Bookshare Accessible Library

Dr. Homiyar Mobedji is an entrepreneur and disability expert who has brought Bookshare, an accessible ebook library for people with disabilities, to South Asia since 2015. Homiyar gradually lost his own vision due to Retinitis Pigmentosa. He nonetheless completed school alongside sighted classmates and became the founding leader of the first Indian College for Physiotherapy for the Visually Impaired. He advocates tirelessly for the education and employment of people with disabilities in roles including CEO of the National Association for the Blind and Android software accessibility advisor.

Under Homiyar’s vision and leadership, his team has adapted Bookshare training, book production, and strategic relationships to serve partners and users in 7 South Asian nations. He has brought together dozens of like-minded organizations to improve opportunities for people with visual impairment and has ensured that thousands of people who need accessible books, STEM materials, and vocational training can use Bookshare to read.

People with print disabilities like blindness, dyslexia and cerebral palsy deserve to read, learn, and reach their potential. Bookshare, the world’s largest accessible digital library, provides books at scale for people with print barriers in formats that they can read. With Bookshare and training, people with disabilities can use digital technology to seek knowledge and skills, teachers are supported to use assistive technology for inclusive education, and local organizations work to convert printed books into accessible formats. If students with disabilities have materials that meet their needs, they can pursue education and employment just like their peers, living with dignity and improving the economic prospects of their families and communities. As the world tackles what the World Bank calls a global learning crisis, we support people with disabilities to receive a quality education and future employment. Bookshare can eliminate barriers to accessing information for millions of people worldwide.

Disabilities such as blindness, mobility impairment, and dyslexia severely compromise a person’s ability to seek education, and later, employment. My home country of India was reported by WHO in 2010 to be home to 20% of the world’s blind and visually impaired people, and the India Dyslexia Association estimates that 10% of Indian children have a learning difference. UNESCO found that 20% of Indian children with disabilities including visual impairments have never been in school. At the same time, the World Blind Union reports that less than 10% of published materials worldwide are available in formats that are accessible for people with print disabilities. Students with print disabilities rely instead on family to read their school books aloud, or assigned scribes to write their exams. They may never learn to read or write independently. This persistent lack of accessible educational materials is essentially equivalent to a lack of education overall. Adults with disabilities are un- or under-employed and their families struggle. Instead, when someone with a disability can become an independent contributor, the economic and social prospects of the family, and a country, can change.

Bookshare, a Benetech initiative, is the world’s largest library of accessible ebooks that makes reading easier for people with print disabilities. People around the world with sight loss, learning disabilities like dyslexia, or physical impairments like cerebral palsy can access ebooks in easy-to-read formats like audio, audio + highlighted text, braille, and large font. Hundreds of thousands of books in over 40 languages from international commercial publishers and local education agencies, available anytime on any device, empower people with print disabilities to pursue their own academic and employment goals.

The Bookshare initiative includes training for people with print disabilities, teachers, NGOs, and employers to use assistive technologies for learning and accommodations. We bring together the strengths of global and local partners for amplified impact and a stronger voice to champion accessibility in government and the private sector. We encourage publishers to make digital materials accessible during production. Digital technology today enables people with print disabilities to have equal learning opportunities to their peers. Bookshare provides the content, platform, and service that have supported students and adults with print disabilities around the world to read over 17 million accessible books.

Between 5-10% of the population of any given country has a print disability. Bookshare India serves people with print disabilities, improving their ability to support their families. The outreach, training, and technical guidance we deliver in 7 Asian countries has connected almost 20,000 people to accessible books and digital literacy support. In the past 5 years, we have converted the books requested by the people and schools we work with into accessible formats, notably the Indian national curricula and curricular materials for 9 State boards and universities. We have trained thousands of visually impaired students, their teachers, and staff in partnership with institutions they trust: schools, universities, and training centers. Visually impaired youth and adults learn to read and write for school exams, university degrees, and employment. In 2019 alone, 3,300 Indian students, teachers, and supporters learned skills that can support them to live and earn for their families with dignity.

The impact is not theoretical. Three Bookshare India staff, including myself, were Bookshare users before joining the team. By working deeply to solve this foundational piece of inclusive education and employment, people often thought of as care receivers can become contributors to the growth of the nation.

Bookshare serves people who are traditionally left behind in the educational and training systems. They rely on their own resourcefulness, persistence, and family support while other students are able to use materials given by schools and employers. Bookshare provides accessible materials for them to learn.

Through Bookshare, training, and the “Born Accessible” movement, we also elevate the challenges faced by people with print disabilities to drive action. For example, Benetech’s leadership was involved in drafting the international Marrakesh Treaty to allow book distribution for the print disabled; we continue to support partners working to ratify the Treaty in their countries.

