Super Stories

Two of the best pieces of superhero work I’ve ever seen are My Hero Academia and Worm. They both provide an interesting twist to the often repetitive genre. My Hero Academia is set in a world where 80% of the population has some form of superpower and being superhero is a official government job. Worm takes a bit of different route, while being a hero is a official job, powers are rare and often not pleasant to get. Because of this, villains end up being far more common than heroes, and our story is told from a villain’s perspective. I will be focusing on the manga format for My Hero Academia, because it better pairs with the written web serial format of Worm. There will be spoilers for both in this paper.

These two works, while sharing the same inspiration, are created from very different perspectives and for very different audiences. My Hero Academia is a Japanese manga written by Horikoshi Kohei. It’s written primarily for a teenaged Japanese audience and written with an anime adaptation in mind. Worm is written by Canadian born wildbow (aka. John C. McCrae) for an online web serial format and a primarily young adult English speaking audience. However, they’re similar in the way that both are written as they are being published. There is no polished final work, rather when one chapter is published the author might still be working on the next. This differs from modern popular superhero films, where everything is planned out well in advance, and harkens back to original superhero comics where a storyline would develop as it was written.

But both of these pieces differ greatly from your standard superhero stories that were made popular by Marvel and DC. My Hero Academia is set in a world where 80% of the population have some sort of superpower. Due to this the world is filled with both villains and heroes. Being a hero is a government job and heroes in this world are viewed as celebrities. But, interestingly enough, our protagonist is Izuku Midoria, who was born without any special power. The story follows him as he tries to be a superhero despite his lack of special ability. He does gain a superpower from the top hero, but this only allows up to see that having a power isn’t everything you need to be a successful hero. Izuku also needs to have the dedication and be willing to sacrifice himself for others.

Worm, unlike most superhero fiction, has a villain as our protagonist. Taylor, a girl who developed powers as a result of bullying in school, can control bugs. While that seems like a rather boring power at first glance, the story follows her as she makes a suit with spider silk, becomes the villain Skitter, practically takes over an entire city, and becomes a world level threat. For most of the story we not only follow Taylor, but also her team of villains, the Undersiders, and through this we get a superhero story that’s painted with a very grey moral light. The villains are the protagonists and the heroes are the antagonists. We want to see Taylor and her friends succeed, even though they’re doing illegal things. We view the heroes from a bit more of a twisted light and see corruption run rampant through the ranks of those who have power.

However, both of these works are still superhero pieces. People have extrodinary powers and use them to either cause or fight crime. However, the genre goes a bit deeper than that. In order for it to be a superhero piece, we need to see heroes and villains, and a greater balance or fight between good and evil. This is evident in both of them, My Hero Academia making hero society a government organized group to the point that there are hero schools what children go to train. While Worm also takes the government run approach, but with a bit more realism. The program for children heroes is only used when parents, guardians, and the child themselves really agree to becoming a hero at such a young age, and even then they never work alone and are under close supervision and protection. With the greater fight between good and evil, My Hero Academia plays this straight, with the heroes representing light and hope and the good people of the world. Worm however takes a different twist to it. There’s still a great battle between good and evil, but the idea of who’s good and who’s evil isn’t so clear cut. Some of the heroes are evil. Some of the villains are good. Some of the good people do bad things and some of the bad people do good things.

Despite being in the same genre, My Hero Academia and Worm have very different messages that they’re trying to get across. To put it simply, Worm is trying to convey a message about the imperfection of human life and what people will be willing to do when they’re pushed to their limits. It’s about the corruption of power and making mistakes. My Hero Academia is more positive and encouraging. It’s about achieving your goals through hard work and the idea that anyone can become a good person. It’s about the importance of caring for those around you, and making sure that they’re okay. The message is that anyone can be a hero, you just need to save even one person.

Their messages aren’t exclusive to one or the other. Worm has points, in Coil’s arc and the final arc, where it touches on the idea that any can be a hero; the only requirement is to save someone. And My Hero Academia touches on grey morality and the corruption of power, particularly with the hero Endeavor and his story arc revolving around desperately reaching for power to the point that he sacrifices his own family. But Worm comes at the everyone can be a hero message with a more cynical point of view, also making the point that in order to maintain the status of a hero you must continue doing good deeds. One life saved does not make an eternal hero. And My Hero Academia is much less heavy handed in its portrayal of corruption, because while Endeavor is not a good person he does go through a character arc to become a better one, specifically to his family. I find his arc to be one of the more tasteful fictional pieces regarding abusive parents and reformation arcs.

