Do Audiobooks Count as Reading?
Contributing author: Dr. Douglas Reeves
While surveys indicate that more than 40% of U.S. adults think that listening to a book should not be regarded as genuine reading, Brian Bannon, Chief Librarian of the New York Public Library, disagrees in a November 23, 2025, article. He notes that while print circulation in the library has remained flat over the past five years, audiobook demand is up 65%. Moreover, with adaptive technology that converts text to voice widely available, people previously alienated from printed text – especially those with dyslexia and certain eye diseases – have the world of literature and news wide open again, enriching their lives and expanding their world. The article includes not only promising information for teachers dealing with struggling readers, but also for educators and school leaders whose reading list is extensive while their available time is short.
Access to voice technology is not merely a matter of convenience. Mr. Bannon, who has dyslexia and nevertheless became one of the world’s leading librarians, marshals evidence to support his views. While learning to read with the eyes starts with decoding and other reading strategies, the latest evidence suggests that this is not the only way to read and understand text. The journal Neuroscience found that when the reader or listener is focused on the text, their levels of comprehension are indistinguishable. By contrast, when listening is nothing more than background noise, such as having the television on when doing homework or other chores, the level of understanding is no different than listening to music. It’s a distraction, not comprehension.
Students who read daily for enjoyment jump ahead of their peers by 1.5 years. They are also more likely to keep reading later in life. Pairing print and audio tends to improve comprehension, enjoyment, and persistence in reading long and complex texts. Every teacher and parent knows that the path to school success is proficiency in reading. While reading print is important, we cannot risk disenfranchising every struggling reader or those with dyslexia and other reading challenges. Moreover, as the population ages, a growing number of adults are diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration, a disease that makes reading print nearly impossible. If we want to keep every generation, from kindergarteners to seniors, engaged in reading for pleasure, reading about current events, reading about history, and whatever their interests may be, then we need to embrace audiobooks and articles as a legitimate way of reading.
Here’s the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/opinion/audiobooks-books-print-reading.html
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