Reading within the lines When JO ACHARYA began leading a group of people with learning disabilities at her church, she discovered a lack of resources. So she decided to write a wellbeing book for them and for others who struggle with reading and understanding Interview by Sarah Olowofoyeku
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NE in six adults in the UK struggles with reading, according to the National Literary Council. Meanwhile Mencap has identified that there are 1.5 million people living with a learning disability. To Jo Acharya, those are not just statistics, but represent some of the people she works with. ‘For the last few years at my church, I have been helping to lead a group for adults with additional needs – learning disabilities and neurodiverse conditions like autism,’ she says. ‘I quickly found that there were very few teaching resources that could help to explain the Bible and faith in a simple enough way. ‘My co-leaders and I had to make our own resources. That was time-consuming, as it takes particular skills to make information easier for people with learning disabilities to understand.’ So Jo, who is a music therapist, created a resource that she hopes will help the people in those groups. Living Well with God is an easy-to-read guide to Christian living made especially for people who have learning difficulties or who struggle with reading. Living Well with God is an adapted version of a similar guide to wellbeing that Jo had written for a general Christian
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Jo Acharya
audience, having noticed wellness books written from a secular perspective in shops. ‘I had thought that something about wellbeing from a Christian perspective would be helpful for a lot of people,’ she says. ‘From the start, I wanted to make it accessible but realised early on that a one-size-fits-all book wouldn’t work, so I decided to make two versions. Refresh is the mainstream version and Living Well with God is an adapted version.’ For a book to be considered accessible, Jo explains, it should follow some accepted guidelines, called Easy Read,
used by people across many fields. ‘The guidelines say to use very simple language, use the easiest words you can to get across your meaning, and use short sentences so they aren’t too hard to keep track of. There are also guidelines about layout and presentation, such as to use big text – ideally a dyslexia-friendly font, a clear one that doesn’t have lots of tails on the letters – and an uncluttered layout with some colour and pictures to help support the text.’ With the pages of her book being accessible, Jo is able to take readers on a journey that she says is relevant to everybody. ‘It starts by looking at topics to do
The guidelines say to use very simple language