Lesson plan

Bookshare

Bookshare is an online library of accessible ebooks for people with print disabilities, such as visual impairment, severe dyslexia, and cerebral palsy. An initiative of Benetech, a social enterprise organization based in Palo Alto, California, it was founded in 2001 by Jim Fruchterman. Bookshare provides books in DAISY, EPUB, BRF (Braille refreshable format), MP3, and Microsoft Word document formats. Books have been contributed by volunteers, authors, libraries, universities, and publishers. By 2010 more than half of books had been contributed by publishers and by 2020 more than 900 publishers had partnered with Bookshare, contributing to its library of more than 900,000 books. Since 2007, Bookshare has received awards from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), to provide free access for all U.S. students with a qualifying print disability, with the five-year allocation from 2017 to 2022 totaling $42.5 million. Similar programs have been set up in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Bookshare also partners with libraries and blindness organizations around the world.

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Article summary

Bookshare is an online library of accessible ebooks for people with print disabilities, such as visual impairment, severe dyslexia, and cerebral palsy. An initiative of Benetech, a social enterprise organization based in Palo Alto, California, it was founded in 2001 by Jim Fruchterman. Bookshare provides books in DAISY, EPUB, BRF (Braille refreshable format), MP3, and Microsoft Word document formats. Books have been contributed by volunteers, authors, libraries, universities, and publishers. By 2010 more than half of books had been contributed by publishers and by 2020 more than 900 publishers had partnered with Bookshare, contributing to its library of more than 900,000 books. Since 2007, Bookshare has received awards from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), to provide free access for all U.S. students with a qualifying print disability, with the five-year allocation from 2017 to 2022 totaling $42.5 million. Similar programs have been set up in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Bookshare also partners with libraries and blindness organizations around the world.

Key claims

  1. date of foundation: 2001 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the date of foundation is "2001". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1307684270

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.