Fire #4: Bookshare.org
I presented a session at SLATE entitled Independence in the Inclusive Classroom. I had two objectives. First, I wanted to stress the importance of teaching self-advocacy skills to special education students. Self-advocacy is the single most important skill I teach, and it is a skill that needs to be taught directly.
Second, I wanted to highlight technology tools (accommodations) that allow students to be independent while participating in regular education curriculum. The single most important tool that I cannot emphasize enough is Bookshare and its accompanying Read2Go app. This is a FREE service that provides accessible books (fiction, nonfiction, textbooks) to people with print disabilities. Over 50 people were in my sectional, and under 5 were aware of Bookshare. I hope those 50 people mentioned Bookshare in conversation with other colleagues at least once, and I hope they have taken the necessary steps to get their FREE organizational memberships. It is a crime not to use this service. For more information, check out my glog.
