Magazine: Excluding the visually impaired

The main exclusion point of my project is the printed aspect. My magazine is entirely tangible and excludes the blind or vision-impaired community. When brainstorming my project, I wanted to create a place for my project to live that I created myself. This means not posting it to social media, or living on mainstream platforms. By creating a printed project, people who cannot see, or have trouble seeing and/or reading cannot experience either all or some aspects of my project. This is a concern because many capstoners have projects that live online, and can be read aloud by voice guides and other types of media. But, there are ways that I could combat this, both realistically, and more advanced.

Solutions to combat exclusion

The first solution, that I can accomplish is creating a digital version of my magazine on Issuu. Issuu is a platform that I discovered when researching exemplars for my project. It allows you to upload pdf versions of each of your pages and it creates a swipeable magazine, which can be compatible with desktop and device read-aloud capabilities. While this is still technically a platform, it is not as mainstream and popular as social media platforms. This is a platform for literary writers and journalists of all ages, races, and backgrounds to publish their material in an accessible way. When my magazine is complete, I hope to upload it to Issuu for more to see.

My final solution is to print my magazine in braille, which is inaccessible to me at this point. These printers cost thousands of dollars to purchase and are not available currently within the SJU Printing Center. This is a solution I could look to more in the future, but right now, is not realistic for my project and the budget I am given. If on a larger scale, my project would require this a bit heavier.

Reaching the community

Due to the nature of my project, and the topic it is discussing, I will not be sharing it on social media, as I have stated. But, I would like to share the project with my collaborators and give them the option and opportunity to share it with their teammates, peers, professors, and family. While I cannot afford within the budget to print a copy for each of them, I will share the Issuu link with them to send along. While the hard copies will be distributed to COM Department professors attending the Capstone Presentations, I hope that by starting the conversation of mental health among student-athletes at SJU, even if just in a small circle of people, the conversation will spread through the community.