BARD Mobile

The BARD Mobile app provides access to braille and talking books directly from the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD). BARD contains nearly 80,000 books, magazines, and music scores in audio and braille formats, with new selections added daily.

With BARD Mobile, you can play the audio materials on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. If your device is connected to a refreshable braille display through Bluetooth, you can also read the braille materials available on BARD.

Before you can use this BARD Mobile app, you must be registered with a braille and talking-book library in the NLS network of cooperating libraries. If you aren’t registered but think you qualify for this service because you cannot read regular print as a result of a visual or physical disability, locate your local library for the blind and physically handicapped at http://www.loc.gov/nls/find.html or call 1-800-NLS-READ to apply for service.

Once you are registered, you may then sign up for a BARD account and receive your BARD user name and password. Download the free app and sign in with your BARD user name and password to get started. You’ll only need to do this the first time you use the app. The app contains a user manual that you may access through the Help feature.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress, administers the braille and talking-book program, a free library service available to residents of the United States and its territories and American citizens living abroad whose low vision, blindness, or physical disability makes reading regular print difficult. Through its national network of cooperating libraries, NLS mails digital audio players and books and magazines—in audio and in braille—directly to enrollees at no cost. Music instructional materials are available in large-print, braille, and recorded formats. Select materials are also available online for download.