THE BUSINESS OF WRITING
ACCESS ALL AREAS
All writers need readers. Simon Whaley explores how we can make our work more inclusive and accessible to a wider readership
H
ands
up if you’d like more people to read your writing. I’m sure that’s most of you. You can put your hands down now. Who doesn’t want more readers? However, if you stop and think about my question, you might notice that it wasn’t particularly inclusive. Not everyone can raise their hand. That could be due to a permanent or temporary physical disability or a medical condition.
Accessibility is something many of us fail to consider, especially if we don’t experience accessibility issues on a daily basis. In 2016, I nearly lost the sight in one eye when I experienced the start of a retinal detachment. Thanks to the wonderful NHS, they saved my sight. But for four months post-surgery, I struggled to look at computer screens, electronic devices, and even some printed books. You could say the experience was eye-opening.
It’s not until something like this happens that you think about others with similar conditions. Could we be doing more to make our work accessible? The more accessible our work is, the more readers we might attract.
Technology can help a little with some of this responsibility. During my temporary sight impairment, I found my e-reader made things much easier because I could increase the text’s font size. Sometimes, I found listening to material more comfortable than struggling to read it.
Jeff Adams and Michele Lucchini are co-authors of Content for Everyone, a practical guide to help writers make more of their work accessible. Both have a day job working for UsableNet, a company that helps businesses make their websites, apps, and other digital content more accessible. Jeff also writes romance and young adult fiction with queer characters. With the explosion in self-publishing in recent years, he realised many authors were excluding readers because they weren’t making their work as accessible as possible. Often, this is because we simply don’t know how.