Learn the basics of Accessible Instructional Materials and how to use Bookshare as an educational institutional

1. I can DO this!

2.  specialized formats of curricular content that
can be used by and with learners who are
unable to read or use standard print materials
 They include formats such as braille, audio,
large print, and digital text
 Can be accessed using computers, mp3
players, smart phones and specialized
Adapted from http://aim.cast.org/

3.  It’s the law! IDEA 2004 Part B: assistance for
education of all children with disabilities,
sections 612(a)(23)(A) and 674(e)(4)
 Additional regulations were approved and
passed in 2008 requiring all textbook
publishers to make textbooks available in an
accessible format using NIMAS
 NIMAS stands for National Instructional

4. For students with sensory, physical, cognitive,
or learning differences and their teachers,
accessible instructional materials open doors
to teaching and learning that ordinary print-
based materials have closed.

5. Jessica Pinto, Bookshare member

6.  Autism
 Deaf-Blindness
 Deafness
 Developmental Delay
 Emotional Disturbance
 Hearing Impaired
 Intellectual Disabilities
 Multiple Disabilities
 Orthopedic Impairment
 Other Health Impairment
 Specific Learning Disability
Taken from www.nichcy.org/disabilities

7. http://aim.cast.org/learn/accessiblemedia/allaboutaim/how

8.  Bookshare.org
◦ Organizational membership allows districts to offer
accounts to teachers
 Teachers can then download materials for students
 Any student registered in that district can also request
a free individual membership
 This allows for access to both instructional materials and
Materials download in DAISY format; open in Mac or Windows using a
literature for pleasure reading
free version of Read:OutLoud which incorporated computerized voice and
visual scanning of text

9.  Recordings for the Blind & Dyslexic
◦ Organizational memberships allow for a certain
number of free yearly downloads, with tiered
pricing plans after that
 Sign up teachers to download materials for students,
or sign up students to grant students access to
download their’ own materials
 All materials are audio-only and human-voice
recorded; no visual text to scan & read along
 Can be played on a Mac, Windows or specialized player

10.  Find Books
How to search and browse the Bookshare library.
 Download Books
Information about downloading Bookshare books
 Read Books
Options for reading downloaded Bookshare books,
software, hardware and Braille as well as information about
embossing options.
 Reading Tools

11.  Search for Books
◦ Search all text, including the title, author and contents of
every book in the library, quickly and efficiently
 Quick Search
◦ For a streamlined search page that works well with
screen readers, log in to Bookshare and click Quick
Search in the blue bar at the top of the page
 Standard Search
◦ For standard search, just type a word or phrase
in the search field at the top of any page. All

12.  Advanced Search
◦ narrow your results by searching for any of the items
below. The results contain only the books that match
ALL of the criteria. For example: entering “Wuthering” in
the Title field and “Bronte” in the Author field will return
“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte.
 Title
 Author
 ISBN
 Language: English, Spanish
(There are books in other languages, but they are not
searchable by language at this time—Dutch, French, German,
Italian, Portuguese.)

13.  Browse Collection
◦ Authors
◦ Categories
◦ New books
◦ NIMAC-sourced K-12 textbooks
◦ Special Collections
◦ Newspapers and Magazines

14. Bookshare: Downloading Books
 Choose your book format
 DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System)
This format is used for many devices and software
applications, such as Victor Reader Soft Bookshare Edition and
READ:OutLoud Bookshare Edition.
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15. Bookshare: Downloading Books
 Books are downloaded per student and
watermarked with that student’s name to
ensure copyright and qualification standards
are met.
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16. Bookshare: Downloading Books
 Confirm Download, including choosing a
password for this book
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17. Downloading Books
 Once you’ve confirmed who will receive the
book, Bookshare formats it and creates a zip
file for you to download to your computer
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18.  Bookshare books are downloaded in the standard
zip compressed format, and need to be
“unzipped” before you can read the books
◦ Select the .zip book file.
◦ Choose Extract All from the File menu. If you can’t find
your book, see the FAQ about where different browsers
store downloaded books.

19.  Finding your book on a Mac using Safari
◦ Downloads on a Mac are generally stored in “Finder”
under “Downloads” – check with your Technology
Department if you don’t know where downloads are
stored
 Unzip the file using Unarchiver – it’s free
online. Check with your Technology
Department to make sure your computer has
a way to unzip filesSelect the .zip book file.

20.  Open the book using the free DAISY
Bookshare edition of Read:OutLoud
 The latest Macintosh operating system,
Leopard (OSX 10.5) features a built-in screen
reader called VoiceOver. Members without
other DAISY software can use VoiceOver and
Safari to read Bookshare’s files saved with an

21. Bookshare: Reading
 Software for Macintosh® computers
◦ READ:OutLoud Bookshare Edition by Don Johnston This DAISY
reader is designed specifically for people with learning disabilities.
It is not recommended for use with screen readers. This software
features high-quality text-to-speech for multi-modal reading,
spotlighting, note-taking and other study skill features, an online
dictionary, and more. For additional information, visit the Don
Johnston website.
Read:OutLoud Bookshare edition is currently compatible with Mac
OS 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard. Bookshare is working to make
the software compatible with Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. If you
would like to be notified when this is ready, please provide your
name and email to the notification list.
• Download READ:OutLoud
• Read:OutLoud Bookshare Edition 30-Minute Tutorial
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22.  First open Finder
 Then open the unzipped folder containing the
files necessary to read the book
 Locate the file with the “.xml” extension
Text
 Right click {press ‘control’ and the mouse}
 Select “Get Info”
 In the “Name and Extension” section, change
the name to “booktitle.htm” read in Pages, opened
HTML files can be
in iBooks on an iPad or read in Safari

23. Overwhelmed? We Can Help!
ALLTech at
400 Riverside Street Suite A4
Portland, ME 04103
Phone: 207-321-6080 x114
Fax: 888-748-4043
Email: info@alltech-tsi.org
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