Accessible Publishing

Accessible Publishing Resources

General

• The DAISY Consortium has a number of technologies and services available to support with the creation and validation of accessible publications including its Inclusive Publishing Hub
• “Ace by DAISY” is an open-source “Accessibility Checker” for e-books created in the EPUB format.
• The DAISY Pipeline facilitates the production and maintenance of accessible content for people with print disabilities, and can be used by anyone creating and upgrading digital content for print-disabled readers.
• EDRLab – European Digital Reading Lab is an international, non-profit development laboratory working on the deployment of an open, interoperable and accessible digital publishing ecosystem worldwide.
• DIAGRAM Center is a Benetech Global Literacy initiative focusing on accessible education technologies.
• W3C's Publishing Page has information on the standards that should be taken into consideration when producing accessible content.
• Quick Start Guide to Accessible Publishing was compiled by the Book Industry Study Group Content Structure Committee’s Accessible Publishing Working Group (Note: resource published in 2016).
• EPUB3 Accessibility Guidelines by Matt Garrish (Note: resource published in 2012).

Australia and New Zealand

• The Australian Inclusive Publishing Initiative (AIPI) has developed a publication, Inclusive Publishing in Australia?: An Introductory Guide, which offers publishers a set of workflow strategies for creating accessible digital books that are inclusive by design. This excellent Guide is relevant for all publishers.
• Books without Barriers, available in English and Polish, is co-published by the Institute of Professional Editors and the Australian Publishers Association, written by Ms. Julie Ganner and Dr. Agata Mrva-Montoya with support from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund of Australia.
• Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities includes resources for accessible publishing
• Inclusive Publishing and the Quest for Reading Equity by Agata Mrva-Montoya is available to download and is published by Cambridge University Press.

Canada and USA

• Accessible Publishing Learning Network (APLN) is a Canadian-developed accessibility resource.
• Benetech's Top Tips for Creating Accessible EPUB Files was produced by Benetech, a US-based non-profit focused on expanding education opportunities for people who are print disabled.
• 1EdTech Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications present best practices for producing accessible software applications and accessible content for online distributed learning. This document is targeted at developers, courseware vendors, educational publishers, content developers, administrators, educators/instructors, and students.

Europe

• Accelerating Publishing Accessibility through Collaboration in Europe (APACE) coordinated by the APACE Consortium, serves as a key resource for guidelines, best practices, and white papers on publishing accessibility.
• European Blind Union Guidelines are available in Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish.
• Inclusive Publishing in Practice (IPIP) co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. These free learning materials were created by BrailleNet (France), Dedicon (The Netherlands) and Johannes Kepler University (Austria).

ABC Resources

• Accessible Publishing, Best Practice Guidelines for Publishers was produced by EDitEUR with funding from WIPO. The guidelines are available in English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. (Note: resource published in 2011)
• Books for All Starter Kit for Accessible Publishing in Developing and Least-Developed Countries was developed by ABC and is designed for key stakeholders such as NGOs, departments of education, and publishers in developing and least-developed countries (LDCs). (Note: resources published in 2015)
• Guidelines for Self-Publishing Authors were produced by ABC and the International Authors Forum and written by Dave Gunn. (Note: resource published in 2016)

Charter for Accessible Publishing