Do I Qualify for Bookshare?

If you find it difficult to process or comprehend printed words, see text in books or on a screen, or physically manage books or reading devices, Bookshare may be able to help. To join Bookshare, an expert, or Competent Authority, must confirm that you have a qualifying condition that significantly interferes with your ability to read or process printed text. Such conditions include:

Learning Disabilities such as dyslexia that significantly interfere with reading standard print. For students, a need for reading accommodations or a diagnosed Specific Learning Disability (SLD) could be indicators of this qualifying condition.

  • Competent Authorities include school or district personnel such as resource, AT, learning disability, or dyslexia specialists; special education teachers, librarians, school psychologists; clinical psychologists with background in learning disabilities; and medical practitioners such as family doctors, psychiatrists, neurologists, etc.
  • Membership in Learning Ally or a similar body outside the U.S. also serves as certification of eligibility.

Visual Impairments such as blindness, low vision, macular degeneration, and other types of vision loss that require enlarged font, audiobooks, or braille.

  • Competent Authorities include school and district personnel such as teachers of the visually impaired or special education teachers; medical professionals such as ophthalmologists, optometrists, family doctors; other authorities such as AT specialists, rehabilitation counselors, etc.
  • Membership in Learning Ally or the National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, or a similar body outside the U.S., also serves as certification of eligibility.

Physical Disabilities that make it difficult to hold a book, turn pages, move head, or physically manage a book or the act of reading a book in the way that someone without such a condition would.

  • Competent Authorities include school or district personnel such as resource specialists or special education teachers; specialists such as physical therapists, rehabilitation counselors; or medical professionals such as a family doctors, other medical professionals, etc.
  • Membership in Learning Ally or the National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, or a similar body outside the U.S., also serves as certification of eligibility.

For more information on Bookshare qualifications, read these frequently asked qualifications questions.