To really examine the differences between these pieces, I’m going to compare two specific story arcs that are eerily similar between the two works. In My Hero Academia we have the Eri and Chisaki arc, in which Izuku has to save a little girl, Eri, from mafia leader Chisaki who’s been using and torturing her to use her time reversal power to develop a power-removing drug. In Worm, we have the Dinah and Coil arc, in which Taylor and the Undersiders have to save a little girl, Dinah, from their villainous employer Coil who’s been using her future probability related power to secure his hold on the city and make sure no one can take him by surprise.

Both arcs center around rescuing a little girl who’s being used and hurt by an evil man for his personal gain. Both rescue missions are motivated by sympathy for the little girl and the need to make sure she’s okay. In both stories we see our protagonist losing sleep over the knowledge that there’s a little girl suffering and they can’t do anything about it at the moment. But in Worm, there’s a conflict between Taylor and her teammates about if they should even try to rescue Dinah. After all, they’re villains, why should they go against their employer just because they disagree with some of his actions? In My Hero Academia there is no internal conflict. There’s just the pain and struggle of waiting for the right time to make a move. Worm brings up the question of whether you should really put your own life on the line to save someone you don’t know. In My Hero Academia, there is no question; the answer is yes. It’s assumed that the right thing to do is to risk yourself for the sake of others, especially if they’re unable to help themselves.

Despite the seeming comflict in both tone and themes, the ideas behind My Hero Academia and Worm combine to support each other's themes. In My Hero Academia superheroes are symbols of hope and the series’ message is to inspire hope in the audience. It uses the superhero genre to take the feelings the heroes inspire in the story and inspire their audience in the same way. Worm uses the genre in a different way. Worm shows what happens when you give hurt and imperfect people power, even when they have good intentions. It uses the hero-villain dynamic to break down complicated morality by subverting a binary view of it. It uses our presupposition that heroes are good and villains are bad in order to flip that on its head and really make us think about how we view morality and the people around us. Worm makes you think about your actions and My Hero Academia gives you the confidence to try and make yourself a better person.

Reflection

My first paper was a joy and a pain to write. I struggle writing comparative essays, never quite sure when to switch from one topic to the other, or how to lay it all out so that it’s easy to understand and read. But I did choose to write it on two stories that I love, which really helped me stay motivated and focused on presenting them as best I could.

In editing this essay the biggest change I made was to italicize all the names of the works I was writing about. I wrote those names a lot more than I thought I did. I also went through and tried to make it more streamlined and easier to follow and read. I made some points clearer and clarified a few things that I wasn’t specific enough about in my previous draft. Overall, I tried to make it a more easily enjoyable read, and less formal and stiff in tone.

The Audio Effect

A common idea among older generations is that kids now don’t know how to sit down and read a book. With the emergence of new technology everyday and the growing popularity of e-books and audiobooks among young readers, many people fear that the children of today will lack the attention span or even the ability to sit down and read a physical book. Some people take it a step further and claim that all this new technology is going to result in lower literacy rates in the youth. Spouting ideas like that spellcheck is going to result in no one knowing how to spell. Today’s generation has a reputation for being lazy, unfocused, and addicted to technology.

The emergence of ever smaller, portable audio storage and playback devices, easy-to-use audio file management software, peer-to-peer file sharing networks, easy digitization of analog audio content, and the expanding array of audio products available for purchase, has created a world full of audio slaves. Look around, people with audio earbuds are everywhere. Commuting, shopping, eating, exercising, driving, mobile telephoning, at work, at rest, we are listening to our own private audio channels.¹

Everywhere you go, you will see people with headphones on. Either listening to music, or a podcast, maybe an audiobook, perhaps even listening to nothing, just wearing their headphones to avoid interaction with other people. According to Jeff Allred, an English professor at Hunter College, lots of people wonder if “students’ capacities for intensive focus and critical orientation will survive amid competing claims for their (our?) attention lurking at the margins of the window, a mere click away.”² Since the question has been asked, it stands to reason someone has been trying to figure out the answer. The result may surprise you, but hopefully it will instill a bit more hope in the future of generation Z.

