jessicameats:

There are no new books on the queer reading list this week.

Don’t
forget that I’m doing a giveaway through 2018. If you provide a new
suggestion for a book to go on the reading list, you get entered into a
draw (this is a list specifically of sci-fi and fantasy LGBTQ+ books, so bear that in mind when making suggestions). At the end of each month, I will be picking a winner from those
entered and that lucky winner gets a book of their choice from the
reading list. You can also enter by reblogging the Tumblr giveaway post.

Despite there being no new books, there are a number of updates to the layout and interface. Most of these changes are specifically in two areas: navigation buttons and filters.

You can still navigate the list by clicking on the arrow buttons to move between pages, but I’ve also added some flag buttons that will let you navigate directly to the area you’re interested in. So if you’re interested in reading books with asexual, demi-sexual, or aromantic representation, you can still click on the navigation arrows until you reach page 6, or you can click on the ace pride flag button and skip straight there. I’ve put these navigation buttons on each page so you can jump around between pages as you wish.

I’ve changed a few things about the filters on each page, with the most obvious being that I’ve changed them to buttons rather than a list with tick boxes. This should make it easier to apply filters. I’ve done some resizing and moving around of these buttons on most of the pages to try and make the filters a little less cramped, which again should make it easier to select the filters that you’re interested in. One minor change around these is that I’ve switched the order of the filter buttons for each category so that True now comes before False on all of these buttons.

Hopefully this will improve the usability of the list. To further assist with this I have added alt text descriptions to elements on the views but unfortunately there were some changes I wasn’t able to make. I was asked about making the scrolling bar wider but unfortunately this isn’t a setting I’m able to control. I have suggested making this adjustable to the company whose software I’m using to make the list, but I can’t do much about it unless they decide to listen to that feedback. If you are struggling to use the list for accessibility reasons, let me know and I might be able to give you access to the back end data behind the list. That wouldn’t give you the same ability to filter all the settings, but if there’s a particular sort of representation you’re interested in (e.g. lesbian representation) I could create a pre-filtered view on the back end data and that might be easier to consume if you use a screenreader. If there are other aspects to the list causing accessibility issues, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Check out the updated list and see what you think.