The short-list for the 2020 ABC International Excellence Award in Accessible Publishing was announced on February 10, 2020. 3 publishers and 3 initiatives are competing for the two awards in the respective categories. The names of the winners will be unveiled at the awards ceremony taking place at the London Book Fair on March 10, 2020.
The short-listed candidates:
Publisher Category
- Ediciones Godot (Argentina)
- House of Anansi Press (Canada)
- Macmillan Learning (United States)
Initiative Category
- Fondazione LIA (Italy)
- EIFL – Electronic Information for Libraries (Lithuania)
- Kalimat Foundation (United Arab Emirates)
You can read more about each publisher and initiative, based on their nominations, below.
Nominees are judged on the criteria of outstanding leadership or achievements in improving the accessibility of e-books or other digital publications for persons who are blind, have low vision, are dyslexic or have mobility impairments that impact their ability to read the printed word.
Publisher Category:
Ediciones Godot (Argentina)
Ediciones Godot believes that content must be fully accessible to anyone interested in their books. Their works include a 'first page' accessibility declaration and respect the highest standards often requiring hand coding to deliver a quality product that provides a successful reading experience for all.
https://edicionesgodot.com.ar/
Read our interview with Ediciones Godot from last year here.
House of Anansi Press (Canada)
Anansi is a Canadian independent publishing house which makes their complete frontlist available in accessible formats. By consulting with and hiring staff from the print-disabled community, Anansi is concerned about ensuring that content is broadly available in libraries and that their ebooks and backlist are designed and updated to meet accessibility standards. They consider that accessible publishing means cleanly-coded content that is future-proof.
Macmillan Learning (United States)
https://www.macmillanlearning.com
MacMillan Learning develops learning materials for students of all abilities and works to create equal access by aligning with standards, participating in working groups and working closely with customers and industry partners such as AccessText Network and Bookshare, to whom they provide accessible versions of all their texts. MacMillan Learning is the first publisher to become Benetech Global Certified Accessible (GCA), providing “born accessible” digital learning (ebook) options for students. 100 % of their ebooks with a 2019 copyright are GCA. By viewing accessibility is a journey, MacMillan Learning would like to inspire a broader change in the experience for students with disabilities.
Initiative Category:
Fondazione LIA (Italy)
Fondazione LIA is a non-profit organization that promotes the culture of accessibility in publishing and developed the LIA catalogue of over 24.000 born accessible e-books which constitutes the most comprehensive catalogue in this niche. They carry out research and development activities in the field of digital accessibility, organize awareness-raising events, and offer training courses. In Italy, the LIA catalogue serves 362,000 blind and 1.5 million partially-sighted.
https://www.fondazionelia.org/
EIFL – Electronic Information for Libraries (Lithuania)
EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) is a non-profit organization that works with libraries to enable access to knowledge in 60 developing and transition economy countries in Africa, the Asian Pacific, Europe and Latin America. EIFL focuses on providing access to titles that are not born accessible. It is committed to ensuring the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty through training and interventions with governments and libraries.
Kalimat Foundation (United Arab Emirates)
Kalimat Foundation for Children’s Empowerment is a founded charitable organization which aims at addressing literacy and access to responsible sources of knowledge amongst children. It was founded by Bodour Al Qasimi, the vice-president of IPA. Its initiative named “Ara” (meaning “I see”) has the objective of supplying books in accessible formats to visually impaired and blind Arabic-speaking children in the MENA region. So far, 30,000 accessible book formats have been produced and more are planned to close the literacy gap in this region.
