​​​​​​ Looking for a personalized “use anywhere” accommodation for distance learning reading-related challenges? Bookshare is the world's largest online library of ebooks for people with reading barriers. Job Corps students with qualifying disabilities can get FREE ebooks from Bookshare. With Bo​okshare, members can listen to their book, follow along with highlighted text, read in braille, and customize their experience in ways that make reading on their own easier. See the Bookshare Flyer​ for more details.​

Bookshare Features and Accessibility
  • Dedicated Job Corps library with Job Corps’ most commonly used textbooks, study guides, and career resources such as TABE Fundamentals for Reading and Math, GED Prep, career technical books for Job Corps Health Occupations, Homeland Security, Welding, Retail, and career transition topics.
  • Over 1 million titles, including textbooks, technical books, career advancement, bestsellers, college prep, newspapers, magazines, and more.
  • Tools for distance learning, including free reading apps for computers/laptops, tablets, and Apple/Android mobile devices. ​
  • Free support and training to help you get started using Bookshare.
Bookshare also provides a demonstration account for Disability Coordinators to learn how to use Bookshare and support Job Corps students.

A professional with appropriate expertise, like a Disability Coordinator, must certify that a Job Corps student qualifies. Learn more about who qualifies. Bookshare can benefit students who cannot read printed text due to dyslexia, blindness, low vision, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers. Accessibility features include:

Students with Visual Impairments:
  • Books using a text-to-speech synthesized voice​
  • Books in Braille
  • Materials in large print
Students with Physical Disabilities:
  • Books on a computer or a variety of portable devices
  • Visual and text-to-speech as desired
  • Easy or easier to access than books on tape
  • May be controlled with an individual's "single-switch" or other adaptive technology
Students with Learning Disabilities:
  • Full text of books in digital format
  • Multi-modal reading with both visual and audio (through synthetic text to speech)
  • Software programs are free to download that provide a large range of reading support
  • Tools designed specifically for learning disabilities
  • Highlighting of text as it is read aloud, changing margin, word, paragraph and line spacing
  • Custom background and print colors
Job Corps Dedicated Library Collection

In an effort to build a Job Corps dedicated library that contains recent edition textbooks most often used by Job Corps centers, center staff may consider donating textbooks that are currently being used in academic or career technical training classrooms to populate this dedicated library. We only need one of each title. Book conversions typically take one to three months to be digitized, proofread, and placed into the library. Once the textbook is available in Bookshare, it becomes available to all qualified Job Corps students with print disabilities who would benefit from audio books.

​ Creating a Bookshare Organizational Membership
A Bookshare organizational membership is free to all Job Corps centers who apply. In order to access books or reading tools, each center must complete the application process.

Bookshare recognizes center Disability Coordinators as the "qualified professional" to be the primary account holder for a membership and qualify student eligibility by certifying that the student health record and or accommodation folder contains the appropriate documentation.

To start the process, the initial application (as shown below) should be completed by the center Disability Coordinator. The organizational membership application is located at: https://www.bookshare.org/signUpOrganization. An Organization Agreement will must be submitted by the Disability Coordinator in order to activate the membership https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/how-can-i-submit-my-organization-agreement-remotely.

After completing the initial application, Bookshare will send a welcome email with further instructions.
Get Started!
  1. Log in to your account on Bookshare’s homepage with your email address. Select “Forgot Password” if you have forgotten or have not yet set a password.
  2. Add qualified students.
  3. Add other instructors as Sponsors if needed.
  4. Assign books.
  5. Help students select a reading tool, explain to them how they can acc​e​ss ​their assigned books, and help them understand how to read their books​.
You can also download the Bookshare How-to ​G​uide​​​, for step by step instructions to get started with Bookshare.

Note that students can only read books that have been assigned to them by their instructors. To allow students to select their own books and to retain their membership after separating from the center, Bookshare encourages Disability Coordinators to assist their students in upgrading to a free Individual Membership.

Webinars
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