Bookshare: Providing Accessible Materials for Students with Print Disabilities

Assessment

Take some time now to answer the following questions. Please note that the IRIS Center does not collect your Assessment responses. If this is a course assignment, you should turn them in to your professor using whatever method they require. If you have difficulty responding, go back and review the Perspectives & Resources pages in this module.

1. Describe print disabilities. Be sure to include at least three difficulties that students with print disabilities may experience when they encounter printed materials.

2.  A high school language arts teacher discovers she will have two new students with print disabilities in her class: one student with low vision who has difficulty reading traditional print materials and another student with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that impacts their ability to process and retain written information. The teacher worries about being able to meet their learning needs due to the extensive reading requirements of her class. For each student:
   1. List the AEM format(s) offered by Bookshare that can help reduce or eliminate their learning barriers.
   2. Explain why each format will address their needs.

3.  Imagine you are discussing Bookshare with a new teacher who has multiple students that struggle with decoding and reading fluency. He is unfamiliar with Bookshare and is worried that adding it as a support will:
   • Increase his workload
   • Overwhelm students who already struggle with reading
   • Reduce the academic rigor for some students compared to others

   Formulate a response to this teacher that:

   1. Addresses each of his concerns
   2. Describes at least two ways Bookshare can benefit him and two ways it can benefit his students

4. Marcus, an eighth-grade student with a learning disability, has difficulty reading traditional printed materials. He seems disengaged when required to read printed text and turns in many incomplete reading assignments. Marcus’s teacher observes that when he listens to audio recordings while following along with printed text, he is more likely to comprehend the readings and complete his assignments with confidence. As a result, she decides to introduce Marcus to Bookshare. With Marcus’s needs in mind, discuss the following.
   1. Which Bookshare membership(s) should Marcus have? Justify your response.
   2. List three ways Marcus’s teacher can support him with using Bookshare.
   3. List two ways that his teacher could incorporate Bookshare into daily classroom activities to support comprehension.
   4. How might Bookshare promote Marcus’s learner agency?