Bookshare & RFB&D Memberships – Free!
Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic
Everyone should know about these free memberships made available through grants by the US Department of Education – Office of Special Education. I often find people are not aware of Bookshare and Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic, both wonderful, free services for individuals with print disabilities. Here is a quick lowdown of the services and links to the websites and membership information.
Bookshare.org – Bookshare provides books and periodicals for indivdiduals with print disabilities. Bookshare is free to all US students with a qualifying disability. Bookshare provides a free membership to K-12 US school districts through a grant from the OSEP. Bookshare provides a searchable data base of books by author, title which are available in different print or formats. It does not provide audio files. Individual memberships and organizational memberships are available. Check the membership qualifications through this link:
Bookshare Membership Options – Find information on how to become a member, who is eligible through this link.
Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D.org) – Provides accessible materials to individual with visual and learning disabilities. From trade to text books RFB&D provides access to electronic and audiobooks to individual who qualify as print disabled. Free individual memberships are available to those who qualify, memberships to schools and educators are on a fee basis. RFB&D provides a searchable digital audio catalog to see what books and resources they have available. Samples are available on their website to experience the quality of their product.
RFB&D Membership Information – Find information on individual, school and educator through this link.
And what is a “Print Disability”? That is another web blog posting or two! Check on each organization’s website for their qualifications.
If you are interested in what qualifies as a Print Disability more indepth information can be found at Cast’s Accessible Instructional Materials website.
Accessible reading for everyone!!
Carol
AT 4 Education Blog 