Jessica E. Moyer, an author who has worked with many large public libraries as they’ve adapted to new technology has this to say: “My experience with teens and adult and leisure reading suggests that they do, in fact, read a lot. In the last 10 years, there had been a marked increase in reader service in libraries, and in the study of leisure reading and readers.”³ If there’s concern of whether or not this generation can even read a book, why would there be an increase in reading? That has to do with what were consider “reading”. Is the only type of reading allowed from a physical paper book? Or could it be just as beneficial, or perhaps better, to use an alternative form of media, like the audiobook?

Audiobooks are becoming more and more common, not only for personal use, but also for use in schools and education. Take a look at the booming popularity of subscription sites like Audible for example. But why are they becoming more prominent? Lucy Bednar, a professor at James Madison University who has focused her life on audiobooks and the impact technology has on culture and communication believes that “The reasons behind this rise in popularity are many. For one, we find it convenient to “read” with our ears, especially when the time-consuming obligations of modern life make it difficult to sit quietly and enjoy a print book as often as we’d like.”⁴ It’s a lot easier to listen to a book when taking the bus or doing the dishes than it is to read one.

However, this advancement in technology wasn’t anticipated even just 20 years ago. When people were asked if they thought audiobooks would become easily transportable and accessible “the comment always came, “everyone had cassette players.” … The current MP3 CD players won’t even fast forward within an MP3 track,”⁵ Walt Crawford wrote this in 2001, quoting the public’s views on whether or not audiobooks would become easily available. Despite the general view on the topic, Crawford believed audiobooks would end up being easy to use and result in a surge in popularity, and he was right.

Audiobooks are now incredibly easy to acquire and have become increasingly common to use. They’re getting integrated not only into our everyday lives but also into our schools and education systems. Rather than worry about the possibility of this going wrong, we should rather focus on what improvements this might bring. Bednar agreed with this focus in her article, saying, “Written texts are now given oral embodiment in audiobooks. It is instructive to ask what can be learned by examining this new phase in the evolution of texts and how we interact with them.”⁶ Audiobooks should be seen as a good advancement in technology and we should be figuring out how to use them to promote learning and accessibility.

The growth in audiobooks popularity has also meant that there are now many more audiobooks than ever before. Whereas audiobooks used to be mainly used as an accessibility device for the blind, and so only a few books would be recorded, now that everyone wants to listen to them we have a much larger audio library. Robert (Rein) Ramsey, creator and voice of parahumanaudio.com, a fan-made audiobook project, had this to say about how promoting accessibility has affected his work.

I wanted my fiancé to read Worm but she never had the time. I know many people are in the same boat and can only consume books through audiobooks and I wanted them to experience Worm too. Honestly, when I started I hadn’t even considered those who were physically unable, but after receiving an email from one such person a little under a year into production it became a major factor for me.⁷

Audiobooks are now much more available than they used to be. Not only does that mean a larger library for the legally blind, but also this makes reading a lot easier for those with reading disabilities or other reading challenges. Asplund, an educational researcher in Sweden writes this in his article about the challenges facing working-class men who may want to read, but struggle doing so: “Firstly, he describes himself as a poor reader, referring to the reading of long typographic texts. Secondly, he talks warmly about listening to audio books.”⁸ In addition research was shown that “audiobooks contribute to a reduction in emotional– behavioural problems”⁹ when used to assist students with dyslexia and other reading disabilities in the classroom.

Audiobooks bring even more benefits to the classroom that might not be thought of at first, even for children who would be perfectly fine reading traditional books. Using written word and audio files together has seen great success in the classroom, as noted by researcher Anna Ching-Shyang Chang, “the majority of the students perceived that the reading while listening mode made listening tasks easier, the stories more interesting, and they concentrated better.”¹⁰ Often people also worry about adding technology to classrooms as it may distract students, but Professor Thomas from Stanford College of Education say that “the biggest challenge with using these digital devices for “English stuff,” … was not the fears of distraction that are often pointed to as reasons for not incorporating mobile media devices in schools.”¹¹ In addition, e-books provide a more accessible way for students to read, with the benefits not only being that it’s easier to carry around one device rather than many books, but also the convince of things like incorporated dictionaries and automatic bookmarks. “While e-book reading is not a new phenomenon, its current popularity among children, coupled with the greater availability of digital texts and more affordable reading devices, warrant a reminder to effectively integrate e-books to support reading instruction.”¹² Lotta C. Larson has done extensive research with 6th grade children regarding the use of e-books that move along with the audiobook, to great success in her classrooms.

