Listening to The Shins with a restorative cup of tea after a hectic return to term-time routine this week! #NowPlaying https://youtu.be/1veF_lrvij8?si=bDATI9ap83hG0Yor

New Slang

YouTube video by The Shins - Topic

youtu.be

I got suggested by @sophiemac.bsky.social to write an alt text guide from the perspective of an actual blind screen reader user. Here's me doing that, a thread. Supershort summary: alt text is what you tell your friend you're on the phone with something looks like to include them or get their take

Sophie Mac (@sophiemac.bsky.social)

"It was always like this in life. No one ever had the right reaction to anything." "Like reflections in water, the movie light ripples across her face." "A dark omelette on bleak toast." Settings -...

sophiemac.bsky.social

Storygraph updated a while back and now I can’t seem to find how to filter reviews so only ones with written explanations come up… the filter options don’t have this.listed so does anyone know if it’s still possible?! 💙📚 #BookSky #blind #accessibility

Just starting High Rising by Angela Thirkel, 1933, for #SpinsterSeptember only to find there are two spinsters in this delightful book, the first of her Barsetshire series. Loving that the main character is a writer of ‘good bad books’ too 💙📚 #BookSky

Our Breakthrough Mentoring Programme for Disabled Writers is open for applications. Two talented writers will be awarded nine months of mentoring, including one-to-one guidance from an author-mentor and a tutorial with a literary agent. Apply by 9 Nov: www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/course/break...

Breakthrough Mentoring Programme for Disabled Writers

Two talented disabled writers will receive nine months of mentoring from a published author, plus a tutorial with a literary agent.

curtisbrowncreative.co.uk

On the one hand: having a disability is not cool, nor is it invented for attention. It's exhausting and it's life-limiting. On the other hand: compared to reading the Telegraph, having a disability is being a fucking rock star.

Kelly@broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 6d ago

This is shameful discriminatory and misogynistic reporting. People aren’t choosing disability to be “cool”. Young women don’t have to “prove” to you that they’re sick. Disability rates are skyrocketing because we’ve left a disabling virus rip through the population for over 6 years.

After reading one too many cosy/whimsical novels by Japanese authors I’m looking for some Japanese classic crime or thrillers for a change! Recs welcome #BookSky 💙📚

Eight recommendations from me for #SpinsterSeptember including books by Edith Wharton, Barbara Pym, Tove Jansson and more. readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2026/09/04/s...

#SpinsterSeptember: Eight Recommendations

Eight excellent books to consider for Spinster September including authors such as Barbara Pym, Tove Jansson, Edith Wharton and more.

readersretreat2017.wordpress.com

A perfect archive documentary to accompany these fabulous fiction recommendations #SpinsterSeptember youtu.be/sZbvymivTCw?...

1968: A Spinster's Life | Man Alive | BBC Archive

YouTube video by BBC Archive

youtu.be

JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · 2w ago

From the archive for @pear-jelly.bsky.social's #SpinsterSeptember, which starts today, I wrote about some of my favourite spinsters in literature. Featuring books by Anita Brookner, Muriel Spark, Rumer Godden and many more! #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/08/31/s...

Will other Cazalet fans be reading this new book?! I’m not sure I’ll be able to resist after reading this review #BookSky https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/sep/04/the-golden-hours-by-louisa-young-review-this-continuation-of-the-cazalet-chronicles-is-a-total-delight

At KOKO in Camden for Michael Shannon playing REM’s Life Rich Pageant and it is going to be a fun night judging from the atmosphere!

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library gave many children access to their first braille books. Here is a guest post from Paths to Literacy about #DollyParton and her literacy legacy, along with more recommendations for Dolly-approved accessible books! www.pathstoliteracy.org/dolly-parton...

Dolly Parton’s Literacy Legacy – Paths to Literacy

Paths to Literacy Dolly Parton’s Literacy Legacy. For teachers, families, and others interested in literacy for children and youth with visual impairments

pathstoliteracy.org

Speaking to ArtReview in 2007, the late artist reflects on her extraordinary life and work.

Yayoi Kusama: To Infinity and Beyond!

Speaking to ArtReview in 2007, the late artist reflects on her extraordinary life and work

artreview.com

Frida Kahlo, Self portrait with Bonito, 1941 #womensart

Audiobooks. A whole day dedicated to discussing their history, creativity, retail, and accessibility. If this sounds like your bag, come along to 'Literature Out Loud' @universityofleeds.bsky.social and online, 7th September. #BookHistory #Audiobooks sites.google.com/sheffield.ac...

Literature Out Loud

REGISTER NOW! https://forms.gle/ZGWeR5LtKHRPy7v1A

sites.google.com

A new digital archive aims to tell the history of Britain's #DisabilityRights movement through oral histories, films, photographs and personal collections gathered from the people who lived it. #BlindNewWorld (Story via @museumsassociation.org ⬇️) www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...

