The vision for Bloom is that every child will have sufficient appropriate reading materials in their own languages to open up the joy and power of reading. The mission is to dramatically lower the technology bar so that many more people can get involved in developing a large number of local language books. Simplicity for the user is combined with power for creating books in any language that are linguistically and pedagogically correct and can also serve those with print disabilities.

With its unique language-specific capabilities, Bloom is the only tool available for creating pedagogically and linguistically-correct decodable and leveled reading materials. Once the applicable scope and sequence and definition of levels have been entered, Bloom gives the author warnings when he/she uses an out-of-scope letter or goes beyond any leveling criterion. Bloom also can give in-scope word suggestions. Speakers of local languages with little to no computer literacy can use Bloom to create literature in their own languages that they want their children to read. They can use Bloom templates or shell books posted online on the Bloom Library. Bloom facilitates the creation of books in a single language or in two or three languages, and exports titles as PDFs, ePUBs, or for use with the free Android Bloom Reader App. Bloom recently added tools for creating books for the visually impaired and Deaf, making it much easier to create inclusive materials in any language. Bloom is an offline tool, thus making a live Internet connection unnecessary. If an Internet connection is available, Bloom works together with its Book Library at bloomlibrary.com/browse. Users can upload their books to the Library for others to access and/or download books to adapt into their own language. There are extensive Bloom training materials, including end user and Training of Trainers curricula and a process for certifying Bloom trainers. The training videos have subtitles in eight languages.

Bloom is free, supports any language, allows the creation of new books or translation of existing ones, can be configured to create linguistically and pedagogically appropriate books, and enables the creation of inclusive literature for the Deaf and visually impaired. No other software has this combination of capabilities. Bloom and the training videos are free. The tool is easy to use by people with limited experience with technology. It supports any of the world’s 7,000+ languages, in any script. 31 training videos have optional subtitles in eight languages. Bloom supports authoring of new books, translating existing books, and creating new versions of more than 3,000 titles in 150+ languages available on the free online Bloom library. Bloom is the only program with tools for creating decodable and leveled books tailored to specific languages. Tools for adding audio and video make Bloom the only all-in-one tool to create born-accessible books for visually impaired and Deaf readers.

Further developing the Bloom Enterprise service will provide organizations with additional tools and services and contribute to financial sustainability. Additional work on the accessible book and sign language tools will make it easier to create “born-accessible” literature. A complete rewrite of the website will allow users to download books in the language and format of their choice and read any book online. Changes to the underlying architecture of the program will make it cross-platform.