Episode 2
Accessibility Should Be Part of Everyday Life—Not an Add-On
Stacy Scott shares her journey from discovering screen readers at university to leading accessibility strategy in digital publishing. Drawing on lived experience as a blind professional, she explores how accessible content enables independence, why accessibility must be embedded into everyday systems, and where progress still falls short. Stacy also discusses global initiatives like Bookshare and the transformative potential of AI to expand access and inclusion.
Transcript
Hello again, this is Joe Welinke bringing you another episode of the
Speaker:Digital Accessibility Podcast, the people behind the progress.
Speaker:And today I'm meeting with Stacey Scott.
Speaker:Hello, Stacey, how are you today?
Speaker:Hi Joe, I'm very well, thank you.
Speaker:I'm talking to you from my home office in Bellingham, Washington, about
Speaker:80 miles north of Seattle. Where are you talking to us from?
Speaker:I am in southwest London, not too far from Wimbledon where they play the tests.
Speaker:Very good. I always enjoy having guests from the UK,
Speaker:so I appreciate you being part of this.
Speaker:Tell us a little bit about the type of work that you're involved in.
Speaker:So I work in accessible digital publishing, so making sure that all content is
Speaker:readable to as many users as possible, regardless of
Speaker:their ability or disability.
Speaker:They can maybe be visually impaired; some people have dyslexia.
Speaker:Everybody has a different reading need, and so
Speaker:a big part of my role is to make sure, as I work for a publisher,
Speaker:that we're putting out stuff there that meets the needs of a variety of different
Speaker:users. And so what types of things are
Speaker:you involved with? Is there a typical week where you're doing certain types of
Speaker:activities? What are some of the things that
Speaker:publishing has you always working on?
Speaker:Well, it's actually quite varied, which I love.
Speaker:I love to do lots of different things.
Speaker:So I do a lot around strategy.
Speaker:So a big part of my role is just sort of pushing the needle on accessibility,
Speaker:running up the flagpole, making sure everybody's talking about it, knows about it,
Speaker:nobody can hide away from it.
Speaker:Working across the entire business with all the different teams.
Speaker:So it can be content like journals and books, or it can be
Speaker:marketing and our branding. It could be our social media, our messaging.
Speaker:Sometimes we get to play with cool AI tools.
Speaker:Or I've got a background in mathematics, so quite often I'll be asked to
Speaker:look at a piece of content and how does that work with screen reader technology.
Speaker:Does it read well? Complex mathematical notation or a complex science book.
Speaker:So I don't know if that sounds fun to anyone else, but I enjoy it.
Speaker:I think it sounds like a pretty interesting
Speaker:area to be involved with. Yeah, how did you find your way to that?
Speaker:Maybe go back in time and tell us a little bit about your background and
Speaker:some of the highlights along the way.
Speaker:Yeah, sure, thank you. Well, I was born blind, so I have a personal interest in
Speaker:wanting everything to be accessible to as many people as possible,
Speaker:particularly in the digital world that we find ourselves in now.
Speaker:So I guess throughout my I went to mainstream school, and a lot of my
Speaker:content had to be read to me by a classroom assistant,
Speaker:which was fine, but it's not really an independent way of learning.
Speaker:And as the years passed and we're now in 2026, we're just seeing so much more access
Speaker:to the digital world. And of course, we're a part of the digital revolution.
Speaker:And so I think I became really interested in it when, I mean, I didn't know that
Speaker:screen readers or text-to-speech existed until I went to university and I was 18.
Speaker:I was nearly turning 18, and I was studying in Scotland and living in Scotland,
Speaker:and I just couldn't manage my university work.
Speaker:I just didn't. I had to scan all of this material, didn't know how to read it,
Speaker:didn't know what to do. And then I happened to meet another
Speaker:blind lady that studied in there, and she was talking about
Speaker:I was like,"How do you do this?
Speaker:What do you do?"And she said,"Well, I use JAWS.