Bookshare was created twenty years ago by a rocket engineer who developed technology to digitize and distribute books in accessible formats. Strong growth in the U.S. pre-dated international efforts by a decade. I took the helm of Bookshare operations in India to reimagine programming and rapidly accelerate service to people with visual impairment. For me personally, a lack of accessible content was a challenge to overcome in school and later when creating employment opportunities for other visually impaired people. Without books in formats they could read, my mentees could not improve their knowledge and compete for needed jobs. I constantly sought new technology and saw enormous potential for Bookshare to change the lives of people who face these challenges.

My team has developed a relentless focus on diverse partnerships and holistic customer support to use Bookshare to transform the way that people with print disabilities learn with technology and expand their life skills. Reading with accessible books undergirds all of education. Bookshare India has stepped up to fill a need in South Asia to use accessible books as a springboard for digital competence, daily life skills, writing, and employment.

Accessibility and access to information are fundamental rights of every person, including every differently-abled person. Despite gradually losing my sight, I was always encouraged to study. Pursuing physiotherapy was very difficult because accessible materials were not available in those days. As I was studying and then opened my own clinic, students mailed requests to the UK-based Royal National Institute for the Blind for audio cassette tapes of physiotherapy books. It was only as I became the Founder-Director of the Indian College for Physiotherapy for the Visually Impaired that available technology had improved enough to implement digital learning, and has advanced even more rapidly since then.

Even in developing countries like India we now have the tools we require— technology, understanding, and a voice for advocacy— to remove needless barriers to education and employment for people with blindness and other print disabilities. Bookshare is an incredibly powerful tool, and is made even more so when it becomes part of comprehensive inclusive education. My team and I strive to bring about our vision for change by promoting accessibility and inclusion from the daily lives of people with print disabilities all the way to the practices of leaders in publishing and national policy.

Put simply, I understand first-hand the world of a print disabled person in a developing nation. I bring the internal drive of lived experience, a full career spent building opportunities for people with disabilities, and a belief that Bookshare can have an extraordinary positive impact on people’s lives. Bookshare is affordable and works in mainstream settings, allowing my team to promote inclusive practices that can reduce the need for exclusive institutions for people with disabilities. Due to the effectiveness of this technology to eliminate barriers to reading, learning, and skill-building, we have been able to build on our work and partnerships in India to take Bookshare to other South Asian countries, and beyond. In addition to the technology itself, it is critical for the print disabled community in India, and the other countries in which my team works, to see what easy access to knowledge and information can mean for their future. The community immediately relates to me as a role model who uses the very tools we teach. They accept new ways of learning when they know what success can be.

Similar to others around the world, the current pandemic has changed the daily operations of the Bookshare India team. We are technology savvy, but Bookshare users have varying degrees of comfort with digital tools. Our in-person trainings help people ease into digital skills when needed. COVID-19 has removed the face-to-face option, but has not removed the need for services.

Beginning immediately, I reorganized my team operations to offer reliable online workshops at the same time each weekend, advertised through partners in South Asia and Africa. We began with the very basics of finding and reading digital books. To make this outreach successful, we have had to extend available customer support hours and add phone lines for people to leave messages during off-hours. In many cases we have taught participants to use video conferencing tools over the phone so that they can join the webinar to learn more digital skills. The 29 workshops to-date have each featured Bookshare partners sharing critical services and tools for reading, writing and access to information; this is a time to expand everyone’s network and knowledge far and wide. Books are one thing helping people through COVID, and we will continue to connect people to them.

In the five years I have led Bookshare efforts in South Asia, membership has grown from 800 to over 18,000 in India alone. Indian books made into accessible formats for the library has grown tenfold.

In some ways Bookshare growth is far removed from another time that a small team achieved big results. But it is the same dedication to improving lives that focused my work in 2001, after the Bhuj earthquake shook the Kutch area of Gujarat. I was appointed Chief Rehabilitation Coordinator for the Post-Earthquake efforts. My team of 16 physiotherapists, all visually challenged, served day and night to help people heal. This was a one-of-a-kind example where expert people with a disability served the general population during a disaster. From scratch I helped establish the project that is still providing rehabilitation even today.

Serving people who need accessible books requires different tools and partnerships, but still leads to heart-warming stories like Fatima’s, a student whose mainstream high school had no resources for blind students before Bookshare. Our India-based team of four, together with wonderful partners, has led Bookshare to become the largest provider of accessible content in India, showing again what people with a mission can do.

