Bookshare Reader 4+
Read and listen to books
Benetech
Designed for iPad
-
- Free
Screenshots
Description
Listen to books and read your way!
Get the official Bookshare Reader app. Access millions of ebooks from Bookshare, the world's
largest library of ebooks for people with reading barriers like dyslexia, blindness, low vision, and
physical disabilities. Listen to books in high quality audio and customize your reading
experience in ways that work for you. Read bestsellers, new releases, textbooks and
educational books, children’s books, young adult, mysteries, biographies, and more.
Read your way with these customizable features:
• Listen to books in high quality audio
• Adjust reading speed, font size, and colors
• Follow along with highlighted text
• Navigate by page and chapter
• Stop reading and pick up from your last spot
• Download books and read offline
To use Bookshare Reader, you must have a Bookshare membership. Learn more by visiting the Bookshare website.
What’s New
Version 1.23.0
“My Library” Updates:
- Updated Button Label: The "Recent books" label is now "My History" for improved clarity.
- VoiceOver Enhancements: The button now announces "My History button" or "Downloads button" correctly. Upon selection, it indicates the "Bookshelf" heading, enhancing navigation.
- Visual Indicators: Added a checkmark icon to indicate the selected option, with VoiceOver support for better accessibility. Also, the "My History" or "Downloads" button now includes a chevron icon to show it's clickable.
Reading Experience Improvements:
- VoiceOver Enhancement: Eliminated the unnecessary "book loaded" announcement for a smoother experience.
- VoiceOver Enhancement: Fixed issue where tabs under "Book Navigation" were being announced twice, now providing a seamless navigation experience.
“Discover” Updates:
- Users can now pull down to refresh their recommendations list, making it easier to find new content.
Other Bug Fixes & Enhancements:
- Resolved an issue where some books were not playing.
- AirPods Functionality: Improved Bluetooth performance—audio will pause if an AirPod is removed, both in-app and on the lock screen.
Ratings and Reviews
Promising but needs work
The Bookshare Reader app is a good start but it needs work, especially in navigation. If I stop reading for a few minutes, and then go back, I often get a blank white page. This happens after I have downloaded the book to my iPad Pro. Also, often, when I click on the chapter/content list, only the first 4-5 chapters will be listed. I have to actually close the app and open it back up to get the full Table of Contents. The app is much more convenient than having to read books on the web, but it still needs improvement.
Developer Response ,
Thank you for the feedback. We will be looking into the issues you've raised.
Making my downloaded books tab the new default when opening the app
Hello again, my friends hope that everyone’s doing back to suggest any major in improvement or the next big update even though this one’s small and felt like it was not as the title suggest I would like for my downloaded book when opening the app, the recent books because it shows the books, I read and deleted To make space but I know that you guys are continuously working to make the app better so no rush. This is just a suggestion on my part and thank you for everything as usual. Hope to hear from you soon.
Developer Response ,
Thank you for your feedback. We are currently working on the ability for text-to-speech to work in the background. Please check back for a future update including this feature.
Getting better
Voice Dream Reader is planning on removing lifetime licensing for users who have previously purchased the product on 5/1. It’s even more important that this app continues to be improved for the influx of users that aren’t willing to pay a yearly subscription on top of their Bookshare subscription, just to read a book. My two big asks/requests: Please add the ability to listen to human narrated audiobooks and ability to “Read Now” on periodicals. Thanks Bookshare Reader dev team!
Also: Ability to listen to books in the background. VoiceOver gestures to change pages would also be nice.
Developer Response ,
Thank you for your detailed feedback, we really appreciate it ! We are currently working on the ability for text-to-speech to work in the background so that users can listen to books in the background. We have taken note of your other feedback, thank you. Please check back for a future update including the background text-to-speech feature!
App Privacy
The developer, Benetech, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
- Contact Info
- Identifiers
- Diagnostics
- Other Data
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Beneficent Technology, Inc.
- Size
- 37.8 MB
- Category
- Education
- Compatibility
-
- iPhone
- Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 15.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
- Mac
- Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Apple Vision
- Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- Languages
-
English
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2022 Benetech
- Price
- Free