Authors Can Make Book Events Accessible By Doing This
by Beth
I am in the midst of planning book readings to promote my new book Writing Out Loud, so the timing of a new post on Brevity’s Nonfiction blog with a step-by-step guide to staging accessible online book events couldn’t be better.
Here I am, a blind author who moderates a blog for a non-profit organization for people with disabilities, and it wasn’t until I read that post that it dawned on me how non-accessible literary readings can be.
“The typical literary reading presents an obstacle course for many people with disabilities and chronic illnesses,” guest blogger Sonya Huber points out in her post. “From finding transportation and parking to staying up late to navigating stairs and chairs, every decision involves stress and difficulty.”
Huber’s new essay collection Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays From a Nervous System deals with the twists and turns of living with chronic pain.
“I knew that I needed to find ways to connect with people with chronic pain,” she says. “I was surprised to find that an online reading was easy and fun, and I believe this is something other authors can easily do to extend their own audiences and make literary readings more accessible.”
The guest post gives step-by-step instructions for putting an accessible Facebook Live event together. Huber says she chose Facebook because she has more contact with friends and followers there, but in the end she uploaded the MP4 file to YouTube, too, where she had better luck with captioning.
“I was actually surprised at how easy this was,” Huber writes, adding that doing a book event this way “can be considered literary citizenship work aimed at broadening and diversifying our audiences.”
So who knows? Maybe I’ll try staging one of these accessible Online Readings myself. If I do, you know you can count on me to write a post here telling you all about it. Stay tuned!
June 13th, 2017 at 11:21 am
Hi, I am a disabled author, However due to my many disabilities, I am stuck without money..I’ve had a massive heart attack, 2 massive brain bleeds, non hodgekins lymphoma,among other disease, seems like its non stop.
Do you help authors in achieving their goals? I have no money to speak of at all, the Government gave me a limited amount of money to just about survive. I had written 2 children’s books in 1991, before I was deemed disabled. I am now 60 years old and have never fulfilled my dreams of publishing my 2 small kid’s books. Is that any way that Easter Seals could help me finally finish my dream?
thank you for your time,
Denise Southworth
781-837-2378
My address is: and it is disabled housing, still trying to find another place due to break ins here// maybe you could help me with that. I never thought that my life would turn out this way.. I just have to move forward with any help that you could do for me…
Address:
14 Tea Rock Gardense
Apt. C
Marshfield, Ma. 02050
PS.. God bless you all…from the bottom of my heart..