The Most Frustrating Ebooks – What Blind Readers Really Hate

When I talk to publishers about e-book accessibility, I often hear the question:

 “What exactly bothers blind people the most?”

The answer is simple. It's not the lack of modern features, artificial intelligence, or extensive personalization options. The truth is much simpler.

What frustrates us most is situations in which a book is theoretically accessible, but in practice it forces us to constantly fight against technology.

It's a bit like someone inviting us into a beautiful library, then turning on loud music, shoving recently returned books into the middle of the room, removing the labels from the shelves, and occasionally turning off the lights. It's usable, but the pleasure of reading quickly turns into irritation.

Interestingly, most of our complaints have been recurring for years. It's not because technology has stagnated. Quite the opposite. The problem is that many errors can be easily eliminated during the publication preparation stage, but this isn't always considered.

A Book That Suddenly Stops Making Sense

Imagine a gardening guide. The author describes in detail how to prune fruit trees and references illustrations every few pages:

“The correct way to make the cut is shown in the picture below.”

 “Figure 5 shows the difference between a forming cut and a transillumination cut.”

“An example of an incorrectly pruned branch is shown in the next diagram.”

Then the screen reader only announces:

 “Image.”

And nothing more.

Suddenly, it turns out that the reader has received all the references to the illustrations, but not the actual illustrations. The author discusses the differences between different types of cuts, compares examples, and explains errors, but a blind person has no way of knowing exactly what they are talking about.

A similar situation occurs in textbooks, popular science books, history publications, and travel guides. If a significant portion of the content is contained solely in illustrations, and the illustrations are not described, the book begins to resemble a conversation in which we only hear half the sentences.

This is one of the most frustrating moments when reading. It's not because we can’t see something. We’re used to it. What's frustrating is that the author prepared the content, the publisher published it, but some of the information simply disappeared along the way.

The Riddle of “Click Here”

Obscure references are another common problem.

 “Click here”

 “More information.”

“Next.”

Just as links in a publication are visually highlighted for quick access, screen readers allow you to display a list of all the links in a book by using a keyboard shortcut. If the entire list consists of a dozen or so items labeled "click here," the user has no idea where each link leads.

It's a bit like all the books on a shelf in a bookstore having the same title.

Technically, everything works. In reality, it’s useless.

When the Table of Contents Is Not Functional

This is a problem that appears particularly often in scientific publications, guides and textbooks, but also in collections of poetry, columns, short stories and novellas.

The table of contents looks great. There are chapters, subchapters, and page numbers.

But it doesn’t work.

You can't jump to a specific chapter. You can't jump to a specific section. You can't check the book's structure.

Sighted people often don't realize how important fast navigation is. Blind users, like their sighted peers, rarely read extensive scientific publications from start to finish. They are much more likely to return to specific sections, search for information, and skim headlines.

A Table Which Becomes a Word Salad

Tables are a great tool for presenting data.

Provided they were prepared correctly.

Otherwise, the screen reader begins reading each cell without context. Column names get mixed up with values, data jumps between rows, and after a while, the user is confused about what is the result and what is the header.

Let’s imagine a simple sales table:

If the headings are not marked correctly, the reader might read it like this:

“Year. Ebook sales. 2022. 120 thousand. 2023. 150 thousand. 2024. 210 thousand.”

With such a simple example, it is still possible to guess the meaning of the data.

But add a few more columns and the situation quickly becomes much more difficult.

Table as seen by a sighted person:

Year      Fiction                Non-fiction     Children

2022    120 000             80 000 45 000

2023    150 000             95 000 60 000

For a sighted person, reading the data takes a few seconds.

The same table without correctly labelled elements:

A reader is going to read:

Year. Fiction. Non-fiction. Children. 2022. 120 thousand. 80 thousand. 45 thousand. 2023. 150 thousand. 95 thousand. 60 thousand.

After a few seconds, the user begins to wonder:

• Does “80 thousand” refer to non-fiction or children?

•  Am I listening to data for 2022 or already 2023?

• Which column does the currently read number belong to?

In practice, you have to go back to the beginning of the table many times and reconstruct its structure yourself.

What does a well-prepared table sound like?

A modern screen reader can read it like this:

Year 2022. Fiction: 120 thousand. Non-fiction: 80 thousand. Children: 45 thousand.

After moving on to the next line:

Year 2023. Fiction: 150 thousand. Non-fiction: 95 thousand. Children: 60 thousand.

Or when navigating through cells:

Line 2. Column: Non-fiction. 95 thousand.

The difference may seem small, but for the user, it's huge. In the first case, they listen to a string of numbers and try to guess their meaning. In the second, they receive information with context and can focus on the content.

It's a bit like blurring out all the column headings for a sighted person, leaving only the numbers.

The Most Hated Message in the World

Every blind reader knows this moment.

The reader starts reading:

„Image 345.”

