Is it wrong to do things the ‘easy’ way?

Last week, The D*List held the first ever meeting of the Wrong Readers Club. The premise was this: a space where people can go to enjoy stories, in whatever format works best for them. We had audio recordings, printed stories, storytellers reading aloud, and NZSL interpreters. All versions of reading or engaging with a story were accepted, no questions asked.

Close to 200 people came along that evening, which prompted us to wonder - how many of us are holding shame about not reading the ‘right’ way? Is it wrong if we sometimes do things in a way that's perceived to be 'easier', even if it’s not the way someone else might do it?

When we were invited to run an event during Auckland Writers Festival, we knew that we wanted to do something that would start a conversation about accessibility. Wrong Readers Club was born out of the idea that as disabled people, reading might be inaccessible to us (for lots of different reasons) but that we can claim it back by reading in an untraditional way, or the ‘wrong’ way: listening to audiobooks, listening/watching someone tell a story, reading something off our phone instead of off a page.

For those of us who struggled in school, we might still have a lot of (bad) feelings about reading books. Maybe we never felt smart enough, academic enough, bookish enough. It can be hard to let go of the idea that if we just tried harder, we might be able to do things the ‘normal’ way, and be more like the people around us. 

But as disabled people, we’re always challenging the ‘normal’ or ‘right’ way to do things. Like driving a car with hand controls, rather than foot pedals. Or reading a Braille machine, rather than turning the pages in a book. Or using ‘voice cooking’ – the assistance of a support worker, based on verbal guidance – to make our favourite meal.

Some of us might feel shame about that, but we shouldn’t. This is how we participate fully in our lives. It’s no worse than the ‘normal’ way, it’s just unfamiliar to non-disabled people. Shaking off the need for the approval of non-disabled people is necessary if we want to do what feels right to us.

During Wrong Readers Club, we got to invite disabled and non-disabled people alike to try ‘reading’ in all these different ways. To break down the shame, that could come from attending a literary event as someone who might not feel very literary. The stories were read aloud by Allyson Hamblett and Kitty Wasasala (on behalf of Em Berry, who was unwell), two very talented and brilliant disabled creatives. It was a night of disabled joy, and creating space for disabled literature on a prestigious local stage.

We hope that as disabled people, we always feel permission to use the accommodations that make life easier for us. Even if you ‘could’ do things the hard way, you don’t have to. Read the audiobook. Enjoy your life.