Online books designed to help students with disabilities learn to read
The Tar Heel Reader is a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. The site, which was created by Karen Erickson of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and Gary Bishop of the department of computer science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was built to fight illiteracy among under-served populations, especially those with disabilities that make it difficult to learn to read using traditional books and learning methods.
Each book can be speech-enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces, including touch screens, the IntelliKeys with custom overlays, and 1 to 3 switches. Students and teachers can browse books over 50 thousand books by topic or create their own book.
There are two Tar Heel Reader libraries to support students at various reading levels:
Tar Heel Reader, tarheelreader.org
Books to support independent reading
Tar Heel Shared Reader, shared.tarheelreader.org
Books with an interface that allows adults to engage students more actively in constructing meaning from texts