„Image 346.”

“Image 347.”

Then:

 “Image 348.”

And so it goes for the next few minutes.

Usually, this means that the book was exported from the typesetting program along with elements that should not be included in the content or were incorrectly marked.

The reader receives no useful information. Instead, they are forced to listen to a series of messages that only make reading more difficult.

This is an equivalent of someone who, while you are reading a paper book, would cover the text with a piece of paper every few sentences.

Digital Representation Is Not Accessibility

From time to time, I hear the opinion that because a book is made available in digital format, it is automatically accessible. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The mere fact that a publication has been saved as an EPUB or PDF file does not mean that it can be used using assistive technologies.

For me, a book that is merely a digital reproduction of a print edition is not an accessible book. If only the page layout is preserved but the structure, semantics, proper navigation, or descriptions of important graphic elements are omitted, a screen reader user receives only a digital imitation of the book, not a fully-fledged publication.

It's a bit like the difference between a bar of milk chocolate with raisins and nuts and a picture of it.

Moreover, this approach contradicts the very concept of digital accessibility, as enshrined in the Accessibility Act. It's not enough to make a file available for download. It's also necessary to ensure it can be used.

I remember well what it was like when I was studying Polish Philology. Electronic materials were scarce back then. When I needed a specific book, I'd often spend hours at the scanner, turning page after page, hoping the software would recognize the text well enough to read it.

The biggest challenge turned out to be Jan Lechoń's "Diaries," which I needed for my master's thesis. They were over two thousand pages long. When, after numerous phone calls and emails asking about the file, someone finally sent me an electronic version, I felt a huge sense of relief and was convinced the problem had been solved. My joy lasted until I opened the file. It turned out to be a PDF containing only photographs of the pages. For someone using a screen reader, such a publication was completely useless.

That was the first time I truly understood how big a difference there is between a digital book and an accessible book.

The Voice of Blind Readers

As research conducted by the "Trakt" Foundation and published in the report "The Voice of Blind Readers in the Discussion on the Accessibility of Publishing Offers Following the Entry into Force of the Polish Accessibility Act" demonstrates, the biggest challenges don't lie with ordinary fiction. Difficulties arise primarily when the book contains more complex elements: charts, diagrams, illustrations, tables, exercises, or educational materials.

It is in such publications that errors related to the lack of alternative descriptions, incorrect document structure or non-functioning navigation are most readily revealed.

The report also draws attention to another phenomenon. Many blind readers approach new ebooks with caution, as experience has taught them that even a purchased book may turn out to be partially inaccessible.

Respondents indicated that they most value the ability to navigate the publication freely, use the table of contents, search for information, and quickly move between chapters. They do not expect special features designed exclusively for the blind; they simply expect the digital book to leverage the capabilities that the digital format offers to all users.

Readers Who Don't Give In

One of the most interesting findings of the report is the important role books play in the lives of blind people. Contrary to stereotypes, many respondents reported reading regularly, and ebooks proved to be a primary means of accessing literature, knowledge, and education.

Significantly, respondents much more frequently cited ebooks rather than audiobooks as their preferred format for engaging with books. For many people, the ability to read the text themselves, search for information, revisit specific passages, or work with a scholarly publication is simply irreplaceable.

The report also demonstrates the significant effort blind readers are willing to invest to access the content that interests them. They use various applications, readers, devices, and assistive technologies, compare available editions, and sometimes even convert or edit files themselves.

They don't do it because they enjoy solving technical problems. They do it because books are important to them.

Behind every inaccessible publication stands not an abstract “user of assistive technologies,” but a specific reader who wants to read the book and is often willing to devote significantly more time and effort to doing so than most sighted people.

As a blind person, the image of the reader from the report that particularly stuck with me was not that of someone demanding special treatment, but rather someone eager to read—someone for whom removing a few unnecessary barriers would sometimes be enough.

Good News for Publishers

After reading this article, one might get the impression that creating an accessible ebook is extremely difficult.

Fortunately, this isn’t true.

Most of the things blind readers can't stand do not require advanced technologies or huge budgets.

A working table of contents.

Correct header structure.

Described illustrations.

Correctly prepared tables.

Logical navigation.

These are not futuristic solutions. These are the fundamentals of a well-prepared digital publication.

And that is precisely why accessibility so often proves beneficial for all readers. When a book is well-organized, predictable, and easy to navigate, it is not only blind people who benefit.

Most of the problems described here do not stem from technological limitations. They result from decisions made during the preparation of the book. This is good news, as it means most of them can be eliminated before the publication reaches readers.

And blind readers really don’t expect miracles. They simply want to buy a book, open it, and read it without having to wonder what the author intended to convey—and what the publisher failed to anticipate.

I encourage you to read the full version of the report on the reading habits of blind people (in Polish), which can be found at the link below.

https://badania.trakt.org.pl/