Connecting struggling readers with accessible resources

One in 10 students has a recognized disability under Americans with Disabilities Act--physical, emotional, reading,etc.  This is 2 kids per class in most schools.

How do you keep these kids up to grade level with reading.

Resources available for struggling readers

• large print books are very useful (also can be great for struggling readers as they look easier)
• not as many for teens because they are not published in quantity
• e-readers can blow up fonts --make these available for kids to read; ipods and phones can also be made available
• audios with books
• databases--blow up page using CTRL+  many of the state databases have a text to speech icon and you can click that to have article read to you

Perkins focuses on general reading; Learning Ally focuses mostly on textbooks, but also has a collection of novels

learningally.org/massachusetts--you need to log in as a teacher and you can set up pages for your students--

Librarians can set up accounts for teachers and they can add students, indicate their students' disabilities and then see what is available for students

Kids with print disabilities can get accounts to download books

In Learning Ally:

• Classic audio is what you'd think
• audio with H shows text with audio
• can work in ios and droid devices or you can download software on to a PC or mac; there is a free app in the itunes store; NOT compatible with kindle, nook or chrome books

Perkins School for Blind--you don't have to be legally blind to use their materials and services--just people who have any issues with seeing print (even if they can see) and people with learning disabilities, and people who have trouble physically holding a book

You can download applications for your organization

You receive books with an audioplayer in the mail

NO cost--including no postage

They have a ton of books, magazines, 

Perkins Newsline--accesses today's newspaper by telephone or computer; there are over 300 newspapers and 25 magazines.  To get into this 888-882-1629  you need an access code that you get through the Perkins Library

Lots of books for children and teens can be downloaded from a website--there is an app for this BARD mobile

Reading device from Perkins will allow you to change speed and tone of the reader (and app replicates this)

On a school account you can have up to 5 devices linked to Perkins that you can use to download