The Bookshare International project lives within Benetech, a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in California that has built software for social good for 20 years. My team is part of Benetech’s Bookshare team, but operates with a high degree of autonomy to manage local operations, seek in-country partners and to adapt outreach, training, and support to meet the needs we see in South Asian nations.

Bookshare applies technology to unlock printed materials for people with print disabilities. Bookshare brings books directly to people with print disabilities, anytime, on any device. Our delivery of books whenever, where ever, and in whatever format the user chooses is faster, at lower cost, and more responsive to people with print disabilities than any other solution. We have revolutionized the field, converting over 850,000 books into multiple different formats so the reader can choose the reading experience that best addresses their print disability. 

People choose from five formats to read storybooks, textbooks, and vocational materials that include literary, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) books. In most STEM digital textbooks, equations are actually images that cannot be read by reading tools. Therefore, when people use e-book readers or assistive technologies (braille displays) to read, equations are inherently inaccessible. Bookshare is now leveraging machine learning, computer vision, and Natural Language Processing to efficiently identify math equations in books and automatically convert them into accessible math. This is a first for our sector.

Bookshare India focuses on delivering books in local languages that includes the folklore that is critical for reading enjoyment at a young age, academic curriculum for school, and job training material that can have a transformative impact on adults. Our direct service model is enhanced by our work to train teachers on inclusive education practices and improve the overall accessibility of books through publisher training. All efforts align to our vision of information accessible for all.

Our theory of change is that, if students with disabilities are given materials that meet their academic and knowledge needs, they can achieve educational benchmarks and gainful employment just like their peers, improving the economic prospects of their families and communities. Bookshare helps develop the conditions for people with disabilities to pursue education and skilling for their futures.

Bookshare develops these conditions through direct services and local capacity-building. Direct book delivery ensures that people have the specific books required for their knowledge pursuits by sourcing or converting books from around the world. The book must be in the format that person needs, available on the device they have. Bookshare books are downloadable anytime in 5 formats that conform to global accessibility standards and can be read on most mainstream and specialized devices.

Capacity building through training for people with disabilities, teachers, and partner NGOs makes the technology most effective. Students learn how to find and use digital materials in the format they need. Teachers are supported to use assistive technology for inclusive education. Local organizations are trained to convert existing titles and to produce accessible books for the future, feeding back into the direct service outputs.

In parallel to the direct service model, Benetech simultaneously works for systems change to make new ebooks accessible. Our Born Accessible outreach and training initiative for publishers and content creators helps these powerful actors prioritize accessibility when books are produced. This will increase the likelihood that a student with a print disability can find and use a book that they can read.

Partner schools have informally tracked student progress when they begin to use Bookshare, showing more promising academic results than students who do not use technology resources. In a school we worked intensively with, in Maharashtra, India, our external consultant School-to-School International reported that students using our Bookshare intervention “showed significant gains across Early Grade Reading Assessment subtasks from baseline to endline. This trend was observed across gender, grade, and vision status.”

Technology can transform access to knowledge equally for all students. Bookshare accessible books allow students with disabilities, finally, to read.

The Bookshare library serves nearly 20,000 eligible people with print disabilities in the 7 South Asian countries, and over 800,000 worldwide. People in these countries can choose from over 650,000 books, each in 5 different formats, and have read close to 275,000 books. We train over 200 teachers and NGO staff each year to support students and beneficiaries using Bookshare and other assistive technologies.

In 1 year, the number of students and adults with print disabilities that my team serves in South Asia will grow to over 30,000 and we will continue to train teachers and nonprofit partners.

In 5 years, we will serve well over 100,000 people with print disabilities directly. We believe that for each person able to advance their education or seek employment after using Bookshare, an additional  3-4 people in their household (according to UN family size estimates in these countries) benefit from reduced emotional and financial pressures to provide for him or her. These 300,000 or more people are secondary direct beneficiaries. Lastly, in 5 years we will train an additional 1,000 educators and staff at 60 NGOs and schools to improve inclusive teaching and support for people with disabilities, as well as staff of 20 publishers or other content creators to create Born Accessible materials.

Our goal is for every print disabled person in South Asia– and all developing economies– to be able to read any material they need for academic, professional, and personal advancement. We are realizing this goal in three ways.

First, we convert thousands of pages of educational and vocational content into accessible formats in South Asian languages. Within 1 year we will have converted all major primary and secondary education curricula in the 7 countries. Within 5 years we will triple our post-secondary and vocational materials. To ensure that students with disabilities can access STEM, Bookshare is using machine learning to convert math equations to a format that can be read by screen readers. The first step– alternative text for math equations– will launch this year. The India team supports quality assurance, user testing, and adaptation of these innovations to local context.

