Tag Archive for: A11y

CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, 2020

March 9th to 13th, 2020
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The 35th CSUN Assistive Technology Conference will be held in March next year and it promises to be as exceptional as ever. More than 5,000 people gathered last year to explore new technologies designed to assist people with disabilities.​ A few of the sessions which are publishing related are listed below, including some delivered by DAISY staff:

March 11

10am—Publishers Face Off to Prove the Accessibility of their EPUBs

1.20pm—Automating Image Description via Machine Learning

2.20pm—Quest for the Holy Grail: Publishers Making Math Accessible

 

March 12

2.20—Universal Extended Image Descriptions for Publishers

 

March 13

9am—Creating Accessible ebooks from Word is Easy and Free

10am—What are the Best Options for Reading EPUB after Edge

11am—Pearson and T-Base Accessibility Textbook Catalog Benefits

 

Read the full conference schedule

Date

March 9-13,2020

Venue

Anaheim, California

Learn More

For further information and registration details visit the CSUN Conference website  and follow #CSUNATC20 on twitter for all the latest news

Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2020

May 21st, 2020
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Global Accessibility Awareness Day is designed  to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion for people with different disabilities. Last year we reported on some terrific events held at publishing organizations and we hope to see similar this year. See our Publisher’s Toolkit of ideas to get you started.

Date

May 21, 2020

Venue

International

Learn More

For information on last year’s event please read our event report

Rumble in the Publishing Jungle: PDF and EPUB Duke It Out!

November 12th, 2019
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In the PDF corner, wearing the blue tutu, is Susan Kelmer and in the EPUB corner, wearing green trunks, is George Kerscher. This heavy weight event is ten rounds of full impact advocacy for access to information. “EPUB is the greatest,” said George Kerscher, and he went on to say, “I will show the way of the future for all born accessible published materials.”  “PDF is the established world champion,” countered Susan Kelmer, following with a right hook by continuing, “We know how to deal with PDF, and our students want PDF.” This is a sanctioned AHEAD championship event. The referee and question-keeper, who will make sure there is no hitting below the belt, will be Rachel Kruzel. Fans should make sure their tickets are booked ASAP because seats are limited, and this is the ultimate event to fully understand EPUB, PDF, their differences, and the advantages of each.

Date

November 12, 2019

Venue

Online

Learn More

Full registration details are available on the AHEAD event page

ABC International Excellence Award—Seeking Nominations for 2020

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The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) International Excellence Award, to be given at London Book Fair 2020, is now open for nominations. ABC aims to increase the number of books worldwide in accessible formats, and make them available to people who are print disabled; the ABC International Excellence Award, given at LBF, recognizes outstanding leadership and achievement in advancing the accessibility of commercial e-books or other digital publications.

Two awards will be presented, one to a publisher and one for an initiative.  You can nominate your own organisation or a third party anywhere in the world, and nominations are encouraged from those based in developing or least developed countries.  The submissions deadline is December 16, 2019, and the awards will be given on March 10, 2020.  Click through for full details and visit the LBF awards site for submission information.

Accessibility Camp—A Moment of Study Between Experts

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A collection of pink sticky notes being positioned on a boardThe LIA Foundation recently organized a day completely dedicated to the theme of accessibility for professionals in the publishing world and for content producers at the  Talent Garden Calabiana in Milan , as part of the MiCA project—Milan for Accessible Culture.

It was a day in which participants were able to meet experts from the world of digital accessibility to share knowledge, information and experiences—offering a moment of study, exchange and comparison on the subject of accessibility amongst professionals.

The first part of the day was dedicated to presentations from national and international experts who introduced and explored the dynamics and scenarios taking place at a global level.

Speakers included:

  • Cristina Mussinelli—The LIA Foundation
  • Antonio Cotroneo—The LIA Foundation
  • Avneesh Singh—The DAISY Consortium
  • Luc Audrain—Hachette Livre

The day began with a demo of a visually impaired user trying to buy and read an ebook which was great for setting the mood for the day.

