IT is not uncommon to have stinging eyes at the end of the day after spending hours working on a computer.

This phenomenon can particularly affect students. Now, some are turning to audiobooks as a way to give their eyes a break while continuing to broaden their knowledge.

The pandemic has led universities and other higher education institutions to favor video conferencing and online learning. But remote learning inevitably means spending more time on a screen. This is not without consequences for student health, in particular eye health.

Dry eyes, twitching eyelids and recurring headaches may sound familiar to many a student as the pandemic drags on. That's why the publisher Manchester University Press recently launched a pilot audiobook program, The Bookseller reports. This initiative encourages students to switch to audio formats during their studies to give their eyes a break and combat so-called "screen fatigue."


Audiobooks are in

The academic publishing house will soon offer "talking" books on topics such as feminism, literary theory and the treatment of the Uyghurs in China. "Culture is Bad for You: Inequality in the Cultural and Creative Industries" by Orian Brook and "Me, Not You: the Trouble with Mainstream Feminism" by Alison Phipps are among the books selected by Manchester University Press.

These audiobooks will be available worldwide on a variety of audio platforms and libraries. For Jen Mellor, production editor at Manchester University Press, this initiative illustrates the benefits of using audio in an academic setting. "As well as enhancing the accessibility of a book, audio editions cater to individual user preferences, which is great news as we hear that academics and students are increasingly keen to consume information in 'multimodal' forms, combining traditional text with other types of reading," she told The Bookseller.

Long neglected in favor of paper formats, audiobooks have managed to find their audience during the pandemic. And they seem to be particularly popular in the UK. So much so that sales of audiobooks increased by 71% during the first six months of 2021 in the United Kingdom, according to a report from the Publishers Association.