through an extension on supported web browsers. It has various features and tools that can support a student in both reading and writing and has a free and paid version. Learn more about reading Bookshare books with Read & Write.