Tag Archive for: NNELS

Canadian Budget Announces Major Focus on Accessible Publishing

The 2019 Canadian budget has a strong focus on the “inclusion of Canadians with visual impairments and other print disabilities.” An exciting funding program has been announced:

  • To address this challenge, Budget 2019 proposes to provide the Centre for Equitable Library Access with an investment of $3.0 million in 2019–20 to produce new accessible reading materials that will be available through public libraries across Canada.

  • The Government is also committed to putting in place a strategy that will ensure the sustainable production and distribution of accessible reading material over the longer term. To that end, Budget 2019 proposes to invest $22.8 million over five years, starting in 2019–20, to assist Canada’s independent book publishing industry in increasing their production of accessible books for persons with print disabilities.

  • To improve employment opportunities for persons with visual impairments, Budget 2019 proposes to provide $1.0 million, in 2019–20, to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to connect persons with visual impairments to small and medium-sized employers.

  • To support the independence of persons with disabilities, Budget 2019 also proposes to invest $0.5 million in 2019–20 towards finding ways to improve the accessibility of electronic payment terminals to enable persons with disabilities to conduct daily activities, such as paying for their groceries, without relying on others.

Accessible Publishing Summit—A Triumph for NNELS

Sign saying" Accessible Publishing=Good Publishing"Inclusive Publishing had the pleasure of attending the Accessible Publishing Summit on the 28th and 29th January in Toronto, possibly one of the snowiest cities to be in at the beginning of the week. Despite the hazardous weather the turn out was incredible and interested parties from all relevant stakeholder groups attended with buckets of enthusiasm, excitement and expertise.

The summit was organized by NNELS, the National Network for Equitable Library Service in Canada and representatives from the ebook production and distribution chain (authors, editors, designers, publishers, distributors, librarians, and alternate-format producers) were invited to help develop a set of best practices and techniques for accessible publishing relevant to their community.

Flip chart page listing the challenges and solutions that the NNELS testers identified in their sessionThe agenda was jam packed and we were treated to a fabulous demonstration session on the first morning from the group of print impaired testers who work for NNELS—what an insight! Each table of delegates experienced a different set of reading choices made by their demonstrator using the DAISY Fundamental Accessibility Tests for Reading Systems. With a huge variety of results which depend on every part of the supply chain we were able to see, first hand, just how frustrating the process can be for readers and how amazing it can be when everything goes well.

The chart shown above identifies the following challenges and solutions which were highlighted in this session:

Challenges

  • Lack of semantic tags e.g. headings for navigation
  • Lack of page numbers
  • Broken or incomplete table of contents
  • Images without a useful description in alt
  • EPUB 2 format still used
  • Fixed Layout
  • Discoverability

Solutions

  • Use Valid HTML tage
  • Reflowable text can change the font
  • Accessible Metadata to enable discovery
  • Universal design

Interested stakeholders then took to the floor in the afternoon to tell the crowd a little bit about their side of the story and Inclusive Publishing was pleased to be invited to take part in this session, highlighting the good work that is happening internationally and how we’ve created a resource and information sharing hub.

In stakeholder groups we discussed the assets, challenges and opportunities for accessible ebooks culminating in our top choices which we shared with all delegates. This gave a framework for the beginning of day two where we started to work on recommendations for the industry. The rest of the day was spent refining these action points, discussing exhilarating new ideas and identifying immediate next steps for all involved. Lots of interesting ideas are on the table and this group is going to be looking at the challenges that still face us from all angles—from involving accessibility testers much earlier in the content creation process to creating guidance templates for publishers to customize for their own organization. From discussions regarding internships for accessibility to how we might establish a certification process for accessible publishing in Canada, it was broad ranging and all-encompassing.

"What does accessibility mean to us"- list of ideas from delegatesEnthusiasm remained key throughout the whole process and I think if we had had the option to remain at the Toronto Public Library for another day we would have done despite the risk of being snowed in! It is rare to experience such a powerful surge of commitment to a project and our thanks must go to the organizing team from NNELS and to Laura Brady for putting so many dynamic and proactive people together. It was a triumph and we are very excited to see how we progress.

 

 

For further information on the summit, it’s agenda and how you can get involved please visit accessiblepublishing.ca and join in the good work!

Accessible Publishing Summit

January 28th to 29th, 2019

The Accessible Publishing Summit invites stakeholders in the ebook production and distribution chain (authors, editors, designers, publishers, distributors, librarians, and alternate-format producers) to help develop, compile, and distribute a set of best practices and techniques for accessible publishing relevant to their community. This event is being organized by NNELS, the National Network for Equitable Library Service, a digital public library of books for Canadians with print disabilities

Date

January 28-29, 2019

Venue

Toronto, Canada

Learn More

All documentation created will be made publicly available on the summit website.