Comparison

Bookshare Reader vs Carroll School

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Access millions of ebooks
  • High-quality audio narration
  • Customizable reading experience
  • Adjustable font size and colors
  • Follow along with highlighted text
  • Offline reading
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Carroll School

This app centralizes essential information for parents, students, and faculty, offering easy mobile access to news, events, photos, and a community directory. Users can browse content, filter for relevance, and quickly find contact information.

Highlights
  • Blogs, news, and announcements
  • Photo and document access
  • Calendar events with filtering
  • Constituent directory
  • Faculty contact information
  • Direct email to constituents
Features
Read full description

The Carroll School app provides parents, students, and faculty members with all the information they need in one place, conveniently accessed and explicitly formatted for consumption on their mobile devices. The App includes: - Blogs, news and announcements - Pictures and documents - Calendar events - Constituent directory and more Download the app today to ensure you are always aware of the most important news, announcements, and calendar events, and you have access to the most current community directory. Users can: - Browse the latest published photos - Filter content and store those preferences for subsequent use - Catch up on current news - Browse calendars for information about upcoming events. Filter calendars to see the events most relevant to their interests - Quickly find faculty contact information - Email a constituent directly from your device The information in the Carroll School app is drawn from the same source as the Carroll School website. Privacy controls restrict sensitive information only to authorized users.

Screenshots

Bookshare Reader4 screens
Carroll School4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Bookshare Reader at every 3 weeks against Carroll School's every 3 months. Bookshare Reader also leads on rating (3.3 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (68 vs 2). Carroll School's advantage is iOS requirement (14.0 vs 16.4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bookshare Reader holds the better App Store score, 3.3 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bookshare Reader has 68 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bookshare Reader ships an update every 3 weeks, Carroll School every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Bookshare Reader versus Carroll School: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookshare ReaderCarroll School
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.3 (68 ratings) — better3.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews35.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings68 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.414.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size81 MB51 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBenetechThe Carroll School

Customer experience

Bookshare Reader

All ratings68 ratings
Positive51.5%
Neutral13.2%
Negative35.3%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive35.7%
Neutral21.4%
Negative42.9%

Carroll School

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Bugs and 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
Show 37 more
  • 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
Show 33 more
  • 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

Carroll School

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Bookshare Reader

No in-app purchases

None

Carroll School

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bookshare Reader free?
Bookshare Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Carroll School free?
Carroll School is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bookshare Reader or Carroll School?
Bookshare Reader is rated higher. Bookshare Reader averages 3.3 out of 5 from 68 ratings, while Carroll School averages 3.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Bookshare Reader or Carroll School have ads?
Neither Bookshare Reader nor Carroll School shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bookshare Reader or Carroll School?
Bookshare Reader ships an update every 3 weeks, and Carroll School every 3 months. Most recently, Bookshare Reader was updated on October 19, 2026 and Carroll School on September 25, 2026.

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