Why books need to be made more accessible for visually impaired people

As a visually impaired person, Maya Haynes had to wait six months for a large print copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – and when it came it was more of a doorstop than a book! Kindles and eReaders are making things better but, she argues, there is still a long way to go in making books more accessible

My first experience of the difficulties of accessing books as a visually impaired person came when I was a teenager. I was an avid reader of the Harry Potter books, and like everyone else, I waited poised with anticipation for the next book in the series – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – to sit on my bookshelf. A few months after the standard print copy had been published, the large print version of the book became available. Christmas 2007 was when I eventually got my hands on it.

The only problem was that the book wasn’t in separate volumes, as Braille books often are. What resulted was a book that was too heavy to take anywhere – something which takes some of the fun out of reading. (There’s nothing better than sitting on a packed train reading when you know you’re getting off at the last stop on the journey). The book was impossible to carry in my backpack, and as it was compulsory to have a reading book for school, this meant that I had to have one book to read at home and another to read between lessons – which was not so much fun!

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