#disabled readers

[thewanderingemporium]

Reading with chronic pain: tips from a book-loving spoonie

I have loved reading books since I was small (although it took me some time to get a hang of it with my dyslexia).

Over the years I spent many happy hours in a book.

But now I do find it tricky – especially with brain fog, RSI in both wrists (making it tricky to hold up big books), and migraines. So here are a few ways I have found that let me still enjoy reading. I hope they can help you too!

TIP 1 - Read digitally. This may or may not work for you and your circumstances – but reading digitally allows me to enjoy larger books which would otherwise hurt my wrists due to their weight.

TIP 2 - Change the font and size. As I’ve gotten older (she says, dramatically, at 30) I’ve found that reading is giving me more headaches. One thing that helps me is increasing the font size and switching to a dyslexia friendly font. This is helping a bit (although some apps don’t have great font options). If you use Libby though I would recommend the “open dyslexia” font – I have found that this is easing my eyestrain and allowing me to read for longer.

TIP 3 - Listen to audiobooks. Again, this might not work for you – I know I can struggle to focus on them, especially when my pain is bad. But they are a great option for when I am recovering from a migraine. When I want to listen on a normal day (minus the migraine) I find that keeping my hands busy with something simple, like colouring or knitting, actually helps me focus and follow along better.

TIP 4 - Read manga or graphic novels. I find these a lot easier on my eyes because there is little text and a lot of the story told through the artwork.

I hope these give you some ideas on how to enjoy reading even with chronic pain. I’d love to hear your tips for reading with chronic pain – what sort of things work best for you?

Sending spoonie hugs!

[wardenparker]

Tbh, I’m still coming to terms with the fact I suffer from chronic pain. Like it’s not mentally clicking into place for me, that my body has wear and tear that means I need to slow down or suffer, and that my slowing down needs to come sooner than other people’s.

I’m fat to boot, have been my whole life, so there’s a lot of issues from that and forcing myself to keep going because if I didn’t I’d be ridiculed by any and everyone. Which I know now is a major factor in my chronic pain now (the other of course, being medical fatphobia.)

Fics with readers with chronic pain help me more comfortably identify with the fact that I do have chronic pain, and actually help me advocate more for myself in medical and social situations.

Because I deserve not to suffer just because I’ve proven I can.

Everybody please read that again. EVERYBODY. This is so important.

Hugs for you, friend 🧡

[wardenparker]

All for disabled reader love!!!! Everyone needs love and I love to read all kinds of it. Thank you for all your stories!

Thank YOU for reading them and being so lovely and ecnouraging!

[wardenparker]

Hi, I would be interested in reading stories with a disabled reader. I have a stutter. It’s much better now, but I went through a period where I stopped speaking - not even with my family. I’m talking ‘King’s Speech’ level bad. People therefore perceived me as stupid and/or shy. Although my speech flows more freely now, I’m always afraid it will come back. It’s funny that I can talk in front of a thousand people, but small talk one on one stresses me out. So dating is very difficult for me.

I would like to learn about different types of disabilities. I’m sure you would give it a very thoughtful treatment.

I'm glad to hear that you aren't having as much difficulty with your disability these days, but I'm also very sorry to hear that you faced prejudice for it. Living in fear of our disability's ability to flare up at any time is something that isn't easy for many people to understand.

Thank you for your kind encouragement, and I hope you have a lovely day!! Here's a hug from me to you 🧡

[wardenparker]

About your disabled reader post, for me personally if I can relate to the disability (ie it’s a disability I have) then yes I read it as if I’m the insert. If it’s a character with a disability that I don’t have/never experienced then I read it as if its it own character (not me) I hope this makes sense 💜

It absolutely does make sense! And to be honest this is kind of the answer that I expect to see from most people. I'm happy to see that even if a person's exact disability isn't reflected in the text that there would still be interest in reading it!

After all, the breadth of experiences spans such a huge gamut that no two disabled people will ever have exactly the same time of it. And that - more than anything - speaks to the human experience.

We give hugs here! Hugs for all 🧡