A Project. A Final Project.

Okay, if you’ve been reading backwards I’d just like to stop you here. Every post before this was written when I was in middle school, and though many of them are entertaining, they probably won’t convey any real information. But hey, if you want to read about why I once believed giraffes were the most useless species on Earth, by all means go ahead.

Anyway, I am beginning a project. A final project. A final project for a Bard College at Simon’s Rock course on children’s literature taught by the lovely Dr. Jane Wanninger. Hi Jane!

In this class, we read a series of books, most of which I enjoyed, some of which I didn’t. One that particularly stood out to me was El Deafo by Cece Bell.

El Deafo is a memoir which details Bell’s childhood as a deaf individual. In an article she wrote, Bell says,

“The main reason that I believed the graphic novel format was the best format for my story is: SPEECH BALLOONS. They are awesome. They let me show the reader exactly what my character is hearing, or not hearing—a very important thing to show in a story about deafness.”

In a regular book, deafness can only be shown by saying “I can’t hear”—the reader cannot tell whether or not other people are talking if the main character is not looking at their mouth. In the graphic novel, however, the reader experiences the events of the story as a deaf person would: through sight.

This use of medium to cater to specific needs inspired me. I developed a plan to write a story designed to be specifically accessible to blind children, and what better way to do so than through an audiobook?

Side note: To be considered blind in the court of law, your vision must be 20/200 or less with and without visual aids (Boxer Wachler). According to WebMD, “[t]hat means if an object is 200 feet away, you have to stand 20 feet from it in order to see it clearly.” I have terrible eyesight and wear glasses every day, but my vision is entirely correctable. For this reason, I will not be writing about the blind experience, but will simply be making my own work accessible to the blind community.

As of now, my plan has five parts:

1. Write my story.
2. Research into blindness. How are blind children taught? What is the blind community like? How do blind people experience the world?
3. Change my story with this information in mind. I am writing the story first and then researching because there are way more authors who write without accessibility in mind than those who do. The methods used to adapt a story can be applied to any already existing work, which means that authors have not been using accesible practices can correct retrospectively.
4. Research into the audiobook format. Are there ways I should change my story to better work within the form? Is this an easy or difficult process?
5. Convert the story into the audiobook format.
6. Reflect.

So here I go.

Signed,

The Writer

SLOTH

Works Cited:

1. Bell, Cece. “Cece Bell: How I Made El Deafo – in Pictures.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Aug. 2015, www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2015/aug/04/cece-bell-el-deafo-in-pictures.
2. Boxer Wachler, Brian S. “What Does It Mean to Be Legally Blind?” WebMD, WebMD, 7 Nov. 2019, www.webmd.com/eye-health/legally-blind-meaning.