Speaker:I use this text-to-speech thing."And I was like,"I've never heard of it,
Speaker:never."So it was a massive learning curve for me.
Speaker:The next thing I'm finding out about text-to-speech, I can independently use a PC.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, the internet. The first time I could ever actually go on the internet
Speaker:and do a Google search for I have no idea what, but
Speaker:something silly, but because I could, was amazing.
Speaker:Absolutely, just forgive the pun, but an eye-opener.
Speaker:It was incredible. And that sort of continued.
Speaker:It continued to grow over time to the point where 2009 comes along
Speaker:and I get my first ever talking iPhone.
Speaker:Before, we did have speech on phones, but we had to send it away.
Speaker:The new phone had to be sent away.
Speaker:You had to pay a few hundred pounds extra to have it added on, and
Speaker:it wasn't quite the same. But actually, to have a device come out where
Speaker:the speech is embedded for everyone was amazing.
Speaker:And Apple have upheld that ever since.
Speaker:And so that technology has just continued to grow, which
Speaker:was a big part of why I was able to graduate.
Speaker:So I graduated with a maths degree, and then I ended up moving to London and
Speaker:working in international development.
Speaker:So working with people.
Speaker:Over my left-hand shoulder, I have a massive map of the African
Speaker:continent because I spent a lot of time working there and in India and Bangladesh
Speaker:and other places. But a big part of that role was looking at
Speaker:education for people with disabilities and social inclusion
Speaker:and working with governments and lobbying for this digital access.
Speaker:And this was around about the time what we call the Marrakesh Treaty was coming in,
Speaker:and it was all about sharing books across borders.
Speaker:So I guess quite a young age, I was maybe 24, 25, if that.
Speaker:I was sort of fully immersed in quite big decisions and
Speaker:lobbying efforts and work to actually get digital access to people
Speaker:in rural areas and the Global South.
Speaker:And so that was a big part of it for me.
Speaker:And I stayed there for a good few years and really enjoyed it.
Speaker:And then I actually moved to RNIB, Royal National Institute of Blind People in the
Speaker:United Kingdom, mainly based in London, but offices all over.
Speaker:From there, I ran their Bookshare program.
Speaker:So you may have heard of Bookshare in the US, a Benetech program where
Speaker:publishers can share their books and people can download them in a variety of
Speaker:different accessible formats. So I ran the UK version.
Speaker:So when I started, we didn't really have any books.
Speaker:And so it was a big undertaking to say to publishers,"Hey,
Speaker:could you put your books on this platform to benefit people with,
Speaker:say, print disabilities then?"But actually, I remember thinking, I said to my team,
Speaker:"Do you think we could ever get to five figures?
Speaker:Imagine 10,000."And we did. And then it was,"Could we get to six figures,
Speaker:like 100,000 books? That would be crazy."And we did.
Speaker:And then we got to a quarter of a million, half a million.
Speaker:And by the time I moved on, we were just over, I think, 850,000 books.
Speaker:And now both US and the sorry, Bookshare in the US and Bookshare in the UK,
Speaker:they've both got well over a million books in their platforms,
Speaker:completely free to access to people with print disabilities.
Speaker:And I actually did a course later on in leadership and management using
Speaker:the Bookshare platforms. And the comparison between
Speaker:then and my time at university just buried in paper, scanning it, didn't work,
Speaker:scan it again, upside down. That's not the book I needed.
Speaker:To being able to just find my book on Bookshare, click download.
Speaker:I mean, it's absolutely incredible.
Speaker:And again, that's because we've seen such progress.
Speaker:And it was fantastic to be able to work on that
Speaker:and to work with publishers and to give that content to use it myself,
Speaker:proof in the pudding, but also to be able to give it to other people was amazing.
Speaker:And then I applied for a job as head of accessibility at Taylor and Francis
Speaker:Publishing, who'd been a massive supporter of Bookshare.
Speaker:They were the first publisher to give us their entire backlist of 180,000 books.
