Celebrating Accessible Audiobooks for Everyone
The Department of Education has launched the National Year of Reading campaign to address the decline in reading for pleasure, and to reignite a lifelong love of stories in children and young people.
We know that reading is one of life’s true joys, and we know that accessibility continues to block so many people from that joy. That’s why our support for the campaign is focusing on making reading accessible, through the magic of audio.
This feels especially timely with Neurodiversity Celebration Week, 16th-22nd March.
This week is all about recognising and celebrating the strengths, creativity and perspectives of neurodivergent children and young people. For many of these learners, audiobooks can be transformative: supporting comprehension, building confidence, and making reading for pleasure genuinely accessible.
At Calibre, we provide free audiobooks to under-25s who find reading printed books difficult due to neurodiversities, helping ensure that every child can experience the joy of stories in a format that works for them.
If you’re marking Neurodiversity Celebration Week in school, it could be a wonderful opportunity to:
Share an audiobook extract in class
Open a conversation about different ways of reading
Celebrate the diverse strengths of your learners
Highlight accessible formats in your library.
Because reading for pleasure should belong to every child — in whatever format works best for them.