How manga and anime is being made more accessible

by Jane Sandwood

The manga industry has seen huge success since it began back in the 1950“s. It is an incredibly popular medium enjoyed by an extremely diverse audience, with a currentÂ estimated worth of $85 million dollars. The anime industry – yet another incredibly popular medium – has enjoyed enormous success off the back of manga industry by converting the more popular manga series into animated form, much to the delightÂ of millions of fans across the globe.

Catering for the big demand for accessible manga and anime

Given that more and more people are now turning to the online world for entertainment, there is now a big demand for making manga and animeÂ accessible to the visually impaired. Not only is this the right and inclusive thing to do, it also helps to expand their reach which is of course an important business strategy. This article will look at the ways in which online webcomics and anime platforms are making their content more accessible.

Accessible Web Comics

Because manga and comics in general are so visual, many webcomic creators perhaps wouldn“t think about making their content accessible to the visually impaired. An online webcomic called 100 Demon Dialogues has been one of the first to take on this project, andÂ the results are fantastic!Â The creator of the webcomic brought a team together to work on accessibility features.

Using ”˜Alternative text“ to read images

This involves the creation of well-crafted alternative text that can not only read the dialogue, but also explain and interpret each picture to the user in audio form. Many visually impaired people will use a type of assistive technology known as a screen reader, which converts the content of a web page into audio format, so ensuring that your website is compatible with these assistive technologies is an important first step. Check outÂ the Accessibility Insights project on TumblrÂ to see more positive accessibility examples.

Braille versions of manga

While a great deal is being done to improve online accessibility, hard copies of manga comics in braille however are more difficult to come by. A group of volunteers inÂ the Illustrated Braille ClubÂ in Tokushima Japan have transcribed a range of different Japanese Manga aimed at children such as Chibi Maruko-chan,Only Yesterday,Â Crayon Shin-chan,Â Sazae-san,Â andÂ Hayao Miyazaki‘sÂ The Journey of Shuna.Â As well as a series of English picture including Walt Disney cartoon storybooks, Peter Rabbit and Clifford.

Making anime accessible

Many visually impaired anime fansÂ rely on dubbed anime, so that they can follow the story and perceive their favourite characters through audio cues. For this reason, it is important that anime networks put out dubbed versions of anime“s at the same rate as subbed animation, which has historically been done at a faster rate, however the gap is closing now between the two. Visually impaired anime fans will subscribe to sites that have more dubbed anime available such as Funimation for example. So in order to diversify fan bases and secure more subscriptions, providing dubbed versions is essential.