Accessibility/Milestones: Benetech Reaches 15 Million Books Delivered to Those with Reading Barriers via Bookshare Online Library Network

From a Benetech Blog Post:

Today we are celebrating an exciting milestone for impact at Benetech: we have delivered 15 million books to people with reading barriers through the Bookshare online library service and network. That’s 15 million books that users found and accessed through Bookshare that they would not otherwise have been able to read. And it’s not just about the number of books, but what these books enable people to do: pursue an education, develop professional skills, find employment, and participate in their communities. We’d like to celebrate and thank the entire community that has made this momentous milestone possible.

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More From Benetech

enetech’s pace of global impact continues to accelerate through the expansion of its network of global libraries. This growth includes new partnerships with local organizations to expand access to information in Bangladesh, Canada, Dubai, India, Ireland, Kenya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. The Bookshare initiative currently operates in 88 countries and supports 49 different languages. Today’s milestone comes on the heels of 10 million books delivered, announced in 2016. The nonprofit is on track to see over 20 million books delivered by 2022.

Benetech’s huge collection of accessible ebooks comes primarily from over 900 publisher partners who provide digital copies of books to be transformed into accessible content and added directly to Benetech’s Bookshare collection. These publisher partnerships dramatically reduce the time and cost required to add books to Bookshare’s collection, meaning Bookshare users are often able to download new releases the same day that they are available in stores.

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