Print impaired reader presenting to delegates with Gregorio Pellegrino assisting

 

Cristina Mussinelli from the LIA Foundation then introduced the workshop and explained the need to work together in order to comply with the new European legislative framework for accessibility: Marrakech Treaty and European Accessibility Act. The LIA Foundation has recently produced a white paper entitled: EBooks for All: Towards an Accessible Publishing Ecosystem

Avneesh Singh from The DAISY Consortium gave a keynote speech on publishing standards, including:

  • an introduction to EPUB 3.2
  • EPUBCheck—the prerequisite for adoption of EPUB 3.2 together with plans for further development
  • State of the art accessibility of EPUB 3—greatly reinforced by EPUB 3 Accessibility Conformance and Discovery specifications
  • information on EPUB 3.0.1 and EPUB accessibility specifications becoming ISO standards which will serve to further elevate EPUB and the EPUB Accessibility specification worldwide.

Luc Audrain, Head of Digitalization for Hachette Livre, rounded off the first part of the day with a keynote describing Hachette’s move to an EPUB 3 born accessible publishing workflow, without incurring additional cost. Luc’s drive has been a major factor in Hachette’s success made possible because he was the right person, in the right place, at the right time. It was great to see how just one person can bring about such a change.

 

Luc Audrain presents on EPUB 3 and workflows within Hachette Livre

 

During the second part of the Camp, three operational working groups were organized to explore specific topics in more detail:

  • How to make mathematics accessible in traditional production processes. This workshop also looked at other STEM materials.
  • Reading solutions: platforms and user experience
  • Discoverability and metadata : what do users want and what steps are needed to meet the deadlines set by the European Accessibility Act?

The LIA Foundation has also recently announced that the notable organizations, Associazione Italiana Dislessia (AID) and the Biblioteca Italiana per i Ciechi (Italian Library for the Blind) (BIC) have signed an agreement for the production and distribution of accessible copies of textbooks to blind and visual impaired students. The full press release of this announcement is available. The Foundation is busy setting up a Scientific Committee with many esteemed collaborators and we look forward to hearing about the plans and work of this group.

Accessible Books Consortium Celebrates 100th Signatory to ABC’s Charter for Accessible Publishing

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Fountain pen with ink drippingHachette Livre has become the 100th signatory of the Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) Charter, marking an important milestone for the WIPO-sponsored alliance working to increase the number of books in accessible formats for use by hundreds of millions of people around the globe who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled.

By signing ABC’s Charter for Accessible Publishing publishers commit to making its products fully accessible to all users. Specifically the charter asks publishers to:

  1. state their accessibility policy on their web-site
  2. nominate a senior manager who will be responsible for accessibility
  3. raise awareness among, and provide technical training for, relevant staff
  4. designate and publicise a point of contact in their organization to assist persons with print disabilities to access their publications
  5. test their digital publications for accessibility, incorporating appropriate feature descriptions and metadata
  6. monitor their progress in this area
  7. promote the adoption of accessibility standards throughout the supply chain
  8. support national and international collaboration with organizations representing persons with print disabilities so as to increase the availability of publications in accessible formats

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry welcomed the development, saying: “We are pleased to see a growing number of key industry players signing the Charter for Accessible Publishing. This advances our global efforts to increase the number of books available for use by people with print disabilities.” He added: “Hachette Livre is a world-leading publisher and its membership will make a big difference in making accessible format books available to blind and visually impaired persons.”

Hachette Livre Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Arnaud Nourry said “For the book industry, making books accessible to the widest readership, including readers who are blind, visually impaired, or print disabled, not only makes economic sense, but is a moral imperative. If we, publishers, do not pioneer this duty on an industrial level, who will?”

