1. Bookshare: Books without Barriers December 2011

2. Why Do Students Need Books that Are Digital And Accessible? 2

3. Forces Shaping Today’s Digital Book Landscape  Education Law (IDEA 2004)  Popular/Consumer Culture  Copyright Law  Publishers’ Interests’  Students’ Needs 3

4. Pertinent Education Laws  The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 2004 states that public agencies must provide timely access to appropriate and accessible instructional materials to ensure that FAPE [Free Appropriate Public Education] is available for children with disabilities and that they participate in the general education curriculum as specified in their IEPs. (Section § 300.172(b)(3))  Requires use of “specialized formats”  Created the NIMAC (National Instructional Materials Access Center) as a repository for AIM  Defined NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard) as a standardized master format 4

5. What are Accessible Instructional Materials ? Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) are specialized formats of curricular content that can be used by and with learners with print disabilities. The specialized formats include: 5 Braille Audio Large Print Digital Text

6. 6 Influence of Consumer Culture Today’s learners are digital learners! The “iGeneration” has never known a world without cell phones and the Internet!

7. 7 Why Digital Books?  Dynamic, interactive, engaging, current content  Anytime, anywhere learning  Better outcomes for students  Reduced cost

8. Digital Books Are Here to Stay!  73% of school administrators, 53% of teachers say the textbook is becoming a thing of the past.  Over 2/3 of educators say at least 60% of classroom instruction will involve interactive and e-learning methods by 2015. Nearly 1/3 believe it will be as much as 80% or higher. From a study conducted by the Association of Educational Publishers, Spring 2010 8

9. Digital Books Are Here to Stay!  Students’ desire for online textbooks now exceeds their desire for laptops. 59% said online textbooks should be part of their ultimate school and would have a positive impact on learning (56% for laptops)  “The industry has turned a corner and is ready to let print become what it should be – a supplemental resource.” Association of Educational Publishers, Spring 2010 9

10. 10 There’s a Whole Lotta Digital Out There!  Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Educational Publishers, Google books, Audible, Bookshare  Choices include HTML, PDF, ePub, mp3  Access, download, purchase online But…..

11. PDFs, websites, particularly with lots of graphical content, Kindle 11 Does Digital Always=Accessible?  Meet DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem)  Meet BRF (Braille Ready Format)

12. Benefits of Digital AND Accessible Books  Support compliance with IDEA 2004 requiring timely access to accessible materials for qualified students  Provide access to the general curriculum for students with print disabilities

13. Benefits of Digital AND Accessible Books, cont.  Help create the Least Restrictive Environment for students with print disabilities  Provide tools that support UDL  Reduce costs associated with SpEd, accommodations, etc.  Books, memberships, training all FREE  No need to scan or copy books 13

14. Introducing…Bookshare! 14

15. 15 Free, Digital, and Accessible  Bookshare ® is an online library of accessible media for readers with print disabilities.  +170,000 Members  +10,000 schools and other organizations  +133,000 titles  + 2,000 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 10/01/2011

16. What Makes Bookshare Possible?  Legal basis: Operates under the Chafee Amendment to U.S. Copyright Law  http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/factsheets/copyright.html  Financial basis: Funded by award from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Dept of Education 16

17. What Bookshare Offers  Digital books for individuals with print disabilities  FREE memberships for qualified U.S. students through OSEP award 17  FREE assistive technology software  Compatibility with a variety of assistive technology

18. The Bookshare Library  Textbooks  +3,200 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 175 publisher partnerships  270 nat’l/reg’l newspapers/magazines As of December 2011 Bookshare is committed to high-quality books. Please report any quality issues on the book download page. 18

19. 19 Need More Help?  Utilize NEW Online Support Center under “Help” Tab  Submit Questions to Bookshare using “Contact Us”  Select the appropriate category under “My question is about”  Provide details of the help that you need  Include your name and contact information  The appropriate member of the Bookshare team will address your question promptly!