Write-house for the Blind

I began my research into literature and accessibility for the blind by first reading up on what blindness actually is.

I first tried to find anything I could on blind culture; I was hoping that I might discover an book club which employed techniques useful to my project, or a list of things blind people wished were in their books. What I discovered instead was that I was already making assumptions. According to Barbara Pierce, 2009 president of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, there is “No Such Thing As Blind Culture.” Her explanation is that “culture develops when barriers exist interrupting the communication between members of the group in question and the larger society.” Deaf culture exists because “Deaf people frequently use American Sign Language as their preferred method of communication. They recognize this as a distinct language,” so since most blind people can speak, and since Braille is a code, not another language, blind people have had no need to develop their own specific culture, but instead have relied on community.

As I described in my earlier blog post, to be considered blind in the court of law, your vision must be 20/200 or less with and without visual aids (Boxer Wachler). Through my recent research, I learned that a Swedish study on blindness conducted over two decades found that “[s]eventy-two per cent of the [studied] children (108/150) had at least one diagnosed additional disability, the most common being ID, ASD and motor disabilities” (de Verdier 297), which meant that a mere “22% (33/150) had only blindness and no reported coexisting disorder.” At least in Sweden (though I assume it is similar throughout the US and regions within Europe), “[m]any children with blindness […] attend inclusive education in local schools around the country, also blind children with additional disabilities. This places high demands on the school system and the individual teachers [… T]he pedagogical support provided to the schools is not always sufficient, according to teachers and parents” (299).

This seems to be a trend within the blind community: resources exist, but they are either unavailable or in short supply. For example, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) machines, which “[convert] print to text readable by a text-to-speech engine,” range from $995-$3500 (Van Gerven), so not all families with visually impaired members can afford them. “[E]xisting teaching methods for children with ASD are often difficult or even impossible to apply, as these methods to a high extent are based on visual skills” and blind people cannot see (de Verdier 299). Even a study on video games notices “a few mainstream games are playable but not optimized for blind users; most audio-games are too simple or too old to offer an intriguing experience and may not offer an intuitive introduction to the game” (Giannakopoulos 609).

This experiment on the creation of video games for blind children has become a beacon of light for my project. The experiment begins with the interview of multiple sight-impaired children and finds that “[t]he need to play electronic games is great. Blind children try to play with any available device, even if it is not designed for them, even if they keep losing” (612). Additionally, “[c]hildren and young people with low vision want to use whatever visual ability they have.”  Because some children have more sight than others and can see colors or light, the scientists created two types of games: “(1) Audio-Based Games, where some visual content exists that has a rather non-essential supportive role (2) Audio-Only-Games, where the visual stimuli is completely absent” (609). From their research and testing, the scientists eventually concluded that a good video game for blind children

(1) provides modern sonification allowing for the efficient perceptual representation of the game-play; (2) evolves software design and realization models that employ iterative subjective evaluation and feedback phases, supporting accessible tutorials integrated into the gaming environment; (3) creates a software platform that offers the ability to any interested user, blind or sighted (even with minimal digital skills) to contribute to the development of accessible games; (4) supports the easy translation of games into the users’ mother tongue; (5) increases the replayability of video games for blind children, by allowing children with and without visual impairment to play together, side by side or remotely and (6) allows blind children to bring their voices and topics of their interests into the games they create, increasing their engagement. (609-610)

While many of these requirements are video game specific, I saw a few that resonated with my project. Requirement (1) emphasized a use of sound to represent gameplay; I could use sound effects within my audiobook to represent pictures and imagery. Requirement (2) called for translatability. While my project is conducted solely in the English language, I think it is important to note that it the methods can be translated into any language (quite roughly if you use the widget to the right) then applied to literature either already in your language or stories ready for translation.

Additionally, I’d like to call back to the experiment’s earlier claim that because some children children have better vision than other, the games should be customizeable. I think this can be applied to audiobooks easily. To begin, audiobook reading speeds are adjustable on most platforms already. Furthermore, audio files are some of the easiest to manipulate because of their nature of blending many different tracks. When making a fiction podcast (basically a radio drama), sound effects are placed on a different track as character voices are place on a different track as ambience… You get my point. If one child abhors sound effects, they should have the ability to mute them and vice versa. This same methodology can be applied to books which teach the skill of reading with page turn indicators (you know, the ones you or your mom listened to on vinyl). If a child is just beginning their journey of reading Braille, it might be helpful to hear that oh-so-familiar ding. However, if they can read Braille just fine and are simply in the mood to hear someone speak to them, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to toggle the feature at will.

The video game experiment also emphasized “the need to give teachers and health professionals the appropriate tools to create their own game variations” (617). Now this is an excellent idea, but it presents specifically difficult problems within the industry of literature. As nice as it would be to have a fully customizable online database of books read out by teachers around the world, available to anyone with a keyboard and a mousepad, copyright law exists. I am sure that plenty of people would be willing to make separate tracks and create a software in which young blind readers can choose how they hear a story on a whim, but as soon as the law is involved people like to back out, and I don’t blame them. It’s a tedious journey soliciting permission from authors (and their agents and their publishers). Right now, the best idea I can think of is for already established companies (such as Audible) to convert their existing audiobooks into customizable ones and continue the practice in all new publications.

Anyway, I have a story to record. I’ll be back with reflections when I’m finished.

Signed,

The Writer

SLOTH

Works Cited:

1. 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.
2. de Verdier, Kim, et al. “Children with Blindness - Major Causes, Developmental Outcomes and Implications for Habilitation and Educational Support: a Two-Decade, Swedish Population-Based Study.” Acta Ophthalmologica, vol. 96, no. 3, May 2018, pp. 295–300., doi:10.1111/aos.13631.
3. Giannakopoulos, George, et al. “Accessible Electronic Games for Blind Children and Young People.” British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 49, no. 4, 4 July 2018, pp. 608–619., doi:10.1111/bjet.12628.
4. Pierce, Barbara. “No Such Thing as Blind Culture.” Braille Monitor, The National Federation of the Blind, Nov. 2008, www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm08/bm0810/bm081007.htm.
5. Van Gerven, Clara. “Optical Character Recognition and High-Volume Book-Scanning.” Braille Monitor, The National Federation of the Blind, Nov. 2008, www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm08/bm0810/bm081010.htm.