Yay!, I got #Bookshare! I now have it on my Sense Player, awesome!

Lol, I've been waiting more than 5 days for #Bookshare to see if I'm blind based on my Bard subscription so I can buy Bookshare. I figured it would take less time than this, but nope.

I was hoping to get #Bookshare next month but I don't think that is likely unless this check debacle resolves. The thing is they communicate with me and without any resolution they go silent and it feels like pulling teeth. I know they are busy, but I'm not the one that messed up the address and even if they sent them here, I would have got them! I even emailed office on the offhand chance the mail carrier left them there, but nope. I wonder if they sent them to the old address

It’s always fun for me to discover historical things I never knew about. Recently I learned of the incident in 1975 when the Australian Governor General essentially fired the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam. I don’t remember ever seeing anything even referring to this before. Gough Whitlam wrote a book about it, The Truth Of The Matter, and joy of joys, #Bookshare has it. I’m more or less clueless about how things work in Commonwealth countries. For instance, I knew there was such a thing as a Governor General, I know #Canada has one, but I always assumed it was more or less symbolic. @Bruce can you maybe help me out here? Is it possible for someone to swoop in and fire Mark Carney?

@georgepenney My pleasure as soon as I can I intend to purchase the Ebook version too. I didn't share it because I was trying to avoid purchasing I just wanted to clarify that. But #Bookshare is a great resource for many indeed.

I'm in a bit of a state of mourning today. I have discovered that I can no longer convert my #Bookshare books into text files that I can read on my PC with my Braille display in the way I've done it for over a decade. I used to do it like this: I'd download the book from Bookshare to my PC. I'd unzip the zip file and access the XML file within the folder. It used to be that this file presented itself as a webpage using Internet Explorer. I'd select and copy all text, paste into a file, and voila! A text file I could read on my PC. A while ago XML files began presenting in Microsoft Edge, and it looked like a completely blank file. However, there was an option to open in Internet
Explorer mode, and it showed up as it always had. Now, though, even that has gone away. So now I'm scrambling to find ways to read Bookshare books on my Braille display. #VoiceDream is great, and I make extensive use of it, but there's nothing like actually reading a book in Braille. If anyone has any ideas, I'm listening. I will say that I have found reading books via my iPhone is problematic for me, as every time I get a notification it interrupts the reading. Any help in this endeavor would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your attention...oh, never mind.

@ablade Yay for #Bookshare.

@Thumper1964 @DavidGoldfield Agreed and some States offer it at no cost through their Library for the #Blind. Who knows how long that'll last but thought I'd mention it in case some weren't aware. I've been a #Bookshare member since long about 2003 I believe.

@robini71 @DavidGoldfield I use #Bookshare a whole lot for pleasure reading. It’s hard to understand why more people don’t use it this way; I mean, #Audible and #Bard are wonderful, but for me, at least, Bookshare is the third leg of a three-legged book accessibility stool. I know the $79.99 annual price tag might seem daunting to some, but in my humble view the available content makes it more than pay for itself.

So, seems many are voting audio all the way makes me wonder who is using #Bookshare and for what purposes just education or anyone using them for pleasure reading.

Bookshare is at Closing the Gap Conference this week! Meet us at Booth 110.

Bookshare is the world’s largest library of ebooks for people who read differently. The collection has over 1.3 million titles and empowers tens of thousands of people who cannot read traditional books due to disabilities like blindness, low vision, and dyslexia.

#CTG2025 #Bookshare #AssistiveTechnology #A11y

@baxaphobia Thanksfor the memory jog. I’ve been meaning to read Me Talk Pretty One Day forever. I’m pretty sure #Bookshare has it.

Reposting this since the groups went down, some Of this is available in #Braille, or in audio, on #BookShare and/ #NLSBard

https://www.goodreads.com/dhamlinmusic

@bookstodon @main @mastoblind #Blind #Reading #VisuallyImpaired

#Benetech is hiring a Senior UI/UX Product Designer for their #Bookshare and Bookshare Plus products: https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=223205&clientkey=826D80A7D25FCF45C6D864B22F38D060https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=223205&clientkey=826D80A7D25FCF45C6D864B22F38D060

@bobonbooks As a person who is blind, I can say without any equivocation that digital technologies have been an overwhelmingly positive development for me. Back in the day, meaning up to maybe 30 years ago, my reading options were severely limited. If I learned of a newly released book I wanted to read, I had to wait and see if the National Library Service For The Blind would make it available in Braille or audio, and even then I’d have to wait for usually a year or more for it to come out. Now that there are services like #Bookshare where I can usually find and download new book releases in accessible format, and Kindle, which is also accessible to me, I often feel like a kid in a candy store.

@Mendi_Tech Not sure i'd ever hang my life on things like astrology and numerology for instance but I do think there's wisdom to be had there. There's a lady who offers a numerology calendar with sunny symbols on dates that correspond to an individual's numbers. I so wish she could make this available in an accessible format. Whenever I've gone by dates that match me so help me things go better. No word of a lie. She even has a book on #Bookshare.

@bookshare @DavidGoldfield @nationsblind Sorry not to see #Bookshare at #ACB25 this year. Also sorry to see many exhibitors leave #ACB25 after only a few days. I guess that’s what happens when both conventions are during the same week.

In other news, Herald Petrel is now available on Bookshare for those who are members of the service.
Thank you to @Fragglemuppet for pointing me to it! I think @WeirdWriter you were interested as well?

https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/6527411

#WritingCommunity #Accessibility #HeraldPetrel #Books #bookstodon #Bookshare #bookshareUsers

If the upcoming #Bookshare website changes are better for me, I'll definitely budget for it if it hasn't been priced outside my abilities. If not it'll take a while to save up, but I'd use it a lot more if they either went back to the simpler layout or offered that option for those who need it directly from the home page.

I can't really find anything anymore on #Bookshare They used to be so easy for me to navigate but you can't get list view until after you actually find something. It's an additional reason why I spend more of my time on NLS - I don't have to navigate through a layout that feels so focused on sight from my perspective- it's aggravating every time they change it making it harder for me to find what I want- just give me the categories in a standard list. Tbc