Bookshare Mobile Reader
Making reading accessible on the go as well as in the classroom, Bookshare mobile reader syncs across devices.
The Scenario
Bookshare is a digital library that uses text-to-speech technology to bring millions of books to users for whom reading a print book is difficult – people with blindness, low-vision, learning challenges, and physical limitations. As such, we needed to offer our users multiple ways to read a book – through a web browser, a mobile app, or a smart speaker. Not only do the readers need to work visually, they must work for low-vision and blind users as well. It was important for the reader to respect any accessibility settings the user may have set for the device, such as large text, dark mode, and screen readers.
What I Explored
I looked at various ways of laying out the main library screen as well as the workflow when you tap a book card. When the user taps a card the book details page appears unless the book has already been downloaded, in which case the book opens where the user left off. This way the user doesn’t always have to navigate to the details page to open the book.
On the main library screen, I wanted users to see an image of the book cover as well as the title and author and whether or not the book has been downloaded. These are large regions that can be tapped easily or scrolled through with a screenreader.
After watching blind users try to navigate websites and mobile apps and seeing how tedious it can be for them to find what they are looking for on the screen, I decided it was important for the audio controls to be first in the list of control settings since screen reader users don’t need any of the visual controls.
The Solution
The Future
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Discover new books through a recommendation engine
- Organize books