Not only does the popularity promote equality and education, but also actually encourages average people to do more reading, since a lot of working-class people do not feel like they have the time to pick up a book and read it, but can easily listen to a book on their commute or while they make dinner. Rein had this to say about the impact of audiobooks on daily life:

There are a tremendous amount of people who either do not have time to read or need something to focus on while doing menial tasks (like driving) that enabling them to consume stories they otherwise would be unable or unwilling to do otherwise is absolutely a net positive.¹³

With so many people turning to audiobooks as a way to read and learn in their everyday lives, many libraries struggle to find a way to meet the demand. Moyer addressed this growing demand in her article, saying, “It is critically important that libraries start to provide these collections… This is especially important for libraries serving youth populations,”¹⁴ As libraries begin to expand their audiobook collections and audiobook become ever more accessible through sites like Audible, we have to look at how this will effect everyday life.

Bednar believes that this may result in a culture shift over time. “However, new technologies, … have created a collision between sound and printed word, a collision that may affect how we think.”¹⁵ Humans passed down information orally for millennia. Paper books being commonplace is a very modern luxury. “Writing can be thought of as a secondary system modeled on the primary one of oral language. When words appear on a page, they are, in fact, coded symbols for real works.”¹⁶ With the growing use of audiobooks, we could be heading back into a form of oral tradition, but one that’s more stable and concrete than before. Audiobooks may be a more natural form of storing information than paper books ever were.

But the biggest reason that audiobooks will continue to become more popular is that they allow reading to become easier for the average person who is busier than ever before. Not because kids these days can’t read. Or they think “paper books are boring”. In Moyer’s study of sixth-grade children’s use of paper books, e-books, and audiobooks she came to the conclusion that “There was also no difference in engagement across modalities; the amount of interest participants expressed in a text was the same regardless of the format in which it was received.”¹⁷ With this being the case, and the added benefits audiobooks offer with accessibility and aiding in learning development, we really should be excited for the day that audiobooks become more common than paper books.

Audiobooks offer much more than physical books do. They are not “cheating” or a lesser form of reading. They encourage more learning, reading, and improve literacy. With advancing technology, the combined use of e-books and audiobooks may become the new normal in classrooms. The implementation of this could help children who have reading difficulties from falling behind their classmates. In addition, as audiobook become easier and easier to acquire it will help those who cannot use traditional paper books to be accommodated for. But overall, it will simply encourage more reading for the general public. That is precisely the reason why the growing popularity of audiobooks is good for our society.

¹ James A. Buczynski and Christopher N. Cox, The Library Patron Prefers Listening: Living in Ray Bradbury’s Personal Audio Universe, (Philadelphia, Haworth Press Inc., 2006), 97–103.
² Jeff Allred, Novel Hacks: New Approaches to Teaching the Novel Genre., (University Park, Penn State University Press, 2014), 121–137.
^3,14,17 Jessica E. Moyer, What Does It Really Mean to ‘Read’ a Text?, (Newark, International Literacy Association, 2011), 253–256.
^4,6,15,16 Lucy Bednar, Audiobooks and the Reassertion of Orality: Walter J. Ong and Others Revisited, (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), 74–85.
⁵ Walt Crawford, MP3 Audiobooks: A New Library Medium?, (Chicago, American Library Association, 2001), 64–66.
^7,13 Robert (Rein) Ramsey, creator of parahumanaudio.com, Interview with Evangelica Klein, 03/06/2020
⁸ Stig-Börje Asplund and Héctor Pérez Prieto, Young Working-Class Men Do Not Read: Or Do They? Challenging the Dominant Discourse of Reading, (Milton Park, Taylor and Francis, 2018), 1048–1064.
⁹ Anna Milani, The Effects of Audiobooks on the Psychosocial Adjustment of Pre-Adolescents and Adolescents with Dyslexia, (Hoboken, Wiley, 2010), 87–97.
¹⁰ Anna Ching-Shyang Chang, The Effect of Reading While Listening to Audiobooks: Listening Fluency and Vocabulary Gain, (Milton Park, Taylor and Francis, 2011), 43–64.
¹¹ P. L. Thomas and Antero Garcia, Adventures with Text and Beyond: ‘Like Reading’ and Literacy Challenges in a Digital Age, (Urbana, National Council of Teachers of English, 2012), 93–96.
¹² Lotta C. Larson, E-Books and Audiobooks, (Hoboken, Wiley, 2015), 169–177.

