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I have started to like audiobooks after having volunteered extensively with CNIB - an organization which helps people with vision loss. I don't have vision loss myself, my late brother did.
I sat in on a counselling group for people who are adjusting to living with little to no vision and one of the biggest hurdles was "reading". Participants who borrowed audio books from the library were encouraged to say, "I read ....." as they are adjusting to the psychological aspects of being blind.
Librarians I've spoken with also have had to really encourage people who have difficulty seeing text to feel ok about borrowing audio books because they've encountered stern admonishment that it's not "real reading"
Yes, I know braille exists, but a) it's expensive to produce, and often costs more to buy, and weighs a lot! And not all blind people have the nerve sensitivity to read braille (depends what caused their blindness).
I will conclude with my opinion, that audio books are a kind of "reading". It is certainly not akin to just seeing a movie. The same words are read on the page so they are getting the precise same content, only one person is seeing it and one person is hearing it. (On walkie talkies we used to say, "Do you read me?" even though I wasn't reading a darn thing)
A blind friend of mine without embarrassment or apology in her voice tells me all about the books she has read.
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