Friday, November 3, 2017

How to use Voice Over on the iPad to read books off Bookshare.org's Web Reader.

So I guess I am a little slow on the draw.  We create accounts on Bookshare.org for our students who need help with reading materials.  On March 2, 2017 I posted an article that told how to use Bookshare.org's web reader.  At that time it seemed as though you could only use the fully functioning web reader using a browser on a computer, but not on an iPad.  On the computer, the web reader gave you a "play" option, on the iPad this function was not available because the browsers would not support it.  

With this in mind, we would purchase and download the Voice Dream Reader App ($15) from the App store...then we became an 1:1 school and we started having more students that needed the Bookshare.org materials read to them on the iPad. I am sure we could purchase a license for Voice Dream Reader and push it out through our JAMF iPad management software but we do not have an exact number of students that need it and that number seems to increase every couple of weeks.  

Finally I decided to sit down and investigate if there was any way to use the iPad without downloading the Voice Dream App.  Here's is what I discovered.

I found that you have to use the Safari Browser...it will not work with Google Chrome...I guess Apple and Google do not play nice/

Let me just warn you that there are 2 ways to do this and here is my take...

  • I would login to Bookshare.org, find and open the book and THEN turn VoiceOver on the iPad. 
  • If you turn VoiceOver first and THEN login to Bookshare.org, just remember that you have to click once to select something (be it a link or even to type a letter) THEN double click it to enter. FYI-I did it this way first and it worked but my patience was severely tested.

  1. Go to https://www.bookshare.org/ look to the top right and click “Login”.  Use the same username and passwords as they do in class.
  2. Look in the middle of the screen under your name and click on #1 – view your assigned books (reading list)
  3. Click on on your teacher's reading list (i.e. - Ms. Schaefer’s reading list)
  4. Find book in that list…go all the way to the right of the book you want and click READ NOW
Commands to move forward and back pages are at the top of the screen (a left triangle to move back  page, a right triangle 

Now set up Voice Over on the iPad.
  1. Go into settings
  2. General
    1. Accessibility
    2. Voice Over
    3. You may want to click on VoiceOver Practice first because once you turn VoiceOver on, the commands for the iPad change.
      1. You tap once to select and item
      2. Double-tap to activate the selected item
      3. Swipe three fingers to scroll. (it is a little confusing at first but you'll get the hang of it.)
    4. Turn VoiceOver by moving the toggle button to the right...it will turn green. 
    5. Press the Home button once...the big button on the front of the iPad
    6. Click the Safari icon once to select it a black box should now surround the icon.
    7. Click the Safari icon twice to open it and get back to Bookshare.org.
    8. Use the triangles to find the page you want, REMEMBER you have to click once to select and TWICE to move a page.  The icon to the left of the triangles (looks like a box with 3 lines with buttons at the end of them) allows you to open a Table of Contents. 
    9. Click once to choose the selection you want to be read to you...a black box will surround the text and the iPad should start reading it.