Beginner's Guide?

[Samuel Cohen]

Is there a beginner's guide to bookshare that I just haven't found yet?  We just signed my son up, and I'm at a loss as to what to do next.  He's visually impaired, with a significant print disability.  He can see well enough to navigate an ipad - and I'd like to be able to download books onto that.  He also really hates the mechanical voice.  Does anyone have any advice?  Do I have to download an app?  Dolphin something?  I'm so confused -any help or advice would be hugely appreciated.  

[Amy Ratajczak]

Hi Samuel:  There are two ways to read Bookshare books on an iPad:  1) use the directions below to get a downloaded ebook into iBooks and use the built in text to speech that's provided in an iPad (really nice voices), or 2) download an app that connects to Bookshare and use the app to read the books:  Dolphin EasyReader or  VoiceDream Reader are my two favorites.  Either way you are "reading" with synthesized speech, which is not a true voice, but you'd be amazed at how our brains adapt, especially when we can't see the books well anyways!  Text to speech gets better and better every year.  (I'm partial to Australian male voices).  Let me know if you need directions to the apps:)

https://www.bookshare.org/cms/help-center/can-i-open-book-ibooks

[Jerri Partee]

Hi Samuel,

I would suggest visiting our Reading Tool Wizard to determine what tool will best fit the need for your son to get started using the Bookshare service. Unfortunately, Bookshare books only contain digital text (unless you download the title as Audio version which is an MP3 file format) but several of the tools will allow you to change the voice and some will even allow you to purchase additional ones for use.

[Eddie]

Hi, I just was able to add a really nice/clear voice to my (Windows10) computer - I changed it to my default 'speech to text' voice, and it's available as my default voice in the BookShare Webreader!  These are the directions I followed (except on step 11 I choose not to install the suggested Process Hacker or Process Explorer and instead just found the registry key names using 'registry editor'/already on Windows10):

Directions (not written by me, I just found online): https://superuser.com/questions/1141840/how-to-enable-microsoft-eva-cortanas-voice-on-windows-10#1141841