For students who struggle with print, alternative formats are ready, and the AIM-VA staff is accepting orders from teachers so eligible students can read for free over the summer break.

Summer Boost

Teachers who order now can offer students with print disabilities a literacy boost at no cost to families or schools so long as education teams find individual learners eligible for accessible educational materials (AEM). The program operates in every state, although eligibility criteria differ.

Summer reading in friendly formats can sow the seeds of a reading habit. The digital formats, along with braille and large text, can go a long way to prevent an academic summer slide. AIM-VA has a growing list of accessible fiction and non-fiction books. 

Many Titles, Many Genres

Under the AEM program, book titles (textbooks as well as trade books) are converted to suit all kinds of reading preferences from audiobooks to accessible PDF formats. Sometimes students use more than one format for the same title. They might like to listen to the book, for example, but then interact with the text in a PDF format with built-in learning supports in order to complete assignments.

AIM-VA offers books in every genre, including: 

• Historical Fiction
• Biography
• Non-Fiction
• Young Adult
• Science Fiction
• Classics
• Graphic Novels

For Eligible Students

Teachers, students, and families can check for specific titles on the AIM-VA book finder to see if a book is available from AIM-VA and its partners or through book vendors.

Planning now creates opportunities so that these students can read what their friends read, explore books on their own, and locate and download books as the summer progresses. Why leave reading options to chance?

Follow the this link and scroll down the page to view AIM-VA's summer book suggestions for readers in different age groups:

• Elementary School books
• Middle School books
• High School books

Reading Resources

Check out the following articles and resources for more information about summer reading:

• Struggling Readers Can Thrive This Summer with A Treasure Chest for Accessible Books from the AIM-VA blog
• 8 Trusted App Sources Can Rev Up Accessible Summer Learning for Students with Disabilities from the AIM-VA blog
• Summer reading resources for parents, teachers and librarians from Reading Rockets
• Ready, set, read! A summer reading together resources from Learning Ally