Listen to books and read your way!
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.
The Bookshare Reader app is a good start but it needs work, especially in navigation. If I stop reading for a few minutes, and then go back, I often get a blank white page. This happens after I have downloaded the book to my iPad Pro. Also, often, when I click on the chapter/content list, only the first 4-5 chapters will be listed. I have to actually close the app and open it back up to get the full Table of Contents. The app is much more convenient than having to read books on the web, but it still needs improvement.
Developer Response
Thank you for the feedback. We will be looking into the issues you've raised.
Bookshare has made significant improvements
Thehonkinggoose
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.
Making my downloaded books tab the new default when opening the app
jaredlg36670
Hello again, my friends hope that everyone’s doing back to suggest any major in improvement or the next big update even though this one’s small and felt like it was not as the title suggest I would like for my downloaded book when opening the app, the recent books because it shows the books, I read and deleted To make space but I know that you guys are continuously working to make the app better so no rush. This is just a suggestion on my part and thank you for everything as usual. Hope to hear from you soon.
Developer Response
Thank you for your feedback. We are currently working on the ability for text-to-speech to work in the background. Please check back for a future update including this feature.
Amazing opportunity for print disabilities, horrible app 🤣
AsianTism
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!
Bug fixes
Version 1.39.1
The developer, Benetech, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Contact Info
Identifiers
Diagnostics
Other Data
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Beneficent Technology, Inc.
Size
62.7 MB
Category
Education
Compatibility
Requires iOS 16.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 16.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 16.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
