IN DEPTH


Feature Accessibility in children’s books


While there is development in accessibilit, these are the exception rather than the rule; popular children’s books that gain traction are still oſten lacking accessible elements, both in terms of inclusion and in how they are produced. Those that are accessible may be more expen- sive due to additional elements, and therefore can be out of reach to families that need them. ClearVision Project, a postal lending library comprised of children’s books shared by visually impaired and sighted children and adults, is one of the organisations atempting to fix this problem. Its director Alex Briton says that the pandemic has been a factor in highlighting this need for accessible books. “It’s certainly highlighted the fact that there’s litle to nothing being commercially produced that includes both print and braille, making books suitable for sharing. When hundreds of children were having to be home-schooled, separated from their specialist teachers and the resources produced for them in school, we had a big spike of requests from parents who had nothing they could share with their braille-reading children, for education or reading for pleasure.” She adds: “The same problem exists in reverse: we also loan to braille-reading adults so they can read with sighted children; it’s prety hard to home-school your kids (or take on extra grandparent dut) if you don’t have an accessible version of what they are reading.”


Going it alone


There has been a long-standing history of accessible books being created outside the publishing industry. Modifications to children’s books—such as physical objects being glued to pages, velcro, page spacers and covers—have oſten been created by educators who wanted children with different access needs to be able to participate in learning. But now that publishing has become more aware of accessibilit and inclusivit, many are calling for more mainstream-published books to take on this responsibilit.


Briton feels that this is an area in which publishing is not doing as much as it could be. “As a library for children who need books in print and braille, we are constantly searching for books which offer something beyond the visual to young readers, as well as reflecting their realities. Surprisingly, that’s still quite hard to do.” She says there are limited options available for beginner readers and believes authors and publishers could greatly widen the appeal of their books by “shaping stories so that the focus of each page is something all readers can access”. However, she recognises that there is an appetite and a push for inclusivit, which perhaps may be the first step towards creating more accessible content that is availablent on a wide scale. She comments: “There has certainly been a push towards greater inclusiveness in terms of depic- tions of disabilit in books, at least in the illustrations… Equalit would be a world in which any child could go into any bookshop or public library, and pull from a shelf a book they could read. We are a long way from that, but the publishing world is embracingis embracing the need for accessible formats, and the publishers who have made copies of their work available t charities such as the RNIB and Calibre audio library


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bre audio librar 22 22nd March 2022


ILLUSTRATOR DAPO ADEOLA


are testament to that.”


Equality would be a world in which any child could go into any bookshop or public library, and pull from a shelf a book they could read


Alex Britton


Looking up Forrest argues that there are promising examples of inclusivit in terms of the narratives and characters found in children’s books, referencing Andi Goes, a picture book created by the Havas Lynx Group as an early detection tool for children with dyslexia, and The Roller Coaster Ride by David Broadbent (Child’s Play), which features a main character with an upper limb difference. Meanwhile, titles such as the Italian-language Pesci Parlanti series of fairy tales, designed for children with autism and created by specialist Enza Crivelli, are paving the way for how publishers can work with independent charities and experts to produce more accessible children’s literature, for a variet of ages and access needs. However, Forrest is also clear that publishing still needs to focus on catering to different access needs. Expanding on the lack of accessibilit within publishing, and how much further we have to go, she comments: “I think there are two things: accessibilit of disabilities, and inclusion of. The accessibilit side of things relates to physical production. Simple things like making sure the font is clear and not fiddly, that text is writen on a solid, high- contrasted background so children are not distracted from the leters… Even those two things can make an enormous difference. What the pandemic has done is opened the door of an awareness and acceptance of creative technol- ogy to make books more accessible, and to enable children and parents to become more familiar with creative technologies and how they can enhance reading.” Overall, there is a lot of work being done around chil- dren’s accessibilit, but there is still more to do. With an i increased focus on diversit and inclusion in publishing,ncreased focus on di there is plent of scope to explore different avenues in terms of accessibilit of children’s books. Kids’ literature oſten fosters the imagination, so perhaps we should take a leaf out of these books to imagine what we could do if we pushed further for more creative, accessi creative, accessible books that more children are able to enjoy. enjoy.


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Vika Books is one such publisher embracing accessible formats. It uses immersive technologies to enhance book designs using sign language, and has just released its first augmented realit publication, Where is the Bird?, a “buggy book and smartphone app that makes pre-speech commu- nication between babies and adults a realit.” While there may be many headlines about the time children spend on screens, Vika Books’ creator Victoria Forrest argues that creative technology can make books more accessible for children. She explains: “The writen word is based on phonics, an abstract concept that deaf children can struggle to understand. Bedtime stories are a foundation for literacy—the books that I am starting to create use creative technology to bring a silent, static page to life, translated by showing a video of sign language; their own moving language. Augmented realit can bring a page to life, and we have actually learned that children atach a memory of creative technology to the printed page rather than the phone. It increases fascination with the books rather than the technology used to read them.”


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