Screen that comes up to Try Beeline Reader with a large
News

BeeLine Reader Adds Color to Bookshare

Bookshare is now offering an accessibility feature that helps readers maintain focus and improve visual tracking ability.

Bookshare is now offering an accessibility feature that helps readers maintain focus and improve visual tracking ability. This integration is made possible through a partnership with social impact startup BeeLine Reader. 

The idea behind BeeLine Reader’s technology is to make text easier to read by using eye-guiding color gradients. These gradients wrap from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line, reducing the incidence of line transition errors.

Many readers—especially those with dyslexia, ADHD, and vision impairments—find that BeeLine allows them to read with unprecedented fluency and ease. Readers of all ages and skill levels can use BeeLine to make reading easier and more enjoyable.

Bookshare members who read with Bookshare Web Reader, a free browser-based reading tool, can add BeeLine’s color gradients to text by activating the BeeLine feature through the Settings menu. This feature is free and here are the steps.

First, go to My Bookshare and select a title and click “Read Now.”  There will be a screen with a large B” and text that comes up to try BeeLine Reader.

Screenshot of Beeline Reader information.

Click on the “Yes, I’ll try it!” button and then select BeeLine from the Settings menu.  Beeline screenshot of Settings with color scheme options.

You can choose between several color schemes.

Repeated color schemes in text: first line is blue, second line is black, third line is red.

Research and Teacher Study

BeeLine’s technology is currently under study at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford Medical School. The study is being run by the director of the Institute, Dr. Joyce Liao. She and her colleagues are investigating BeeLine’s benefits for readers with various visual impairments, both congenital and acquired. BeeLine has been featured by the American Optometric Association.

Bookshare conducted a study with mentor teachers who evaluated BeeLine Reader. All of the study participants said they would like to use BeeLine Reader with Bookshare content. Said one teacher, “I am very excited about introducing this assistive technology to my special education and general education teachers. It provides struggling students the opportunity to succeed in reading.”

Visit the Bookshare Help Center to learn how to use BeeLine Reader with Bookshare Web Reader.

To learn more about BeeLine Reader and how you can use it to read websites, email, and PDFs, visit: www.BeeLineReader.com

To sign up for Bookshare, go to “Is Bookshare for Me?”

By Bookshare

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