Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 29, 2010

I talk a lot about how technology can help create tremendous educational opportunities for students with print disabilities. Steffon Middleton and Jessica Pinto have both mastered the art of searching and downloading Bookshare’s accessible texts. Because the Bookshare collection is free to qualified U.S.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 10, 2011

Benetech got a call recently from an excited Bookshare member who had been waiting to download our new Read2Go accessible e-book application for Apple devices. In addition to being a Bookshare member, Maria is a book scanner and volunteer proofreader. Ltd which is known for its PLEXTALK® brand of digital talking book players.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

People with disabilities like blindness, visual impairment, dyslexia, physical limitations and returning vets with brain injuries -- anyone who cannot simply pick up a printed book and read it. The nonprofit Benetech team built the revolutionary Bookshare library for this community, all online, and based on the powerfully flexible ebook.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

If you can buy a book, you can’t borrow it. Marrakesh is intended to end the book famine for people who can’t read regular books because of their disability. Libraries for people who are blind or dyslexic are the primary source of accessible books in audio, large print or braille.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Benetech’s Bookshare library continues to expand its international service providing accessible books and publications to members in more than 30 countries. Benetech looks forward to working with all these groups to provide the latest books, especially textbooks (primarily in English). ?These

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

Bookshare: Solving the “Accessible Book Famine” Twelve years ago, we had an idea for recreating the traditional library for people with print disabilities—such as those who are blind, cannot physically turn the pages of a book, or have learning disabilities, like dyslexia—using the then-emerging technologies of digital books and crowdsourcing.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 15, 2012

Benetech’s Bookshare library is living proof that real, transformative change happens through partnerships and by helping people unleash their talents and energies. We blew up the old approaches to converting inaccessible books into accessible equivalents. With support from the Bookshare community, we changed that reality.

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Bloomerang

MAY 6, 2022

Their priorities range from facilitating book donation drives to supporting arts education to funding playground construction and family literacy programs. . The Lisa Libraries. First Book. They focus funding on organizations that work on financial literacy for elementary and high school students (established programs only).

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

For example, our Bookshare online library for the blind, uses several different social enterprises to do data entry and proofreading work on textbooks. The DDD student staff people work half days at DDD, proofing textbooks to make them accessible to students with print disabilities. We scan the books in the U.S.,

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

I’m thrilled to share with you some of the recent amazing impact of Bookshare , a Benetech Global Literacy initiative and the largest accessible online library of copyrighted content for people with print disabilities. These milestones represent a giant leap forward in the number of students and individuals we serve.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

The goal of the Treaty is to make a copyright exception for the blind and other people with disabilities that stop them from reading print, and to make import and export of accessible content legal. My core point: Don’t put up bureaucratic barriers to access. The biggest challenge for access is that it’s expensive.

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Tech Soup

JANUARY 4, 2012

highlights how apps can help libraries connect with patrons and provide services in new ways. Many libraries accomplish this by. creating standalone apps or a mobile-friendly website and library. inspire libraries (and nonprofits!) Engaging with Library (and Other) Collections. scanner, and Internet access.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 16, 2011

The goal of the DIAGRAM R&D Center is to greatly improve access to graphical information for students with print disabilities (for example, helping blind students get access to important graphics inside textbooks). We are also building a content model for making images more accessible.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2015

Twelve years ago, the Fund made its first grant to Benetech, in support of the then newly launched Bookshare , our accessible online library for people with disabilities that get in the way of reading print, including visual impairments and dyslexia. Even in the United States, this was true of probably a quarter of our student users.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Bookshare and our other Access to Literacy initiatives, including the DIAGRAM Center and Route 66 Literacy, all made big strides this year through the significant dedication of the community that makes it all happen. At the close of 2012, we are five years into our work in education and are serving over 230,000 students.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 27, 2014

“They get frustrated and don’t want to read,” she says, “but access to digital books and reading technologies changed all that for Zach.” Zach Bryant The change happened when Zach was in high school and his Assistive Technology teacher introduced him to Benetech’s Bookshare library. Thank you for your support!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 4, 2015

Tomorrow is an exciting day for our Bookshare online library for students with dyslexia or visual impairments. We love reading, and we know how important being able to read a book is to educational and employment opportunity.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2012

Bookshare, Benetech’s pioneering digital library for people with print disabilities, celebrated its 10th birthday last night with a terrific party that was attended by many of our long-time friends and supporters. I can feel it all over, it’s a hit!” said Stevie. Thanks Stevie! We think so too. TV Raman (and Tilden) T.V.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 16, 2013

You see, several months later, the federal Department of Education challenged us to compete against a well-respected national nonprofit 60 times our size in a bid to provide accessible educational materials for US students who are blind, dyslexic, or otherwise print disabled. million contract to do just that.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

