Braille Academy vs Bookshare Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Braille Academy
This app teaches the Braille system through interactive lessons and challenges. It covers letters, numbers, punctuation, and various word and group signs, offering over 90% of Unified English Braille knowledge. Features include customizable themes and offline functionality.
- 13 learning chapters
- Covers letters, numbers, punctuation, and symbols
- Over 90% of Unified English Braille knowledge
- 59 levels and 29 challenges
- Contrast theme for visual impairment
- Offline functionality
- Certificates upon chapter completion
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Features: - 13 chapters, namely Letters, Numbers, Basic Punctuations, Special Symbols, Alphabetic Wordsigns, Strong Contractions, Strong Wordsigns, Strong Groupsigns, Lower Groupsigns, Lower Wordsigns, Initial Letter Contractions, Final Letter Groupsigns and Shortform Words. - Teaches strategically Braille of all 26 letters of the English alphabet, numbers 0 - 9, 12 most frequently used punctuation marks, 8 most frequently used special symbols, 23 alphabetic word signs, 38 contractions, 12 wordsigns, 34 groupsigns and 75 short-form words. - 59 levels and 29 challenges in total teach, train and test more than 90% of the entire Unified English Braille knowledge. - Various themes to choose from including the Contrast theme (more contrast and bolder text) for visually impaired. - Absolutely no disturbing ads. - On the Explore page, you can click and see the Braille representations of all the 26 letters, numbers 0 - 9, 12 punctuation marks and 8 special symbols. - After passing all the levels and challenges in one chapter, you can get a certificate on the Certificate page. - On the Settings page, you can switch on and off button sound, key sound, button vibration, key vibration vibration on error and keyboard layout. - More learning and training materials will be added in the future updates. - Works completely offline. Please note, this app is not specially designed for people with severe visual impairment, but with feedback and suggestions from them, we are certainly working in that direction (improving talkback/voiceover experiences). ----------------------- What’s Braille? Braille is a system of touch reading and writing for visually impaired people, in which raised dots represent the letters of the alphabet, numbers, punctuation marks, special symbols and so on. It is named after its creator, Louis Braille, a Frenchman who lost his sight in his childhood and later developed a code for the French alphabet. These characters have rectangular blocks called cells which have tiny bumps called raised dots. The number and arrangement of these dots distinguish one character from another. ----------------------- What’s Braille Academy? Braille Academy is developed to help those who are curious about and interested in learning the Braille system. The two key teaching concepts are gradual introduction and focused repetition. The learning material is categorized into chapters and then levels to ensure efficient learning and training. If you are not particularly interested in Braille but in training and improving your memory in general, Braille Academy is also a useful tool. ----------------------- Levels and challenges? In short, a level focuses on introducing new characters with a small amount of repetition while a challenge trains what you’ve learnt already. In a level, you can click the INFO BUTTON (on the left) to read some TIPS and the hint button (on the right) to see the correct answer. The hints are infinite and always free. In a challenge, you can’t use the hint button anymore and you must make less than 3 mistakes to pass it. In conclusion, I wish you a lot of success and a lot of fun in learning Braille! Privacy Policy: https://dong.digital/braille/privacy Terms of Use: https://dong.digital/braille/tos
Bookshare Reader
Access a vast library of ebooks designed for individuals with reading barriers. Enjoy high-quality audio narration and customize your reading experience with adjustable fonts, colors, and speeds. Continue reading seamlessly from where you left off.
- Access millions of ebooks
- High-quality audio narration
- Customizable reading experience
- Adjustable font size and colors
- Follow along with highlighted text
- Offline reading
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Get the official Bookshare Reader app. Access millions of ebooks from Bookshare, the world's largest library of ebooks for people with reading barriers like dyslexia, blindness, low vision, and physical disabilities. Listen to books in high quality audio and customize your reading experience in ways that work for you. Read bestsellers, new releases, textbooks and educational books, children’s books, young adult, mysteries, biographies, and more. Read your way with these customizable features: • Listen to books in high quality audio • Adjust reading speed, font size, and colors • Follow along with highlighted text • Navigate by page and chapter • Stop reading and pick up from your last spot • Download books and read offline To use Bookshare Reader, you must have a Bookshare membership. Learn more by visiting the Bookshare website.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Braille Academy at 90% against Bookshare Reader's 36%. Braille Academy also leads on rating (4.9 vs 3.3) and ratings volume (1.7K vs 68). Bookshare Reader's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Braille Academy sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Bookshare Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.
