#35 Easy Reading: Can Indian Publishing be More Disability-Friendly?
Less than 1% of traditionally printed books are actually accessible to visually impaired people. How can we increase this number?
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According to the Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Forum of India, less than 1% of traditionally printed books are made accessible for print-disabled people — who make up almost 10%-15% of India’s population.
Print-disabled people can face difficulties in reading a traditional print book due to visual impairments or developmental disorders. In these cases, formats like ebooks (EPUBs), audiobooks, large-prints, braille texts, etc. become more accessible options. However, braille texts are priced at 30%-40% more than traditional print. And though there was an increase in ebook and audiobook production during the pandemic, the motivation was to make up for the lack of print distribution and delivery systems rather than thinking of accessibility for disabled people.
So, what can make Indian publishing more disability-friendly?
To make reading accessible, it needs to represent people with disabilities. Frances Ryan, author of Crippled, says, “Disabled authors will have different experiences to their non-disabled colleagues, and their inclusion will create richer storytelling”.
But inclusion can go beyond representation and be incorporated into the publishing process itself, at the stages of editing, designing, marketing, and packaging.
For instance, the Accessible Books Consortium has created guidelines on how to make accessible content, such as providing descriptions for images, using extravagant fonts sparingly, navigation-friendly formats, accommodating colour palettes and themes, etc. In India, publishers like Oxford University Press, SAGE Publications, Zubaan Books, and Tata McGraw Hill have adopted the guidelines created by the DAISY Forum.
Another good practice is to include accessibility information in the book’s metadata (descriptive information that is embedded into the book to aid tracking and discovery), such as whether the book is compatible with a screen reader. Bookstores can take this one step further and display available book titles online with their accessibility metadata. This will help readers make informed decisions on what they can buy and read easily.
Platforms like Access Infinity are partnering with libraries all over the world to offer accessible content in digital formats with the help of automation, AI and machine-learning-based solutions. They are also exploring augmented and virtual realities as potentially accessible formats.
An inclusive publishing process leads to a larger and more inclusive readership. These developments show that publishers and companies are investing more and more into building accessibility into their content, digital and tech products. News platforms like Newslaundry are also investing in building accessibility features into apps. And ever since Bangalore University installed text-to-speech assistance for its books, the university’s Braille Resource Centre has received zero orders for braille formats.
But there’s still a long way to go before accessibility stops being an afterthought and becomes the standard practice for every book and content product. With increasing collaborations between publishing houses and accessibility forums, can we expect publishing to become more disability-friendly in the near future?
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