• Allred, Jeff. “Novel Hacks: New Approaches to Teaching the Novel Genre.” Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, vol. 24, no. 1-2, 2014, pp. 121–137.
• Asplund, Stig-Börje, and Héctor Pérez Prieto. “Young Working-Class Men Do Not Read: Or Do They? Challenging the Dominant Discourse of Reading.” Gender & Education, vol. 30, no. 8, Dec. 2018, pp. 1048–1064.
• Bednar, Lucy. “Audiobooks and the Reassertion of Orality: Walter J. Ong and Others Revisited.” CEA Critic, vol. 73, no. 1, 2010, pp. 74–85.
• Buczynski, James A., and Christopher N. Cox. “The Library Patron Prefers Listening: Living in Ray Bradbury’s Personal Audio Universe.” Internet Reference Services Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 2, Apr. 2006, pp. 97–103.
• Chang, Anna Ching-Shyang. “The Effect of Reading While Listening to Audiobooks: Listening Fluency and Vocabulary Gain.” Asian Anthropology (1683478X), vol. 10, Aug. 2011, pp. 43–64.
• Crawford, Walt. “MP3 Audiobooks: A New Library Medium?” American Libraries, vol. 32, no. 7, 2001, pp. 64–66.
• Larson, Lotta C. “E-Books and Audiobooks.” Reading Teacher, vol. 69, no. 2, Sept. 2015, pp. 169–177.
• Milani, Anna, et al. “The Effects of Audiobooks on the Psychosocial Adjustment of Pre-Adolescents and Adolescents with Dyslexia.” Dyslexia (10769242), vol. 16, no. 1, Feb. 2010, pp. 87–97.
• Moyer, Jessica E. “What Does It Really Mean to ‘Read’ a Text?” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 55, no. 3, 2011, pp. 253–256.
• Ramsey, Robert (Rein). “parahumanaudio.com” Email Interview. March, 6th, 2020
• Thomas, P. L., and Antero Garcia. “Adventures with Text and Beyond: ‘Like Reading’ and Literacy Challenges in a Digital Age.” The English Journal, vol. 101, no. 6, 2012, pp. 93–96.

Reflection

In this academic paper I got the change to study and present an argument for why audiobooks are such a benefit in our society. I enjoy audiobooks a lot myself, as they allow me to “read” while I draw or work on something else. I know that some people are a bit more wary of them, believe there to be greater value in traditional paper books, and I wanted to be able to convince some of them that audiobooks really are a net positive for society.

Along the way I’ve learned much more than I thought I would. I’ve read articles about how audiobooks lead us back to the older times when information was passed down orally. Before written communication was as common and easy to access as it is now. I’ve also gotten to interview the creator of one of my favorite audiobook projects and ask him for his opinions on how audiobooks have improved society.

For my final draft I’ve smoothed out my word choices and made sure my quotations are integrated fully into the text with minimal jarring from the tone changes. I’ve included more context for my quotations and made sure they represent my point clearly. I’ve also re-written parts of my beginning and concluding paragraphs to more clearly portray my thesis and conclusion. I have tried by best to make this paper as clear of an argument as I can with as good of support as I could find.

Remixes of The Audio Effect

Audiobook Version

Braille Version

[image description: A picture of a piece of paper on a desk with about two sentences written out in braille. There is text on the image that says: I spent an hour on the audiobook remix so I spent an hour doing this and I only got through a sentence and a half. Audiobooks are clearly much much easier to make than books in braille.]