Speaker:And yeah, so I joined there, and I basically, as I mentioned, do the sort of
Speaker:head of strategy side of things and play with maths sometimes and AI and
Speaker:everything that we can get involved in to make our content and our platforms and
Speaker:systems as accessible as possible.
Speaker:So that's the short version that I got here.
Speaker:Well, you've done quite a lot already.
Speaker:So there's a longer version that would be
Speaker:interesting to get into as well.
Speaker:And in fact, I do want to check back with you.
Speaker:You mentioned about university and being
Speaker:blind, what it meant to you to be able to discover things like
Speaker:screen readers, JAWS, and other technologies like that.
Speaker:And I was just wondering, do you feel that
Speaker:that was what moved you toward being
Speaker:involved in accessibility? I mean, certainly it was important to
Speaker:your own educational growth, but what was it,
Speaker:if you can think of, that kind of moved you into doing this professionally?
Speaker:It's something I haven't really given much thought to, but I think on reflection,
Speaker:I'd have to say yes, because I then had experiences where other students would join
Speaker:and be having the same difficulties as me.
Speaker:And so I would tell them about JAWS.
Speaker:And then there was a sort of a lack of sort of support there.
Speaker:So then we had sort of training groups and we helped each other.
Speaker:And just growing myself and learning what I
Speaker:could do and what I could access and what that meant.
Speaker:You don't really understand when you're 18 what that's opening up to you in terms of
Speaker:the world of work, financial freedom, employment.
Speaker:Hopefully, that's what you hope for anyway.
Speaker:And of course, there are other barriers to that.
Speaker:But having those digital skills,
Speaker:it's just been I don't know that I would have been able to do much
Speaker:without it, to be honest. I think I'd really struggle, particularly as somebody with
Speaker:no useful vision. It's like there's a lot of people for whom going
Speaker:and getting temporary work in a café or something just isn't an option.
Speaker:And so yeah, even just being able to have jobs,
Speaker:part-time jobs and stuff whilst I was at university, it was a massive driver.
Speaker:But also just seeing that other people were also finding themselves, finding their
Speaker:paths, and engaging with this technology, which was at the
Speaker:time absolutely mind-blowing. And now,
Speaker:fast forward to 2026, and we probably take it for granted,
Speaker:but I'm probably the first person to complain that the screen reader is running
Speaker:too slow and how annoying it is, and so easily forgotten how amazing it was back in
Speaker:the early 2000s and how incredible it was.
Speaker:I didn't care if it was glitchy.
Speaker:I didn't care if the speech was slow.
Speaker:I had it, and it was incredible.
Speaker:And now I'm mourning at my iPhone or mourning at my laptop and forgetting,
Speaker:actually, how grateful I am that we have that software.
Speaker:Well, it is pretty amazing what some of the technology advances have
Speaker:had in the area of accessibility.
Speaker:I know when I go to conferences and there's technology
Speaker:expositions, there's always so many devices that are
Speaker:providing assistance in ways that I hadn't even thought.
Speaker:And so I think that's something that maybe people don't
Speaker:get a chance to know about unless they go to a conference
Speaker:or they are deeply involved in technology, all the things that are out there
Speaker:that are constantly being developed.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Because I love technology, but I'm the same.
Speaker:I think when I go to a conference, something like CSUN in
Speaker:California, for example, they just have so much there.
Speaker:Stuff I hadn't heard of, stuff I hadn't conceived of.
Speaker:And you see the progress every year.
Speaker:Every time you go to one of these conferences, you just see the progress.
Speaker:And sometimes you think, well, I think we've reached the pinnacle.
Speaker:I can't see technology being able to do any more for us.
Speaker:And then AI comes along, and the next thing I can go to any
Speaker:picture in my phone and have it describe to me really, really well.
Speaker:And then I'm like,"Oh my gosh, this is amazing."And this was maybe
Speaker:what, one, two years ago, so very, very recent.
Speaker:It was absolutely mind-blowing, the descriptions you could just
Speaker:instantly get for your photographs.
