Hi, I’m Gemma! I’ve been working as an editor and writer in children’s book publishing for over a decade.

I am passionate about raising awareness surrounding accessibility in books, particularly in children's picture books. Everyone deserves to have access to books, stories and content that is easy for them to read.

I always have time to talk about making things accessible, please get in touch if you are looking into accessible books; I'd love to help.

What is accessibility editing?

The best way is to show you! Take a look at these case studies of popular children’s picture books, where I illustrate how, with achievable changes, we can make these beautiful books more accessible for children with print disabilities and other SEND.

Why am I passionate about accessibility editing?

For as long as I’ve been working in children’s publishing, which is since I began my career back in the distant past of 2009, the aspect of my job that I have been most proud to do was to work on a variety of books that would provide children with enjoyment, fun and nurture a life-long love of reading. It’s a goal that unites all of us that work in children’s publishing.

For a long time, I found this working in licensed publishing, where I found that the comfort and safety that known and beloved characters bought to children created a safe space for them to try something new, scary and challenging: learning and enjoying reading.

Then, in 2019 my whole life changed when I became a mum to a brilliant and magnificent soul, who has a number of special needs, including being visually impaired.
Despite having overall low vision, it was clear from very early on that his favourite thing to do was to read. (Hello, hyperlexia!)
Books are his comfort item (we never leave the house with at least two), they fuel his creativity, his imagination and satisfy his hyper-fixations. He is a being of curiosity and facts. He reads constantly and furiously.

Luckily, you might think, he lives in a house packed to the rafters with books.

It was at this point I discovered our life’s most cruel irony: I worked in publishing and had a child who read with a voracity perhaps only matched by Tyrion Lannister, but my son could not access over half the picture books in our home because he couldn’t easily see or focus on them.

An additional blow being that I found that it was picture books, sticker books and activity books which were the most inaccessible. The formats I have dedicated my career to.

My career and personal life collided in a big way. I have been on courses to study SEND, Accessibility and Neurodiversity – anything I could find to help grow my own understanding so I could support my son in the best ways I could. The more courses I went on, the more I discovered a direct intersection with my own work as an editor, writer and proofreader. I could see reoccurring accessibility issues in most of picture books we read, from nearly all publishing houses, that I know they could easily fix in-house.

The changes needed would not only achievable, but easy to build into workflows going forward … if only the publishing houses knew about this perspective. From every person I have ever met in children’s publishing, I believe truly and deeply that they would want to make these changes so that all books can be accessed, enjoyed and cherished by more children.

But who should be the squeaky wheel demanding change? It’s me. And anyone who would like to join me (please join me!). It’s good PR and it’s good for profit margins. So please, join me, get in touch and let’s work together to bring all children good quality books that they can access easily.

Let’s chat and find a way to work together.