Amazing for dyslexic people
The interface is great and this app helped me read all of my college textbooks. I’m so happy about the new voices for text to speech- they sound super realistic which is something that was lacking before. Also it’s nice to be able to download free books and read them offline too
Recent update added problems
Use previous versions of Bookshare reader. Recent update added prolonged pause at the end of each sentence. Even if the words are sped up, there’s a one second pause between paragraphs, sentences, and any page breaks. Attempted to navigate fixing it, and it is not fixable at this point. I will only be using website until next update. Hopefully it improves.
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Amazing app but it has a bit of a bug that makes it difficult to use
I have been a user of bookshare since I was in 7th grade on the old read to go app and now as an adult on an individual membership. It’s the best thing to happen for blind people so that we can access books and information. However, there appears to be a new emerging bug. My library is not syncing across my devices. When I download a book on my ipad to read, it doesn’t download on my phone which is logged into the same account, I have to go manually go download it on my phone too. Reading lists also don’t sync. If I start reading a book on one device, I can’t pick up on another later, it also doesn’t save progress. I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable, but I feel like books should sync across devices and your most recent position in them should sync across devices. I had managed to keep syncing the read to go app to all my new devices until a couple of months ago via the icloud transfer, yes it survived until 2026, but it finally quit and I have to use the new bookshare version now. Book syncing across devices was never an issue on the old read to go app, even when I was on IOS 18 using an app intended for IOS 9. Lol. If you can get this syncing issue fixed on the bookshare reader app I will switch my review to five stars. Thanks.
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Help
I like this app and use it a lot but after the most recent update it won’t work I opened a manga (I thing I spelled that wrong) and I can not go to the next page it is stuck on the copy right please fix
Bookshare has made significant improvements
In 2025 I would have described the Bookshare app as below expectations for an eReader app. In 2026 we’ve seen lots of improvements such as synced reading lists and so many other quality of life improvements that make the app easier to use. Creating accessible tech is hard and the Bookshare team is doing a good job addressing community concerns. As a blind person my mobile devices are my go-to in part because the screen reader and controls are easier to use, so the mobile version of platforms like Bookshare working as expected is expected. Already looking forward to half two of this year and what will come next.
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Amazing opportunity for print disabilities, horrible app 🤣
I love what Benetech is doing here. It’s an awesome opportunity for people like myself with documented disabilities! This rating has nothing to do with that. The app itself is so bad. The website is awesome, with many different formats and accessible audio readers, like AvaMultilingual on Edge. However, this app has so many issues. Whenever I try reading, a glitch will happen which will cause the pages to disappear. So I have to exit the book to read again. And this happens quite frequently, every time I use the reading app, multiple times a session. I also occasionally have trouble downloading books that I already have access to. Besides that, I love Bookshare, and it’s just a great movement for disability rights and access!
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SUGGESTIONS FOR CREATORS
PLEASE make highlighting available for textbooks!!! When it comes time to find something for a paper or quiz, I need access to highlights.
Also, PLEASE make it easier to navigate the Contents menu! I have to scroll all the way down every single time. Where I am in the text should be highlighted in the contents and the menu should automatically be scrolled to my location.
Also some of my textbooks in Bookshare are missing essential video content.
Thanks!
Also, PLEASE make it easier to navigate the Contents menu! I have to scroll all the way down every single time. Where I am in the text should be highlighted in the contents and the menu should automatically be scrolled to my location.
Also some of my textbooks in Bookshare are missing essential video content.
Thanks!
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Book-share Reader
I still can’t read a book from the app even newly downloaded books and I’m using the exact same password from the password I use on my Chromebook at school and I need to know if that’s what might be causing it not to work.
Book-share Reader
I keep trying to reed a book from the app on my phone and it won’t load, it’s been like this for three days
Bugs
I love it but constant bugs and crashes. Only way I get accessible books but it is so so buggy
Background Play Works
Background play works great now. Way easier to listen to my books. Thank you for making this update.
Bookshare Error
I use this app and it has been shutting down when I try to type anything at all on my macbook. this means I cannot sign in nor search for the books I need. Please fix this
Good morning Bookshare team I really love the Bookshare reader application. Keep up the great work.
Good morning Bookshare reader developer my name is Ulises Gomez, I really enjoy this application a lot I would like to see the background play future on a future update. Keep them coming. I love Bookshare Reader.
Minor improvements for voiceover users
2025-02-23: The latest update fixes the ability to adjust speaking speed, however, you can only adjust the speed by 20% at a time. A way to enter a specific speed would be much more useful. There is still no access to any reading lists you've created so you'll have to search for those titles all over again or switch to using EasyReader which is what they recommended to me.
Original Review: The latest version does fix the ability to get to the audio sub page in settings, however, it is not possible to adjust the speaking rate at all. The whole point of getting to the audio sub page is to adjust settings so you would think the developer would test Basic features of this app with voiceover before pushing out an update. Hopefully more effort goes into future releases.
Original Review: The latest version does fix the ability to get to the audio sub page in settings, however, it is not possible to adjust the speaking rate at all. The whole point of getting to the audio sub page is to adjust settings so you would think the developer would test Basic features of this app with voiceover before pushing out an update. Hopefully more effort goes into future releases.
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It’s finally fixed
For the past few months, I’ve had difficulty with this app crashing. Even though I updated the app and my phone it was problematic at first. Suddenly after the final iOS update and a few other app updates for this… Everything came out fine. Whenever I don’t want to use my braille display for a book… I turned to this app. I’m glad I can alternate between both my braille display and my Bookshare app. I hope it stays perfectly fine this time.
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Good morning Bookshare team I really love the Bookshare reader application. Keep up the great work.
Good morning Bookshare reader developer my name is Ulises Gomez, I really enjoy this application a lot I would like to see the background play future on a future update. Keep them coming. I love Bookshare Reader.
Response from developer
Thank you for your valuable feedback! We appreciate your input and are excited to share that we are currently working on adding the background text-to-speech functionality. Stay tuned for updates—we hope to launch this feature in the coming months!
App consistency
I love the app and use it for school. I would like it if the app was the same on every platform. Specifically if I was it on my windows desktop there is an icon to tap and it tells me the percentage of the section I have completed reading. On Apple or mobile devices their icon is not available. It’s useful to tell how much I have left without scrolling to the end. Please top this feature on mobile devices.
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The app crashes
The app has been crashing for the past week and a half. Unsure why that is. My firmware is up to the latest update so far. I have updated the actual Bookshare Reader app and that’s when all the nightmares started.
Response from developer
Sorry to hear about that, please try updating to the latest version. We believe this should be fixed, let us know if issues persist. Thank you for your patience!
Keeps crashing
Love this app but would appreciate a fix….every time I click a new book or the profile button my app crashes.
App is crashing repeatedly
I love this resource. It was working beautifully until recently. Now it is crashing and some of the books I had added for a research paper have disappeared.
