Digital Paper: E-Reading As Accessibility

There is a tendency among dedicated readers to look down on reading electronically. Bibliophiles everywhere proudly (and at times, performatively,) announce their love of used books, and not without reason. The tactile experience of physical, printed books is one of life’s most under-appreciated pleasures; used books in particular offer the stories of lifetimes in their wear and tear: an inscription from decades prior immortalizes a grandmother’s love for her grandchild, carefully dog-eared pages reveal the pace at which a curious reader made their way through a literary classic, a weathered and bent spine signals the love we have for our favorite books. But what if the book doesn’t have a spine? Or even covers?

For the folks that call their local used bookshop their second home, it can be too easy to dismiss E-Reading as a cop-out, a shortcut, or even a debased form of reading, but E-Reading has significant advantages and benefits, more than just the obvious convenience suggests. Of course, convenience is one huge benefit- an E-Reader can fit in nearly any bag, can hold thousands of books, and is a perfect companion for any long plane or train ride. But the benefits of E-Reading can be much more profound than slimming down a carry-on.

A 2013 study from the National Library of Medicine saw a significant improvement in both reading speed and comprehension when high school students with dyslexia used an E-Reader. The study concluded that the increase in comprehension and speed was more likely due to the length of the lines than the device itself, but the fact is, the device is what made that flexibility possible. It doesn’t make sense on any level to shift publishing standards universally to accommodate dyslexia. If we did, the size of books would balloon: Charlotte’s Web would become a tome, The Giving Tree would run as long as a full novel, and local libraries could fill their shelves with a single volume of Tolstoy. We can, of course, offer large text editions or reprint books in more accessible fonts (as a recent study from Cureus suggests improves reading speed), but the fact of the matter is, E-Reading allows us to do both at once, without adjusting publishing standards.

Of course, all of this still runs against the concern that we already spend too much time on screens, a trend steadily worsening among children, who often lack- through no fault of their own- the self-control and emotion regulation skills necessary to escape the addictive dopamine cycles and algorithmic traps of social media and screen time in general. It’s difficult not to think of giving a child an E-Reader as the nail in the coffin for the innocence of childhood. Further it suggests, to our legion of used-book bibliophiles, a dystopian future without books. But as hard as it can be to admit this, that’s not the reality of the situation. For one thing, E-Readers use entirely different display technology than smartphones or tablets. E-Readers typically use E-Ink displays, which utilize millions of micro capsules with white and black charged particles suspended in fluid that shift when electrical fields pass through them to form text and images while OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) Displays, commonly found in Smartphones and Tablets, use millions of pixels that can turn on, generate color, and turn off independently, resulting in deeper blacks, richer colors, and ultimately higher refresh rates (which are all very useful for video playback, but less essential for e-reading.) A 2020 study from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics found that while participants who read on OLED Displays like smartphones and multipurpose tablets saw an increase in eye strain, redness, and other symptoms of discomfort/damage, those who read on an E-Ink display, like an E-Reader, saw virtually none of these symptoms.

E-Readers offer the flexibility, accessibility, and portability that many kids and adults alike need, with virtually none of the physical or psychological problems associated with long periods of screen-time use. There will always be a place for physical books in the 21st century (the Maryland Book Bank is proud to be one such place,) but as the world changes, we should see E-Readers not as a threat to reading, but as an opportunity to get books into the hands of more people, young and old, and to build a world where reading is for everyone.