Speaker:Now I'm like,"Oh, these descriptions could be better."Because again, you get so just
Speaker:so kind of blasé, and you forget how lucky you are with it.
Speaker:And I think there's so that yeah, I think every time I think we've reached
Speaker:the pinnacle point, we get something new and exciting.
Speaker:And I think there's a lot of that to come.
Speaker:And I'm really excited about it.
Speaker:Well, you certainly have a perfect
Speaker:perspective about the importance of accessibility technologies, and
Speaker:you've seen things evolve.
Speaker:I wonder if you have any thoughts about the progress
Speaker:that you've experienced. I know myself, I've been involved in accessibility for
Speaker:about 28 years or so.
Speaker:And when I was first working on it,
Speaker:I saw all kinds of opportunities. And over the years, I've seen that
Speaker:a lot of those things have taken place and a lot of areas have grown and improved.
Speaker:And then there's other areas where I think I still can't believe it's as challenging
Speaker:as it is and wish it could be better.
Speaker:I was just wondering, from your perspective, maybe if there's some things
Speaker:where you'd hope things maybe had moved along a little bit faster or areas that
Speaker:you're just really impressed with the changes.
Speaker:Oh, absolutely. There's definitely two sides to it all.
Speaker:I mean, I think-and I think a lot of us would say this-the area where I've seen the
Speaker:least progress is in society, I have to say, just in terms of the way people
Speaker:interact with me, the way they speak to me, if they bother to speak to me at all.
Speaker:That I would have hoped by 2026 would have disappeared.
Speaker:And unfortunately, it hasn't.
Speaker:Every week, I've got another story of someone who said to my husband,
Speaker:"Oh, what does she want to eat?"or something ridiculous like that.
Speaker:So that I would like to change.
Speaker:I'm not sure technology's going to solve the problem,
Speaker:but I think it's going to help. Because I think technology makes people
Speaker:more visible. Because technology allows us to be in education.
Speaker:It helps us to be in the workplace, out in society.
Speaker:If you can use technology just to walk along the street with your guide dog,
Speaker:your cane, whatever you want to use, then people are seeing you.
Speaker:And actually, then people with disabilities or visual impairments become
Speaker:less surprising to these people that seem to be so surprised when they encounter us.
Speaker:And in terms of technology, I think I'd love to see I know a lot of big companies,
Speaker:Microsoft, Google, Apple, they're doing a lot with accessibility.
Speaker:But I'd love to see them embedding it even more into business-as-usual practices.
Speaker:So for example, I went to see a friend the other day,
Speaker:and she had these meta glasses. And so I tried them.
Speaker:And I've done this a few times because people say to me,
Speaker:"Why don't you have the meta glasses yet?"And I said,"They're not there for me yet.
Speaker:They're not for me just yet."And I think they will be.
Speaker:I think they'll get there.
Speaker:But the meta glasses, they're not made for visually impaired people,
Speaker:and they're not actually even made with visually impaired people in mind.
Speaker:You can run them really well with independent apps that
Speaker:are built to be bespoke for visually impaired people.
Speaker:But I just wonder sometimes if more progress could be made if we just
Speaker:considered accessibility as being part of everyone's everyday life.
Speaker:Because disability can happen tomorrow.
Speaker:It can happen to anybody at any time.
Speaker:And I've always found that accessibility and inclusion never disadvantages anyone.
Speaker:No one's ever complained because there's been an accessibility feature.
Speaker:You either need it or you don't. If you need it and it's there
Speaker:and it's born accessible, then that's brilliant.
Speaker:And so I'd love to see more accessibility being built into something like
Speaker:the meta glasses rather than having to pair it with bespoke apps for
Speaker:visually impaired people.
Speaker:And little things like,"It's amazing that you can now scan a QR code and read a
Speaker:menu."I love that. That's a brilliant advancement in technology.
Speaker:But if they could just put a little tactile box around the QR code so that people
Speaker:like me could actually find it, that would be a million times better.
Speaker:Because I can't find the barcode.
