Bookshare

Bookshare is a way for students who have qualifying print disabilities to access copyrighted text (books, textbooks, and newspapers) in electronic form through an exception in U.S. copyright law and is funded through the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs. For students to qualify for the service they need to provide documented proof of a visual impairment, physical disability, or learning disabilities that are severe enough to affect the student’s ability to read print. Documentation by a professional qualified to determine the disability and its connection to the student’s inability in reading print is what is required to qualify for the service.
Only qualified individuals can access the copyrighted material free of charge. In my investigation I found that a school or agency that serves students with qualifying disabilities can sign up and list their students on a roster. However there is a fee involved, $300 and up, for the school or agency. Then the school or agency can direct the student in getting the material and use it accordingly. I was excited until I found this information, our small school budget will not allow us to make this commitment at this time. I can and plan to direct some of my students through the process of signing up.
I can see this as beneficial for my students who range from early to advanced readers. I believe this allows the student with print disabilities to access the premium content and manipulate it ways they can use it better, either by enlarging the print or by using a text-to-speech program that they can read along with. Now the free text to speech programs that are out there, including the program that is embedded into my MacBook Pro, are a little choppy in their presentation and I am a little concerned that the halted pronunciations might throw off my students. I know programs that you can pay for, often at considerable prices, have much more real sounding voices and I believe that would be preferable if I had the budget to purchase them.
If cost was not a consideration I would be using Bookshare, coupled with a premium text to speech, almost solely because of the extensive library of copyrighted material the students can access in ways that allows them to really interact with the text as opposed to struggling to get through the standard formats.
Helpful and informative site about Bookshare here.