From today's Guardian, an interesting plan by american publishers to reverse the decline in readers:
"There is a crisis in literature. Readers have stopped reading, drawn instead to other perhaps more modish forms of entertainment.Sales are down, authors are despondent, salons are closing and literary lunches have become drab affairs.But US publishers have come to the rescue. Literature's woes, they have decided, lie in the smallness of the print.'Many people over the ripe old age of 40 are starting to have trouble reading, and reading mass market books has become very difficult,' Jane Friedman, president and chief executive officer of HarperCollins told the Associated Press.The answer is obvious: publishers are to make books bigger, thereby making space for larger print on the page and solving in one swoop the malaise affecting literature."
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2 comments:
I have always been amazed that some writers having worked hard to craft their writing choose to allow their creations to be inaccessible to a proproprtion of the population, if the author of this article had ever spoken with someone with a vision impairment or even anyone over the age of 40 he would have realised the absurdity of his dismissal of this belated entry by the bookselling world into the life of real, normal people
I agree - I've been having this discussion recently regarding something I'm having published where the meaning of what I'm saying is being changed by the design.
The characterisation of people needing larger print as being in some way problematic is worrying, you're right. A designer should seek to include, not exclude. A couple of years ago I was at a meeting at the university I taught at at the time and we were looking at 'alternatives' for students with disabilities - handouts for students with dyslexia, things that students who were deaf could do instead of the things hearing students were doing. I saw a high horse and I got on it...
'Why are we talking about disabled students as though they are different, or problems that need to be solved?' I asked. 'Surely we should create a curriculum that suits everybody, not stick to what we've got but provide alternatives for those who can't utilise them. That only reinforces the idea that they are different, and excludes them'.
Last year one of my students, who was dyslexic, did his dissertation on whether designers should consider disabilities when they designed. His findings were depressing - several designers he interviewed said that if someone could not read their design that was not their (the designer's) problem and that they would not compromise good design for 'political correctness'. But as web sites like CSS Zen Garden show, you can produce good looking design that is accessible.
As for large print books - well it's a good idea to look at the design of books as a way of boosting sales, but don't say it's because 'old' people are the problem 'cos their sight is failing. I'm nearly 'old' by their standards...
The book I'm reading at the moment is in small type and is quite thick, and although I'm enjoying it it's not easy to read in bed or on the train. I'm wondering if publishers should look at the early days of books when they were printed in several volumes, with larger type. I saw a 12-volume edition of Lord of the Rings recently that I fancy buying as I want to read it again, but my edition is too heavy to carry or hold.
This would be 'inclusive' without the stigma there used to be in my local library of having to go to the 'large print' section to see if there was a version of the book you wanted. Design should suit everyone - there shouldn't be alternatives that only point out to others and yourself that you are different or, worse, a problem that needs to be solved.
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