For them, Bookshare —Benetech’s Global Literacy initiative and the world’s largest accessible digital library for people with print disabilities—opens up a lifeline to reading. SEChallenge a11y accessibility Bookshare crowdfunding CrowdRise Huffington Post print disabilities Reading Skoll Foundation veterans'

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 3, 2011

One of these sub-themes is “Accessibility: removing barriers and promoting disability-inclusive development.” Of course, accessibility is right up Benetech’s alley and the focus of our Literacy program. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 3, 2013

Betsy Beaumon I recently had the honor to speak at the first-ever Braille Summit , hosted on June 19-21, 2013 by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) and Perkins School for the Blind. Guest Beneblog by Betsy Beaumon, VP and General Manager, Benetech’s Global Literacy Program. Accordingly, U.S.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2014

Technology currently serves privileged groups through tools that provide access to education, literacy, health, and justice. Our Bookshare online library is continuing to multiply its impact. And we do this at a per-book cost less than one-tenth of the traditional approaches! But what about everybody else?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

We have been helping blind and print disabled people gain access to books for over 17 years. Two recent experiences underscored different parts of this struggle to deliver access. These machines scanned books and read them aloud with a computer voice. The second challenge we encountered took place in Washington D.C.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

This reality changed when Frank found out about Benetech’s Bookshare accessible digital library for people with print disabilities. Suddenly I had thousands upon thousands of books available to me,” he says, “at a price I could afford, in a format I could read independently. And the best part? I began a reading binge.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 10, 2014

Braille books saved her from isolation and she became an insatiable reader. However, she soon encountered the frustrating “accessible book famine” because very few books available were available in Braille. Sophia and her family were left confused and concerned about her future in the classroom.

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Tech Soup

MARCH 5, 2014

Pottsboro Area Library in Texas. We of course got lots of great stories, and our winner is the Pottsboro Area Library. When librarian Dianne Connery came to the library a few years ago, she found a classic small town library situated in a converted post office building with the requisite institutional green paint job.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

Benetech's largest social enterprise is the Bookshare online library for people who are blind or otherwise disabled when it comes to reading print. The deal was: help people with disabilities that can't access books and don't hurt the economic interests of the publishers (and authors). copyright law. Department of Education).

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

I was delighted when Ron Schultz invited me to collaborate with him on his latest book Creating Good Work – The World’s Leading Social Entrepreneurs Show How to Build a Healthy Economy. I look forward to continuing the conversation the book has opened. Converting and delivering these accessible books was expensive and time consuming.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 20, 2015

She runs a for-profit social enterprise named Daproim that provides data entry services using disadvantaged students as their primary workforce. Samasource connected us with Daproim in Nairobi to proofread books for our Bookshare project. Daproim has more than 7600 applications from Kenyan students who want to work there.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2008

This is a guest blog from Anna Reid, an Amherst student who interned with Bookshare.org International this past summer. A related, but slightly different and less recognized issue, is the fact that people with disabilities such as blindness often have limited access to printed materials, even if they are well-educated.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 20, 2013

He started Computerized Books for the Blind the year before we started Benetech, and became one of our earliest partners. Even back then, we included information about his service in the box of each Arkenstone Reader because we knew people would rather not have to scan a book before reading it! We hope you’ll join us on this journey.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 8, 2011

With our Read2Go app, Bookshare members can now search, download and read Bookshare books and periodicals on their iPad, iPhone and iPod touch devices. We’re thrilled that students and other readers who have disabilities that keep them from reading standard print can now read the same books as their peers, using the same devices.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 8, 2009

We just announced: Encyclopaedia Britannica Grants Digital Rights to Bookshare -- Major Reference Collections Now Accessible for Individuals with Print Disabilities Worldwide. We have already gotten close on trade books: juvenile and teen literature. We're working very hard on textbooks.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 10, 2013

million downloads of accessible books through its online library, to over 200,000 people with disabilities such as blindness and severe dyslexia. We don’t know if the student ever gets past Chapter 1. Second, Bookshare , a social enterprise operated by Benetech, last year processed requests for more than 1.3

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JUNE 11, 2013

Stanford University lecturer Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen teaches students at Stanford about how to master philanthropy. The author of the book, Giving 2.0 , has just released all her teaching notes and syllabi, along with philanthropy library. I first heard Laura speak when she launched her book , Giving 2.0,

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 7, 2010

An Insider Reveals How the Latest Hot Books Are Added to Bookshare’s Collection of Accessible Titles A Guest Beneblog by Liz Halperin After working for many years as a volunteer for Bookshare, I became a paid proofreader for the collection about two years ago. Since I was there to witness it, I want to tell you how it happens.

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