Advancing Digital Accessibility for Scientific and Technical Publications
About the Initiative
The DAISY Consortium, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) are partnering to advance the accessibility of scientific and technical publications to people with disabilities. This builds on work initiated in 2024 by the U.S. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
Recognizing that advancing accessibility is a community effort, the three organizations are working to bring representatives from publishers, research societies, libraries, government agencies, institutional and government repository hosts, and others around the world together to share knowledge and support best practices. With a long history of leadership in both promoting accessibility and engaging the information and publishing communities, DAISY, W3C, and NISO are well positioned to pursue the vision for a more open, accessible, and inclusive future for science and innovation.
Priority Areas
- Meet and surpass minimum legal requirements for digital accessibility of publications.
- Promote awareness of barriers to digital accessibility, advance training to reduce such barriers, and increase accountability for improving the digital accessibility of publications.
- Promote improvement and use of platforms, apps, testing tools, and resources that facilitate the design, creation, production, interoperability, and user experience of accessible publications.
Public Forums
The next forum for this initiative will be held on Tuesday, December 17 at 10:00–11:30 am Eastern Standard Time (US/Canada). The event is open to the public and all are welcome to participate by completing the webinar registration form.
Further opportunities to share, learn and discuss will be held through 2025.
Voluntary Commitments
Stakeholders from across the publishing ecosystem are invited to make voluntary commitments towards improving the digital accessibility of Scientific and Technical publications.
DAISY Consortium Voluntary Commitment
If you would like to us to link to your commitment statement then please write to astp at inclusivepublishing.org
Stay Connected
If you would like to receive announcements about this initiative, including when we are holding future forums, then send an email with the subject “subscribe” to astp at inclusivepublishing.org