diff --git a/src/spatialdata/__init__.py b/src/spatialdata/__init__.py
index 8b0664ab..dbe0dcbe 100644
--- a/src/spatialdata/__init__.py
+++ b/src/spatialdata/__init__.py
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@
 ]
 
 from spatialdata import dataloader, datasets, models, transformations
+from spatialdata._accessors import io
 from spatialdata._core._deepcopy import deepcopy
 from spatialdata._core.centroids import get_centroids
 from spatialdata._core.concatenate import concatenate
diff --git a/src/spatialdata/_accessors.py b/src/spatialdata/_accessors.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ff402a9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/spatialdata/_accessors.py
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import types
+
+try:
+    import spatialdata_io as io
+except ImportError:
+
+    io = types.ModuleType("spatialdata_io")
+
+    def _raise_install_spatialdata_io() -> None:
+        raise AttributeError(
+            "To use readers, `spatialdata_io` must be installed, e.g. via `pip install spatialdata-io`."
+        )
+
+    io.__getattr__ = lambda *_: _raise_install_spatialdata_io()
+
+__all__ = ["io"]