Braille Academy holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Braille Academy has 1.7K ratings behind it against 68, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 90% of Braille Academy's written reviews are positive against 36% of Bookshare Reader's.
Braille Academy ships an update every 6 months, Bookshare Reader every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Braille Academy | Bookshare Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (1.7K ratings) — better | 3.3 (68 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 90.4% of reviews — better | 35.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.7K — better | 68 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.1 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 81 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Xiang Dong | Benetech |
Customer experience
Braille Academy
Bookshare Reader
Bugs and requests
Braille Academy
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Bookshare Reader
Reported bugs
42 issues- Prolonged pauses in text-to-speech
- Library not syncing across devices
- Reading lists not syncing
- Reading progress not saved across devices
- Manga stuck on copyright page
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- Pages disappear during reading
- Trouble downloading books
- Frequent app crashes
- App won't load books
- App shuts down when typing
- App crashing repeatedly
- Books disappearing from library
- Cannot download added books
- Search tab closes the app
- Poor VoiceOver compatibility
- App crashes on any click
- Text-to-speech voice change kicks user out
- Copyright issues preventing audio playback
- Download errors
- Playback stops when screen is locked
- Clunky user interface
- Picture books not displaying images
- Unable to play videos from other sources
- Form controls not coded correctly for VoiceOver
- Cannot delete searched titles from library
- App requires screen to be on for reading
- Blank screen after orientation change
- Too many bugs and crashes
- Next chapter fails to load
- Blank white page after pausing and resuming
- Table of Contents only shows first few chapters
- App displays as phone screen on iPad
- Cannot access reading lists
- Synthesized speech has limited control
- Speech randomly cuts off
- Reading stops if phone ringer is off
- Pause/Play restarts from chapter beginning
- Text-to-speech voices do not indicate language
- Voice selection process is cumbersome
- No functional stop and start button
- Limited speaking speed options
- Paragraph by paragraph reading limitation
Requested features
38 requests- Fix prolonged pauses in text-to-speech
- Sync library across devices
- Sync reading lists across devices
- Save reading progress across devices
- Fix manga page navigation
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- Fix disappearing pages bug
- Improve book download reliability
- Fix app crashes
- Fix app shutdown when typing
- Improve VoiceOver compatibility
- Allow adjustment of speaking rate by specific value
- Make reading lists accessible
- Add highlighting for textbooks
- Improve navigation of Contents menu
- Highlight current location in Contents menu
- Include missing video content in textbooks
- Fix copyright issues for audio playback
- Allow background playback
- Add ability to listen to human-narrated audiobooks
- Add 'Read Now' for periodicals
- Add VoiceOver gestures for page turning
- Add percentage of reading completed on mobile devices
- Make downloaded books tab default on opening app
- Fix inability to delete searched titles
- Add 'where am I' feature (page/percentage)
- Fix blank screen after orientation change
- Make app accessible for students without teacher assignment
- Fix next chapter loading issue
- Fix blank white page after pause
- Fix incomplete Table of Contents
- Improve app scaling on iPad
- Fix inability to access reading lists
- Allow users to choose which word reader begins reading
- Fix paragraph by paragraph reading limitation
- Indicate language for text-to-speech voices
- Improve voice selection process
- Add functional stop and start button
- Increase speed options for text-to-speech
In-app purchases
Braille Academy
- Monthly Subscription$0.991 Month
- Lifetime Premium$3.99
Bookshare Reader
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Braille Academy free?
Is Bookshare Reader free?
Which has better reviews, Braille Academy or Bookshare Reader?
Do Braille Academy or Bookshare Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, Braille Academy or Bookshare Reader?
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