The winners of the 2020 ABC International Excellence Award in Accessible Publishing were announced on March 10, 2020. IPA congratulates Macmillan Learning of the United States in the publisher category and Fondazione LIA in the initiative category for their important contribution in improving accessibility of digital publications for people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled.

The award is given by the WIPO-led Accessible Books Consortium. An expert jury had the difficult task of selecting this year’s winners from the short-listed nominees, consisting of 3 publishers and 3 initiatives displaying outstanding leadership and achievements in the field of accessible publishing. 

IPA president Hugo Setzer had the honor of sitting in the ABC Selection Jury and explains that “the jury had difficulty selecting the winners among excellent nominees, but it was felt that it was important to recognize Macmillan Learning’s contributions as the first Global Certified Accessible (GCA) publisher producing products and learning materials in accessible formats for students with different kinds of vision impairment.”

Concerning the initiative category, “Fondazione LIA has introduced an innovative approach to accessible publishing, which we would encourage others to emulate. The Foundation has played a very important role in bringing together publishers and the visually impaired community to create an environment where issues of accessibility matter”.

IPA regrets that the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the annual awards ceremony at the 2020 London Book Fair, which was cancelled following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Europe. Let us not forget in these difficult times that more than 253 million people worldwide struggle with vision impairment on a daily basis and that the barrier to getting an education and leading an independent and productive life can be lessened through improved access to books tailored to their needs.

In February, Inclusive Publishing’s Sarah Hilderley delivered a presentation on behalf of Hugo Setzer, President of the International Publishers Association, at the NNELS Accessibility Summit 2020. You can read it in full here.