Second, we maintain a substantial focus on training for people with disabilities and for their teachers. We introduce Bookshare and complementary assistive tools for academics and skill-building. We have initiated a teacher train-the-trainer model in India-that we will bring to the 6 other countries within 5 years.

Third, we are building a future in which ebooks are accessible when they are produced. We encourage government and private publishers to create Born Accessible content to reduce the reconversion which is required to make it accessible. As producers prioritize accessibility, the next generation of students with print disabilities will read ebooks created with their needs in mind.

The Bookshare solution is rooted in book conversion and distribution technology, but successful implementation also includes content, training, and ICT.

In South Asia, access to devices and broadband is increasing but inconsistent, even at schools and training centers. A person with disabilities with more access to these resources can make the most use of Bookshare and the other assistive technologies we introduce.

Timely delivery of the books that Bookshare members seek, which includes both international and local content, is critical to making the Bookshare library relevant to people in each country. Copyright policy that easily allows books to be converted and distributed to people with disabilities and partnerships with local publishers and education agencies to supply materials are the most effective way to identify and secure content. Not all South Asian countries have ratified the Marrakesh Treaty that established a protected avenue for books to be made available to people with print disabilities.

Inclusive education and training are increasingly familiar efforts in the proposed countries, but changing school processes, teacher practice, and student skills requires in-depth investment. As one important example, the Bookshare India team spreads awareness about learning differences like dyslexia, but systems to identify and support students with dyslexia are far from standard in South Asian schools.

We take a multi-pronged approach, leading and supporting our partners, to address these challenges.

For-profit and nonprofit organizations have helped secure devices for people to access Bookshare. Bookshare is designed for versatility; books can be read on a web-based reader, free Android applications, or even simple phones and MP3 players. The file size of books downloaded through native apps is small, and a person with intermittent internet connectivity can store books to read anytime.

Benetech’s international publisher relationships provide thousands of new titles each month. Local books are also in high demand, and my team manages a monthly conversion workflow to meet these needs. We utilize relationships with government agencies, universities, local libraries, partners and socially-conscious vendors to supply requested books. Benetech is also experienced in raising awareness for favorable policies like the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. Bookshare’s collection provides a tangible incentive; in ratifying countries we offer over 105,000 additional books sourced from other “Marrakesh” countries.

Partner organizations each bring a distinct set of expertise, priorities, and capacity-building focus that allows the project to impact schooling and skilling from primary education through post-secondary and vocational learning. No one organization can work alone. My team and I take every opportunity to advance the growth of the entire ecosystem of disability rights groups, publishers, NGOs, and government that are needed to ensure that people with disabilities achieve academic, economic, and social inclusion.

We partner with leading organizations that serve people with print disabilities in each country, selecting those who can complement our team’s experience based on 6 criteria: Audience, Geography, Reach, Impact, Standing, Experience, Network. Partners work with us within their expertise and missions to support outreach, training, awareness-raising, accessible book production, and relationships.

Some of our partners include:

• EnAble India: uses Bookshare for training to improve livelihoods for people with disabilities.
• Young Power in Social Action: Bookshare is part of their outreach, training, and book production work to improve social development in Bangladesh.
• Action on Disability Rights and Development: A Nepali development organization promoting accessible ICT that produces accessible books and promotes Bookshare.
• Living Dignity for the Blind: Supports blind people in Myanmar to improve technological skills and livelihood prospects including Bookshare training and book production.
• Bhutan Muenselling Institute: Includes Bookshare in training to support visually impaired students to learn vocational skills and to integrate into mainstream schools.
• Pakistan Foundation for Fighting Blindness: Pan-Pakistan partner for outreach and training.
• Daisy Lanka Foundation: A not-for-profit organization sharing accessible Sri Lankan books with the Bookshare library.

In addition, we and our partners work with government agencies and affiliates. For example, the India State of Chatisgar Ministry of Social Justice has donated devices to our NGO partners that are used for Bookshare training. We convert textbooks into accessible formats from 9 states in India and from the Nepal government textbook provider, the Curriculum Development Center.

Our social business model centers on leveraging technology to distribute accessible books to people with print disabilities, in the formats they need, whenever they desire to read. The most important value we provide is quick and simple access to information in a way that works for each person.

The Bookshare library platform hosts accessible books and connects to reading applications via application Programming Interfaces. Organizations with an active library catalog and membership base can license the Bookshare backend library management system. People with a valid membership download directly from Bookshare or use other connected services to read their books. The 5 formats for each book, as well as technology that improves the accessibility of math and other STEM materials, are built into the platform and offered automatically. All these options prioritize the ease by which a person with a print disability can get the books they seek.

