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Toph has been urging him to try out a screen reader for a while. She claims it could help with some of his problems, but Zuko was hesitant. Compared to Toph, his visual impairment seemed so minor. She’s blind, while he has kinda bad vision in one eye. It’s really not a big deal, he thought, but Toph was insistent.
“You told me yourself that you get headaches and eye strain. If you try it and realize you don’t like the screen reader, you don’t have to use it.”
At first, Zuko feels weird using a screen reader. In his head, there's an endless repetition of, “I’m not blind. This isn’t for me. I’m not blind. I shouldn’t be using this.” But after a while, he not only gets used to it, he also realizes how much it improves his daily life.
He has way less headaches and general pain, and his mood is improved too. He starts to use his screen reader for home work, and realizes that he’s way quicker now. Since he needs less energy to read the materials, he also has much more energy for actually answering the questions and he doesn’t feel drained afterwards. Suddenly, he no longer feels like he is stupid and will never catch up to Azula. The future looks bright.
(Uncle keeps telling him that he no longer has to compete against Azula, which is true, but still.)
One day, he finishes his Japanese Literature homework so early that he still has time for leisure reading. It comes as a surprise for him, since it's been a while since that last happened.
He turns to his bookshelf at first, but then a better idea strikes him.
Instead of looking at one of the tiny printed plays he owns, he looks for an online version. All the good plays are public domain anyway, so it’s not hard.
He navigates to the first line of the play, puts two fingers on the screen of his tablet and makes a small downward motion.
His screen reader starts up.
Zuko closes his eyes.
He hasn’t read Love Amongst the Dragons in forever.