Salford writer’s new kids’s books about disabled folks
Ben Andrews, who’s registered blind, has been serving to to make areas throughout Better Manchester extra accessible for years and now needs to take his message to youthful readers.
A Greater Manchester writer hopes to get younger readers interested by how one can make locations extra accessible for disabled folks with a brand new sequence of youngsters’s books.
Ben Andrews, who’s registered blind, has created 5 tales, the primary of which will likely be hitting the cabinets early subsequent yr, which discover the obstacles disabled folks face in getting round their native space and having fun with actions with their mates.
The Salford author has already spent years making areas throughout the city-region extra accessible via his organisation Beyond Empower, which has made such strides that Ben has been shortlisted for awards naming the UK’s most influential disabled folks.
The launch date for Ben’s first e-book was introduced to coincide with World Sight Day and he hopes the tales will assist to interact younger kids and colleges with problems with accessibility for disabled folks.
How did Ben begin writing the books?
Creating the books has been a three-year venture for Ben, who has a degenerative visible impairment known as retinitis pigmentosa which a number of members of his household additionally had. He initially began writing an extended e-book however then break up it up into shorter tales for youthful readers.
The sequence has now been snapped up by Stockport indie writer Tiny Tree Books and the primary quantity, Nicky and Sweet’s Road, will likely be out on 23 February 2023, although it’s obtainable for pre-order now.
The interactive story focuses on a younger woman who’s registered blind and makes use of a white cane, and appears on the challenges she faces to get to see her mates earlier than on the way in which again house her journey turns into simpler due to accessibility measures put in place by the reader. Additional books within the Better Places sequence will embody tales about an adolescent who makes use of a wheelchair and a lady who has autism..
Ben, 30, stated: “I wished to succeed in as younger an viewers as doable and I need to interact colleges with the message too. It took some time to get to the purpose the place I used to be snug sending it out to publishers and now Tiny Tree has picked it up which is good.
“The books are all in regards to the obstacles these kids expertise. My hope is that Higher Locations will assist kids grow to be extra conscious and thoughtful of entry and inclusion for disabled folks in order that it’s simply a part of who they’re, who they suppose and function as they develop in order that these points aren’t being repeated era after era.”
What are the problems disabled folks face and the way has Past Empower tackled them?
Accessibility points akin to those explored within the books are a long-standing concern for Ben and one thing that earlier than changing into a author he arrange the organisation Past Empower to assist deal with. It began when Ben bought into health aged 17 and wished to make locations extra accessible for disabled folks.
He stated: “I’ve been working in Salford for the previous seven years making locations like leisure centres extra accessible. We discover out what folks need or have to entry, then discover locations they’ll go, make them accessible and assist them to start out going there.
“For folks with visible impairments that may be about issues like bins, bushes or signposts being in the midst of the walkway or issues with the kerbs. In the event that they journey by bus there’s a scarcity of audio signposting on the buses and on the bus stops.
“In the event that they need to go to the fitness center we would assist to transform an ordinary visible programme into an audio format or create a extra accessible route for them to entry it. Cinemas won’t be nicely lit or somewhere else there may be points with employees attitudes or a scarcity of tactile pointers to let folks know the place they’re.
“We’ve additionally labored with council infrastructure groups on making streets, parks and inexperienced areas extra accessible and with the NHS on making communities broadly extra accessible.
“Typically folks find yourself working in methods and processes and don’t all the time really feel they’ll make modifications. They grew to become adults with out interested by entry and inclusion for disabled folks, however when you make them conscious of the modifications they may make they’re normally fairly receptive and infrequently say they’ll’t imagine they hadn’t considered it.”
Ben now has a staff of seven working throughout Salford, Trafford and Tameside, and Past Empower’s efforts have been recognised earlier this yr when Ben was shortlisted for the Shaw Trust’s Disability Power 100 list, which clelebrates essentially the most influential disabled folks within the UK.
What else has Ben stated in regards to the books?
Ben says that of the 5 books he has created for the Higher Locations sequence the primary one has explicit significance as it’s devoted to his mum Nicola Andrews, who was generally known as Nicky. She had the identical visible impairment he has and who died in 2016 as a result of most cancers.
He stated: “My mum was an actual drive and overcame so many obstacles as a blind girl. She was dedicated to educating others in regards to the points disabled folks face however all the time did so in a very compassionate, caring and empathetic method. I hope that my mum’s work will dwell on via Nicky and the Higher Locations sequence.”
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