The Bookshare team brings training and support to where people with print disabilities in South Asia already seek assistance or learning. Bookshare is a fundamental reading resource that is part of inclusive education and training, and Bookshare training is a staple of literacy, digital skills, and vocational training for people with print disabilities. We partner with schools, training centers, and service organizations to offer complementary supports.

Training for NGOs and publishers adds long-term value to the community. Each organization trained can retrofit or produce accessible books for the benefit of all people with print disabilities.

My team and Benetech leadership continue to secure avenues for financial sustainability to scale Bookshare through a hybrid finance model. Our US-based funding has established a strong technology infrastructure that allows us to focus our efforts in South Asia on implementation and sustainability. Internationally, we anticipate long-term funding to include governments and international organizations investing in Bookshare for ongoing educational needs and joint funding with other NGOs through private philanthropy and corporate social responsibility. Already, we use some revenue from Bookshare’s library hosting and membership fees in higher-income countries to subsidize costs in South Asia, a revenue stream we expect to grow. We have designed the Bookshare approach to be affordable and attractive to international funders and partners. The library technology is configurable to different tiers of budget, training can be scaled up or down as needed, and accessible book production training reduces future retrofitting costs for us and our partners.

Bookshare South Asia is primarily funded through a combination of philanthropic and government support. A robust pipeline of funding sources for these regions, such as grants from several funding partnerships, include anchor funding from the Lavelle Fund for the Blind, an investor of nearly USD $1 million since 2010 to improve the availability of books and training in the US and India. Additionally, when we operate in contexts where users and partners are able to pay for the service (such as North America and Western Europe), we are able to use the revenue generated to offset costs in lower-resourced countries. The Bookshare South Asia team provides some of the customer support for Bookshare library management contracts in North America, Europe, and the Pacific that began in 2016.

Bookshare seeks grant funding and earned income contracts. We aim to raise a minimum of $700,000 to grow our work in South Asia and continue to expand into Asia Pacific and Eastern Africa over the next 3 years.

Projected Bookshare expenses for 2020 operations in India are approximately USD $170,000, and the budget is anticipated to grow next year for work in the region. Beyond current funding, grant funds are pending for Bookshare technology, training, book conversion, and impact measurement in South Asia in 2020 and 2021.

The Elevate Prize will support awareness, network, and operations. The global MIT Solve platform audience includes potential supporters and partners for Bookshare. Grassroots outreach is critical, but the pace at which people discover Bookshare lags behind the need that millions of people have to access information in formats they can read. The disruption and uncertainty of COVID-19 has been particularly difficult for people with disabilities who are already less likely to access information, education, and stable employment. These students and adults will fall further behind academically and economically if they remain disconnected from digital resources like Bookshare. The exposure of this prize will help us reach them. 

Second, being part of the network of peers and advisors in the Global Heroes cohort will be a welcome professional community for me as a seasoned entrepreneur, as well as my team that includes early-career professionals seeking role models and inspiration for their futures.

Third, the funding of the Prize will be put to immediate use to produce accessible books and conduct online training for people with disabilities, their teachers, and other nonprofit support staff. Long-standing organizations in our partner countries are ready and waiting to work with us to keep pace with demand for production of local books and virtual support for people seeking access to books.

It would be an honor on behalf of my team and the people with disabilities that use Bookshare to improve their lives, for the Bookshare solution to be recognized by the Elevate Prize.

• Funding and revenue: Funding support is welcome as grants for support of our operations, or as contracts with libraries and private entities anywhere in the world that wish to offer accessible versions of their books to people with disabilities.
• Monitoring and evaluation: We are always seeking research support, including funding, to collect and unpack additional impact data about inclusive education needs and the Bookshare solution.
• Marketing, media, and exposure: Millions of people in South Asian countries could benefit from Bookshare. Media support to reach people with disabilities and their families is critical to ensure that those who need accessible materials know how to find them. In addition, we would welcome media that raises awareness of learning differences like dyslexia. Lastly, capturing and amplifying stories of success can showcase the positive contributions of people with disabilities in school and the workplace and help to promote social acceptance and inclusion.

We are always interested to connect with potential Implementation partners within nonprofit, government, and for-profit sectors. Nonprofit partners can support educators and families to support people with disabilities to use assistive hardware and software solutions like Bookshare for learning. Government and for-profit entities that produce textbooks, vocational materials, and popular books can give digital copies to Bookshare for easy distribution to people with print disabilities. International organizations can make a huge impact by supporting governments to improve inclusive education practices, ICT infrastructure, and use of resources like Bookshare.