Hello, My name is Madhu (she/her) and I am working on a project along with a bunch of volunteers called decoloniszing our bookshelves, where we focus on creating a catalogue that brings books by marginalised authors to the forefront, and also create conversations about the effects of colonialism on literature and accessibility. While we have found great resources to enrich our catalogue with literature, we haven't come across resources that catalog literature by people with disabilities. 1/2
I was wondering if you knew such resources, and just a general idea of how we can truly make our project accessible. We already provide alternative text for a lot of our social media posts, but is there something more that we can do? 2/2
Hey, I don’t have much of an answer for you. I haven’t really come across these resources either. I’ll list what I have found at the end. As far as making your project accessible, alt text is a good step. Alt text will help screen reader users, but it leaves out low vision users who may not rely on a screen reader. So using a large, clear font with a decent contrast ratio (high contrast may be difficult for those with dyslexia to read, low contrast is hard for those with visual issues to read) and limited color palette (color blind friendly) for any infographics would be beneficial. If it’s viable, a text description is always good but with places such as twitter it’s difficult to do that. Transcribing audio helps the Deaf / HoH community or anyone with auditory processing issues. Avoid flashing images or videos. There’s a lot of information out there for making content accessible (i suggest starting here).
here’s a website specifically for hiring disabled writers
Reclamation press: We publish books by people within diverse disability communities
Oleb Books seeks to expand representation of disability in literature by publishing disability stories by writers with disabilities.
Disability Studies Quarterly has a lot of useful information to read
Here’s a list of books & movies about “the disability experience” (not all of them are by disabled authors)
goodreads list of books by disabled authors
an old course outline for “disability in literature” comes with a reading plan and book list
Top 13 books for understanding disability
What does it mean to be a disabled writer?
If anyone else has any resources, please share!