Accessibility Camp

October 25th, 2019
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The Accessibility Camp is a one day event organized by the LIA Foundation. Participants will meet with national and international digital accessibility experts to share knowledge, insights and good practice, aiming to establish relationships that lead to the design and implementation of innovative and shared projects and to provide solutions for people with visual impairments.

The first part of the day will be dedicated to keynote speeches by national and international experts, including DAISY’s COO Avneesh Singh. This portion of the day will set the stage and present the dynamics at a global level. During the second part of the day, thematic working groups will be organized with everyone playing an active role. The working groups will cover:

  • Accessible Math in production workflows
  • Reading solutions: platforms and reading experiences
  • Discoverability: user requirements
  • Image description: how to produce them in an efficient and sustainable way

Date

October 25, 2019

Venue

Milan, Italy

Learn More

Visit the Accessibility Camp web page to see the full schedule.

Accessing Higher Ground 2019

November 18th to 22nd, 2019
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This 5 day conference, presented and hosted by AHEAD focuses on the implementation and benefits of:

  • Accessible media, Universal Design and Assistive Technology in the university, business and public setting;
  • Legal and policy issues, including ADA and 508 compliance;
  • The creation of accessible media and information resources, including Web pages and library resources.
  • Universal Design and curriculum accessibility.
  • best practices for web design, reaching untapped audiences through accessible design, and compliance with existing and anticipated Section 508 and ADA stipulations.

Delegates will be interested in sessions presented by DAISY staff and Inclusive Publishing Partners:

  • Richard Orme, DAISY—Getting to Grips with EPUB
  • Richard Orme, DAISY—Inside EPUB
  • Erin Lucas, Red Shelf—Born Accessible: Ensuring you’re Adopting Accessible Course Materials
  • Richard Orme, DAISY—Creating and Remediating EPUB
  • Richard Orme, DAISY—Introducing Thorium, a new free desktop EPUB reader for Windows and Mac
  • George Kerscher, DAISY—EPUB Face Off: Publishers Getting it Right or Wrong. This session also includes Rachel Comerford (Macmillan), Jonathon Thurston (Pearson), Mary Conzachi (McGraw-Hill), Deb Castiglione (Cengage)
  • Rick Johnson, VitalSource—Take Control! Overriding Publisher Layout for Improved Accessibility in your Ebooks

Date

November 18-22, 2019

Venue

Westin Westminster, Colorado, U.S.A.

Learn More

For further information on this excellent program and how to register visit the Accessing Higher  Ground website

EBooks for All: Towards an Accessible Publishing Ecosystem

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Front cover image of the new whitepaper from LIAEBooks for All: A New Whitepaper Publication from The LIA Foundation in Italy

New legislative framework, the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty and the recently approved European Directive on the accessibility requirements for products and services (European Accessibility Act), invites the entire digital publishing industry to become accessible to people with disabilities.  The standards used to create, distribute and describe accessible content to end users are available and it seems the right time to start discussing on how to implement an Accessible Digital Publishing Ecosystem.

This whitepaper aims to be an agile manual, providing an overview of the different areas of focus for everyone in the book supply chain: content producers, aggregators and digital distributors, Books in Print Catalogues, online bookstores and platforms, developers of reading solutions. It identifies the role each person should play in the accessible ecosystem, describes the critical elements to be considered and provides the relevant references to the international standard accessibility specifications or guidelines to be followed.

The paper consists of 3 chapters including:

  • The new legislative framework
  • An accessible digital publishing ecosystem
  • Metadata standards for accessibility
  • And more!

To access this new publication please visit: https://www.fondazionelia.org/en/e-books-all-towards-accessible-publishing-ecosystem

Inclusive Design 24

October 10th, 2019
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Inclusive Design 24 (#id24) is a free 24-hour online event for the global community. It celebrates inclusive design and shares knowledge and ideas from analogue to digital, from design to development, from planners to practitioners, and everything and everyone in between.

Date

October 10, 2019

Venue

Online

Learn More

For registration and program details: https://inclusivedesign24.org/2019/