Textual Accessibility, Consumption Experiences and Scenarios of Literacy Through Audiobooks: What Can Be Learnt From the Public of Blind and Partially Sighted Persons

Abstract

Widespread in recent years, and as an accessibility tool for persons with disabilities, audiobooks can change the relationship with texts and prefigure new scenarios of literacy. The contribution aims to investigate these implications, with a lens of theoretical and educational linguistics. Specifying what is present in international literature, advantages and possible risks connected to audiobooks are hypothesized, with reference to expository and argumentative essays. It has been carried out a survey in collaboration with an Italian association of Blind and Partially Sighted persons, the "Unione Italiana Ciechi e Ipovedenti", considered as an audience with a specific expertise of this medium who may anticipate the future trends for the whole population. 147 anonymous responses to an electronic questionnaire have been collected and analyzed: the results, while confirming the attention points and some problems, at the same time propose possible strategies to overcome them. Significantly, listening is not considered as a limited consumption experience, but as a new, alternative use setting.