Educational Poster

[image description: A infographic reading: Do kids these days read? “My experience with teens and adult and leisure reading suggests that they do, in fact, read a lot. In the last 10 years, there had been a marked increase in reader service in libraries, and in the study of leisure reading and readers.” (Quote from Jessica E. Moyer, What Does It Really Mean to ‘Read’ a Text?) More kids are reading now than ever! “The reasons behind this rise in popularity are many. For one, we find it convenient to “read” with our ears, especially when the time-consuming obligations of modern life make it difficult to sit quietly and enjoy a print book as often as we’d like.” (Quote from Lucy Bednar, Audiobooks and the Reassertion of Orality: Walter J. Ong and Others Revisited) Audiobooks can help reading comprehension! “the majority of the students perceived that the reading while listening mode made listening tasks easier” (Quote from Anna Ching-Shyang Chang, The Effect of Reading While Listening to Audiobooks: Listening Fluency and Vocabulary Gain) Audiobooks mean that everyone can enjoy the book! “he describes himself as a poor reader … he talks warmly about listening to audio books.” (Quote from Stig-Börje Asplund and Héctor Pérez Prieto, Young Working-Class Men Do Not Read: Or Do They? Challenging the Dominant Discourse of Reading) Audiobooks are not “cheating” of a lesser from of reading. They encourage more learning, reading, and improve literacy. With advancing technology, the combined use of e-books and audiobooks may become the new normal in classrooms.]

Artist's Statement

In my last paper I tackled the growing popularity of audiobooks and how this can benefit our society right now. I think we all know of someone wary of technology, and it is important that we do not dismiss their concerns, but rather we help show them the good that can come out our advancements. For my three remixes I will be creating an audio version of my paper, a braille version of my paper, and an information poster version of my paper, like the ones that are put up in elementary school classrooms.

The first remix will be an audio recording of my last paper. This remix will enable my paper to be read by those with visual disabilities and reading disabilities. It also can make my paper a bit easier for your average person to find the time to listen it to rather than have sit down and read it. In addition to that, some people do find it easier to understand information that they hear rather than when they read it. I will be the narrator for this audiobook, and I will document the time that it takes to make so that I can compare it to my second remix of my paper.

I chose an audiobook to be the first remix of my last paper because my paper is so intrinsically tied to audiobooks, with them being the entire subject of my paper. I thought it would be only fitting to make one of my remixes of my paper an audiobook. I also made this choice because it does help to make my work way more accessible. And while I am sure that those with accessibility needs are already aware of many of the benefits of audiobooks, I want to practice what I am preaching and make that sure this work is available to as many people as possible.

The second remix will be a braille version of my last paper made by punching raised holes unsing a pin through sheets of printer paper. This mirrors my first remix of my paper, where it is a format that is generally reserved for the visually impaired. But it will illustrate how audio versions of content are generally easier to use, share, and make. To help drive this point home further, I will only spend the same amount of time on this project as I spent on the first remix of my paper. To see what percentage of the work can be completed in the same amount of time that it took to do the whole work as an audiobook version.

While a braille version of my last paper will be somewhat useless to me as I do not know anyone who knows braille, it illustrates a powerful point that packs a punch larger than the words in my previous paper can convey. The fact that an item so difficult to aquire used to be the only way the blind could read books is eye opening to the great good in audiobooks. I hope to make that point even clearer by comparing how much of this project I am able to get done in the same amount of time that I spent making the audio version of my paper. I will not include the prep time for this remix of my paper in my timer, but I will include the editing and exporting time from the audio version of my paper. By demonstrating how much easier and quicker the audio version is to create I will be defending my topic of how advancements in technology are a good thing.

The final remix of my paper is to help make this information easy and understandable for your average person. A quick look at the poster will tell you all that you need to know about the benefits of audiobook, especially the benefits of using them in the classroom. Meanwhile, it is important to keep in mind that this form of communication in images is literally inaccessible to the visually impaired, so I will be accompanying the pictures of my poster in my e-portfolio with a written image description in text to promote accessibility. The pictures of the braille project will also be accompanied by text descriptions.

I choose this as my final remix of my paper because audiobooks can be exceptionally useful in education and the easiest quickest way to communicate information in my experience is through infographics. This poster will be of the type typically seen in elementary and middle school classrooms. The message to be taken away from this version is that we have quick, easy, and understandable access to this information through this poster. Which is a format that the visually impaired never could use. We have a privilege here and we should try our best to accommodate for and share information with those who do not have this privilege.

All three of these remixes will call attention to the growing access to information and how we can help this information be accessible to everyone. Accessibility is an important topic, and audiobooks are a big progression in our capability to accommodate differences through our technology. While my paper takes a more educationally focused turn, and highlights some of the benefits towards average people’s use of audiobooks, ultimately the most important benefit of audiobooks is the advantage it gives to people who traditionally struggled to gain access to information that most people could easily have access to.