The purpose of this study was to explore what display modes, article types and reading methods (individual vs. collaborative reading) can help 3rd to 6th grade students with various subtypes of learning disabilities (LD) to read more attentively and with more interest via a handheld device. A reading system was developed including four display modes and four types of article. Nineteen students with various learning disabilities were involved in the reading tasks, with nine engaging in individual reading and ten in collaborative reading. The system was then modified based on the findings of the first phase. After modification, another 13 students with reading disabilities (RD) participated in individual reading tasks. The study collected qualitative (observations and interviews) and quantitative (system logs) data. The overall findings disclosed that, on average, the students were most concentrated on reading text with accompanying audio. They were, however, easily distracted in the pure audio mode. The easiest and most interesting text was the conversational style article. On the contrary, the most difficult and least interesting article appeared to be the fable. The students conducting collaborative reading, on average, spent more time reading the articles and answering the questions than the individual readers; the former did not reach significant difference but the latter did. The collaborative students, on average, made fewer mistakes answering the questions than the individual students, although the differences were not significant. Suggestions for designing an integrated reading system for students with reading disabilities are provided.