How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one. These quantitative program results are self-reported by the organization, illustrating their committment to transparency, learning, and interest in helping the whole sector learn and grow.

Five powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

1. What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
   For blind, visually impaired and dyslexic students, and those with related learning disabilities, the educational journey is rife with challenges. We are dedicated to helping individuals grow and succeed academically when access and reading are barriers to their learning by providing solutions to improve learning and self-advocacy. For nearly 70 years, Learning Ally has been an innovator of new programs, tools, and resources designed to empower students, and to support them on their journey to learn and succeed.
2. What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
   Audiobooks, which are available through schools and directly to individuals, are a powerful tool proven to help students with reading disabilities become better readers and learners. A vital accommodation that helps level the playing field, audiobooks keep students engaged while they undergo remediation through school or privately. They support comprehension, provide access to age-level material, boost confidence, save time on school work, and ultimately, lead to better learning outcomes. Many Learning Ally audiobooks are produced with VOICEtext technology, which highlights content as students read, reinforcing word identification and improving decoding skills.
   
   Learning Ally's web-based portal for teachers—Teacher Ally—provides state-of-the art tools and solutions designed to help teachers in the classroom navigate the world of learning disabilities, engage their students and track progress.
   
   We offer youth services focused around self-advocacy through peer mentoring, webinars and workshops that empower students with learning disabilities to take control of their education.
   
   We launched a research based, first-of-its kind College Success Program for blind or visually impaired college students, providing essential tools and support to ease the transition from high school to strategic independence in a higher education setting. The program includes one to one mentorship and an online curriculum uniquely tailored to help blind and visually impaired students succeed in college.
   
3. What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
   Over the past several years Learning Ally has radically revamped the organization and significantly invested in the expansion of our programs and services. This included a major enhancement to our technology that improved the experience for our students and gave teachers the data and tools they need in the classroom.
   
   Learning Ally audiobooks, programs and resources are made available to members through various donor funded and fee based subscription models. We partner with donors to fund major programs that provide district wide access to K-12 schools, as well as districts and individual schools also have the option of self pay. Household, adult, and blind and visually impaired members can purchase individual subscriptions on an annual basis. A nationwide network of about 2,000 volunteers, donated 100,000 hours in just one year to support the development of our audiobooks and other educational resources. This network includes teachers, doctors, mathematicians, scientists and specialists in every subject.
   
   We partner with other like-minded organizations to offer fee based training for educators and specialist to provide information and solutions for those looking for help managing learning and print disabilities, as well as an annual online dyslexia conference to further educate and grow our community.
   
   
   
4. How will they know if they are making progress?
   Progress is measured by the number of students and schools we reach, as well as the impact on students reading, measured by pages and hours read. Also, we conduct a nationwide teacher assessment to determine our impact on student performance. We track participation in online and in person community events. We measure reach and impact for students who are blind or visually impaired by tracking graduation rates for those pursuing higher education goals.
   
5. What have and haven't they accomplished so far?
   From 2013 to 2016 we saw a 76% increase in schools accessing our content, students reading increased by 183% and students read 286% more pages.We are reaching over 230,000 students today via 10,000 plus schools, but with 10.4 million students struggling to read the printed word due to dyslexia and related learning disabilities, blindness or visual impairment in America, we have a long way to go in helping each one of them reach their full academic potential.
   
   
   In our 2016 nationwide teacher survey of over 3,000 educators:
   92% indicated Learning Ally has allowed them to encourage independent reading among their students.
   83% indicated students that use Learning Ally are able to comprehend assigned grade-level reading.
   80% indicated students who use Learning Ally demonstrate improved self-confidence.
   78% indicated students who use Learning Ally demonstrated improvements in their academic performance.
   77% indicated students who use Learning Ally show improvement in their vocabulary skills.
   76% indicated students who use Learning Ally show improvement in their reading fluency.