5 Tips to Make Reading Accessible
Reading can be a delight, an education, and a journey- if kids have accessible options.
When I offer reading support, I start by honoring experiences of difficulty, listening, and acknowledging challenges and obstacles. Kids who are blind, Deaf, hard of hearing, or have limited vision or mobility may not find specific forms of literature to be practical or usable tools. The same goes for students with dyslexia, ADHD, and visual and auditory processing disabilities. (Note that this is not meant as a complete list of disabilities that interact with reading.) Kids may believe that reading is irrelevant to their lives or not for “people like me”.
A generally good guideline is to trust kids who tell you that reading is too hard or that they can’t read something. A student who says these things is not trying to get out of doing work- they are sincerely struggling and need either a different format or more support. However, this is not an excuse for adults to give up on content or suggest that reading is not important for kids. With a mountain of AI-generated knowledge, a crisis of expert credibility, and a trend towards short-form headlines and reels, reading skills are crucial for kids to understand their world and their role within it.
Instead of dismissing youth experiences or downplaying the importance of reading, here are some suggestions from my work at Solve for Why.
1. Audiobooks
Just to shut this down before it comes up- listening to an audio book is 100% reading. Audio can be great for blind or dyslexic kids, as well as neurodivergent kids who need to do something with their hands to stay engaged and attentive. For students who struggle with both written and spoken language processing, combining the two makes a big difference.
Audiobook options are plentiful- I’m a Libby fan and keep several library cards attached which means access to millions of fiction and nonfiction audiobooks. A lot of online articles now have audio options as well, and for those that don’t there are ample extensions that use text-to-voice. Screen reading is the one thing that Microsoft Edge does really well, and the only reason I let it stay on my computer.
Personally, I’ve been reading hard copies nonstop since primary school, but I’ve recently learned that audiobooks make it way easier for me to process and enjoy non-fiction. Even for people who are great at reading one genre, these tools can help diversify our literature and broaden our perspectives.
2. Ebooks
Ebooks are not just great for being on devices that kids know well and use frequently, though it certainly doesn’t hurt. The ability to annotate texts, scale fonts, and change interfaces makes space for blind, low vision, and other disabled readers at the table (of contents). For kids who don’t like bright backgrounds or just have a favorite color, theme customization can work wonders and offer a way to participate in what they’re reading. Words can be larger than possible in print books, and links and bookmarks help readers navigate.
Ebooks are also more accessible from a writer perspective- newer, younger, and marginalized writers often turn to digital publishing and self-publishing when traditional avenues are closed to us. This means that eBooks offer a greater range of perspectives and aren’t subject to the same market forces and biases that limit the books in stores and on shelves.
3. Broaden Your Scope
Consider what types of reading kids are already doing on a daily basis. Dialogue in movies, comic books, or story games? Chat logs and Twitch reports? Sneaker, tech, or film reviews? News, mutual aid asks, protest signs? This is reading!
While these sources themselves may not be literature (whole different conversation), they can offer hints to what reading skills kids already have and what texts might give them a chance to apply those skills. Youth-workers can mine these sources for reading exercises to help kids improve grammar and vocabulary and strengthen reading as a whole. Note the dialects used in these sources and create compare-contrast assignments with similarly themed “professional” writing. Prompt kids to tell a story using these formats. Ask what makes writing in these genres “good”. Prepare to be wowed by the depth of their answers.
4. Start off EASY
Where EASY stands for “exciting, achievable, short, and younger”. For kids that have learned over years that they are not “good readers” or who associate reading with inaccessibility, anxiety and avoidance are common responses. If you want the tools and resources you’re offering to help a kid in the long run and empower them to become a capable and enthusiastic reader, first impressions are vital.
Giving kids EASY texts to start with is the equivalent of reaching for low-hanging fruit. We show kids that its possible to take the fruit from the tree, and for that fruit to taste good. If a kid loves football, show them a short, simple language, interview with their favorite player. Music? Album notes. Marvel? Superhero stories.
As readers build confidence, increase the challenge, length, and age of texts slowly and gently. If a reader is struggling with a level increase, or with stress, symptoms, etc., you can always go back down a branch. It’s helpful to diversify topics while keeping their interests centered- read about the debate to pay college athletes, the context of a protest song, or some of the inspirations of their favorite game.
5. Collaborative Reading
My favorite tip on this list. Sometimes readers can’t get an eBook because they don’t have a working smartphone or tablet. Sometimes audiobook narrators are, frankly, really bad. Sometimes a story can offer all the comfort in the world, but only if it’s read by somebody familiar. Sometimes readers can’t understand what they’ve read without pausing regularly to discuss it.
Once upon a time in undergrad, I could not get through my Hume homework. I’d been staring at the first paragraph for hours and I was on the verge of tears. A complete stranger visiting my roommate sat down and asked me to read it to her, and within the first ten minutes I was on the third page.
Part of cultivating good readers is teaching kids to share what they learn and seek help understanding it. Have kids read to each other. Don’t say anything when they mispronounce a word or skip a line. Let them help each other read, and let them help each other learn. If one of them wants to take twice the words, more power. If one of them has a lot of opinions or connections to the last sentence, they’ll talk it out. Don’t interrupt - just listen. You’ll learn about reading too.