Speaker:So quite often, I'm having to get someone to find the barcode for me
Speaker:so I can then be independent.
Speaker:But imagine if I could just walk into a restaurant,
Speaker:be handed a menu, find a menu on a table, scan the barcode, and we're off.
Speaker:I mean, that would be brilliant. And so it's little things like that.
Speaker:I think sometimes we are part of the way there.
Speaker:We've done a lot of the hard work, but we just need to join all the pieces together
Speaker:and maybe embed it more in everyday use for everybody rather than having it as
Speaker:a separate item or a bespoke service.
Speaker:And that's certainly something that I try and do every day in my work in publishing,
Speaker:is accessibility is not my job.
Speaker:It's not my team's job. It's everyone's job.
Speaker:And we are helping to steer the ship.
Speaker:But actually, it should be embedded in what we're all doing.
Speaker:And I think that does make a big difference.
Speaker:Well, I appreciate you sharing your life experiences
Speaker:and talking about some of the challenges that we should all reflect on,
Speaker:and hopefully, we'll see improvement on.
Speaker:In your own work and things coming up, are there
Speaker:any particular things that you're looking forward to,
Speaker:new projects, or just things that you're interested in learning about yourself?
Speaker:I think in general, because in terms of what's coming up in that,
Speaker:I'm not really allowed to talk about what we're working on.
Speaker:But there are some exciting things that we're working on in Taylor&Francis
Speaker:in the publishing house in terms of accessibility.
Speaker:But I think just more broadly, for publishing, for me, for other people, again,
Speaker:it's just this emergence of AI.
Speaker:And I know that there are some scary parts, and there are definitely AI skeptics,
Speaker:and I can absolutely see both sides.
Speaker:For me, the excitement comes from what AI can open up in terms of accessibility.
Speaker:So imagine, for example, we don't need to wait to see if a movie is going to have
Speaker:an audio description track, and then we find out that it doesn't, and it
Speaker:never will. Imagine if that track could just happen,
Speaker:be generated by AI with an AI text-to-speech voice.
Speaker:So everything would then have audio description.
Speaker:Or what happens if you were walking down the street with your meta glasses on or
Speaker:your option, your choice, whatever choice you choose, and actually you had live
Speaker:feedback from what was around you?
Speaker:Imagine you're walking through, I don't know, Karnak, somewhere in Egypt,
Speaker:seeing back in Africa again. And it's describing to you the shops you're passing,
Speaker:the scene, what's happening around you.
Speaker:It tells you that you're in Agra and the Taj Mahal is in front of you,
Speaker:and it describes to you what that looks like.
Speaker:Or it can tell you how to get to it.
Speaker:I mean, these kind of things, I think, are around the corner.
Speaker:And for me, that's incredible in terms of access, but also independence
Speaker:and just being able to the idea that you could pop on a pair of glasses and
Speaker:read a menu or walk down the street and feel more confident, more independent,
Speaker:or explore a city and not feel like you're missing out on everything you pass unless
Speaker:somebody is next to you saying,"Oh, we're passing this.
Speaker:We're passing this. We're passing this. We're passing this."And there
Speaker:are amazing people that do that, and they do it brilliantly.
Speaker:But maybe it'd be nice to give them a holiday too.
Speaker:So then we can all enjoy it.
Speaker:Well, you painted a lovely picture there where I was able to
Speaker:definitely get an idea of what you were imagining and also
Speaker:just the ideas that you're talking about that
Speaker:hopefully will be improved in the future.
Speaker:So yeah, I appreciate you talking about that.
Speaker:And it's been great having this chat with you, Stacy.
Speaker:Thanks so much for taking some time to share all these thoughts with us.
Speaker:Oh, no, it's my pleasure. And thank you so much for chatting to me and having me on.
Speaker:Allright. Well, thanks a lot.
Speaker:And maybe we'll meet at a conference sometime in person. I would love that.
Speaker:Until then, best of luck with everything.
Speaker:Thank you, Jill. Allright. Bye-bye.
Speaker:Bye.