Q&A | ‘The disability rights movement is presumed to have been small and niche, but it was huge’  - Museums Association

David Hevey tells us about a new digital archive dedicated to the civil rights struggle that Britain forgot

museumsassociation.org

Magda Szabó's ABIGAIL is wonderful and riveting - a boarding school novel exploring female friendship, war and resistance set in provincial Hungary. Translated by Len Rix. Read this for #NYRBWomen26 and #WITMonth. My post here: readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2026/08/26/a...

Abigail – Magda Szabó (tr. Len Rix)

Abigail by Magda Szabó is a gripping boarding school novel that explores themes of female friendship, war, and resistance in the Hungarian countryside.

readersretreat2017.wordpress.com

Had a nice morning out, walked to a local cafe with my PA for a bit of exercise… there was a funny moment when we arrived when I asked to sit out the back and she said ‘there is no back, no steps, no garden’ and I was very confused, until I twigged she’d taken me to the wrong cafe! 🤦

The Library is devastated to learn of the passing of Dolly Parton, a music legend and titan of children's literacy. Her Imagination Library program has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and, in 2018, she visited us to donate its 100 millionth book to our collection and host a story time. 🦋❤️

Alt text and photo captions serve different purposes, so they should not be identical to each other. If you duplicate the photo caption text in the alt text, users are going to hear the same text twice. This is annoying for one image, let alone multiple images. Don't do this.

All #braille readers & others who work with braille - take & share this survey which seeks to gather information about global trends in braille literacy, access & familiarity / usage of tools & technologies that support braille #BrailleLiteracy #a11y https://tiny.cc/braillesurvey

Puffin Love. Puffins typically mate for life, yet spend winters by themselves out at sea. When they reunite at their nesting burrow, they perform a greeting ritual called "billing", which is what they are doing here. Taken at sunset. #birdphotography #birds #birding #wildlife #photography #nature

I like this piece on Newgrange, by Kevin Rushby. It fulfils the obligations of a newspaper travel feature, but you can tell it really wants to be a short story. www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...

Island hopping through stone-age history in Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man

Exploring prehistory sites around the Irish Sea – that were old even before the pyramids were built – throws a magical light on our ancestors

theguardian.com

I’m finally getting around to reading Sally Huband’s beautiful book Sea Bean, 2023, about her move to Shetland… gorgeous nature writing about island life, the simple yet special act of beach combing, her journey with chronic illness after having children, and our changing climate 💙📚 #BookSky

All #braille readers & others who work with braille - take & share this survey which seeks to gather information about global trends in braille literacy, access & familiarity / usage of tools & technologies that support braille #BrailleLiteracy #a11y https://tiny.cc/braillesurvey

New for #WITMonth, Claudia Pineiro's novel of faith and love, Cathedrals, translated by Frances Riddle and published by @charcopress.com 1streading.wordpress.com/2026/08/20/c...

Cathedrals

Claudia Pineiro is now well known for exploring social issues through novels which read like thrillers, but she does not perhaps get the credit she deserves for the way she structures her stories. …

1streading.wordpress.com

39 years ago, in hardback, my first novel was priced at £9.99 (£36 in today's money). My new one will be £20 if you pay full price. Books have become such a ridiculous bargain, really. (Thought prompted by visiting the booking site for a West End play where the few remaining tickets are £215 each.)

New on the blog today, I've written about GAINING GROUND (ABRA) by Joan Barfoot. A radical, beautifully written novel about liberation, self-discovery and the rejection of traditional societal expectations of marriage & motherhood. Highly recommended! 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/g...

Gaining Ground (Abra) by Joan Barfoot

Back in 2023, I read and loved Claire Kilroy’s Soldier Sailor, a superb novel in which ‘Soldier’, a married woman in the early months of motherhood, experiences a loss of identity, an erasure of he…

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

Disabled creatives like me are behind many of your favourite shows – so why has our work support been withdrawn? | Annalisa Dinnella

Disabled creatives like me are behind many of your favourite shows – so why has our work support been withdrawn? | Annalisa Dinnella

Cuts to the Access to Work scheme will mean no more contributions to shows like Sex Education, Call the Midwife or The Hack. It will be devastating to lose such talent, says TV writer Annalisa Dinnella

theguardian.com

"A daring thought was taking shape in her mind. She began to anticipate a solitude of her own, peaceful and full of possibility. She felt something close to exhilaration, of a kind that people can permit themselves when they are blessed with love."

Fair Play – Tove Jansson (tr. Thomas Teal)

Fair Play by Tove Jansson is a wonderful, deceptively simple yet profound novella about creativity and art, friendship and love.

readersretreat2017.wordpress.com