When he set it up, I doubt if Gary Bishop could have foreseen the phenomenal growth that Tar Heel Reader would achieve.   This amazing online collection of accessible “books for beginning readers of all ages” has grown to 5805 titles!  Beautifully illustrated with images from Flickr, these books are truly engaging for a wide range of readers.

In the context of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Tar Heel Reader books are accessible to ALL learners.   Almost all of the titles are ‘age-appropriate’ for learners of any age.  The books can be read and/or listened to online.  They can be accessed with a mouse, with up to three switches, or via overlays on Intellikeys.  As well, the books can be downloaded quickly and easily for use offline.  Here’s a video that shows how a switch user might read a Tar Heel book either online or offline.

PowerTalk is a free add-on that provides text-to-speech for PowerPoint files, and it works brilliantly with Tar Heel Reader books when downloaded as PowerPoint files.  The experience of reading a Tar Heel Reader book is enhanced tremendously when viewed as a full screen slide show and when narrated with PowerTalk.  It’s even better if a quality voice has been installed on your computer for text-to-speech.

Excellent voices can be purchased and downloaded from NextUp, and elsewhere, for about $30.  If you already have a good voice because it has come with another program, this voice can be set as the default for all text-to-speech on your computer.  For example, VW Paul is the default voice on my computer because I have Kurzweil 3000.  The default is set in ‘Speech’ at the Control Panel.

I have downloaded a sampling of about 70 Tar Heel Reader books as PowerPoint files.  If you would like to have these, you can download them in a zipped file HERE.  Also included in the folder is an executable file for installing PowerTalk.  I hope you find this helpful.

I have made and embedded a short video below, that demonstrates opening and reading a downloaded Tar Heel Reader story with PowerTalk.  This is exactly as it looks and sounds for me when I use PowerTalk with a downloaded Tar Heel Reader book.  Narration begins automatically on the title page, but the reader chooses to move through the pages of the book at his or her own pace.  I used the right-arrow key to move through the pages.