Filling this gap inspired the national charity Calibre Audio Library (CAL, ) to partner with i-Publishing Consultants ( ) to reach a solution. For these to function correctly in practice, applications needed to be written to ensure that the controls used provide the right information (to prompt the provision of appropriate voice and audio cues) at the right time. Device apps do not explicitly support accessibility and usually depend on each device's built-in capabilities to provide voice and audio prompts. Imagine a world in which this is not the case and where using mobile devices (be that phone or tablet) is almost impossible because you cannot see the keyboard any better than the printed page. Those of us who are not (yet) ‘print-challenged’ in these ways tend to take our sight – and the ability to read what we want, when, and where we want – for granted. If the estimated 1 in 10 people in the UK who suffer from dyslexia (Dyslexia Action, 2017) is then factored into these calculations, you have an enormous group of people for whom access to traditional forms of reading is severely (if not completely) restricted. This huge rise will primarily be the result of an aging population but will also be caused by the predicted increase in the incidence of diabetes, which often leads to sight problems.
It is estimated that by 2050, this number will increase to nearly 4,000,000 or nearly 5% of the total population (RNIB, 2015). Nearly 2,000,000 people in the UK suffer from sight loss (either partial or complete), and of these, over 25,000 are young people.
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