News Archive
Posts older than the ten latest, will show up here in the archive.
Many congratulations to WIPO and the staff of the Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) on their 10th Anniversary. ABC is a public-private partnership with the goal of increasing the number of books worldwide in accessible formats and making them available to people with print disabilities.
The celebration in Geneva included a performance from Cobhams Asuquo, a blind singer/songwriter from Nigeria.
Read more 10 year celebrations on the WIPO website
Video and transcript of the celebration
Read MoreWe are sorry to note the passing of Monthian Butan, Thai Senator and disability advocate, who, amongst an extensive portfolio of achievements, played a critical role in the early days of the DAISY Consortium. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Read about his life in the Thai News article remembering Senator Monthian Butan.
Read MoreNamed BUCC, the Boin Universal Contents Converter is a web service for converting Microsoft Word documents to the DAISY format.
This service is specifically designed for Korean content, enabling the quick creation of DAISY files in a Korean work environment, handling Korean-named files and fully supporting the language.
In addition to full Korean language support the service also offers a dashboard with service status, community space, system notices, enables the conversion of single or multiple documents and delivers the converted content along with error lists.
The service is currently being used in five places, including the National Library for the Disabled and the Korean Welfare Association for the Blind, and is reportedly contributing to a reduction in production time by more than 30% compared to the previous workflows.
Further information is available on the Boinit website (in Korean).
BoinIT are a DAISY Consortium Inclusive Publishing Partner.
Read MoreThe Braille Authority of North America (BANA) has awarded Dr. Sarah Morley Wilkins the Darleen Bogart BANA Braille Excellence Award in recognition of work in the field of Tactile Graphics, and for leading international work on the DAISY Music Braille Project. Many congratulations Sarah for this well deserved award.
Read the BANA award press release.
Read MoreMany congratulations to the winners of the Accessible Books Consortium International Excellence Awards for Accessible Publishing, announced today at The Sharjah Book Fair.
The awards are divided into 2 categories with an impressive set of finalists for each.
Publisher Award Winner: Bokförlaget Hegas AB
Swedish publisher Hegas was recognized for “its outstanding achievements in inclusiveness, thoroughness of its accessible production methodology and overall impact.” The Awards jury made special note of Hegas’ focus on inclusiveness, as evidenced by their collection of books in Arabic, as well as their commitment to producing their books in accessible formats for a wide variety of children with different reading abilities.
Congratulations also go to the other finalists in this category:
- Accessible Publishers Limited (Nigeria)
- Gerbera Ediciones (Argentina)
Initative Award Winner: The Accessible Reading Materials Library, Chetana Charitable Trust of India
This winner has done wonderful work in recent years to serve an online readership in more than 100 countries. The library started as a physical library for local children with print disabilities,but its reach grew rapidly during the pandemic period developing into a major online resource/ Founder, Namita Jacob, commented “We believe that in building accessible books, people of all ages learn to be more creative, sensitive and intuitive and in this way, we are building a better, more inclusive world.”
Congratulations also go to the other finalists in this category:
- Julie Ganner and Dr Agata Mrva-Montoya (Australia) for their contributions to “Books without barriers: a practical guide for inclusive publishing”
- Kalimat Foundation (United Arab Emirates) – who also received a special commendation award for their continued leadership in the field of accessibility across the Arab-speaking world.
- Oysters & Pearls (Uganda)
Nominees were judged on the criteria of outstanding leadership or achievements in improving the accessibility of ebooks or other digital publications for persons who are print disabled.
The short-list for the 2023 ABC International Excellence Awards in Accessible Publishing has been announced in advance of the awards ceremony to be held at the Sharjah Publishers Conference on October 39th, 2023. There are two categories of awards, publishers and initiatives, and the following shortlisted candidates were selected from nominations from around the globe:
Publishers
- Accessible Publishers Limited (Nigeria)
- Bokförlaget Hegas AB (Sweden)
- Gerbera Ediciones (Argentina)
Initiatives
- Accessible Reading Materials Library, Chetana Charitable Trust (India)
- Julie Ganner and Dr Agata Mrva-Montoya (Australia) for their contributions to “Books without barriers: a practical guide for inclusive publishing”
- Kalimat Foundation (United Arab Emirates)
- Oysters & Pearls (Uganda)
A jury made up of representatives from publishers, organizations working in the field of accessibility, and organizations representing persons who are visually impaired, is charged each year with the difficult task of choosing finalists and selecting winners. Congratulations to all those shortlisted!
Our congratulations to everyone who has worked on the Benetech Global Certified Accessible initiative since its launch 5 years ago. The DAISY Consortium are delighted to be so closely affiliated with the program, which has grown from a pilot project of a couple of conversion vendors to over 50 publishers and 10 conversion vendors now certified. Numbers continue to increase and the new Benetech Approved Tools Program makes sure that the EPUBs created from a partner’s tools are also accessible.
Read MoreNominations are now open for the WIPO Accessible Books Consortium International Excellence Award 2023. As in previous years, there are two categories for the awards, allowing both publishers and other initiatives to be celebrated for their work progressing accessibility in their respective fields.
Nominations are open until August 4th, and the winners will be announced during a ceremony in October at the Publishers Conference in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates.
Visit the ABC International Awards page for the nomination form and details of the process.
Read MoreMany congratulations to Avneesh Singh, Chief Operating Officer at The DAISY Consortium, who has been re-elected to the W3C Advisory Board, as reported in W3C’s announcement. Avneesh’s submission blog piece is available to read on the W3C submissions pages.
The W3C Advisory Board “provides ongoing guidance on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution” within the W3C. DAISY is delighted that the board will continue to have the benefit of Avneesh’s experience and expertise.
The elected Members of the Advisory Board participate as individual contributors and not representatives of their organizations. Advisory Board participants use their best judgment to find the best solutions for the Web, not just for any particular network, technology, vendor, or user.
Our congratulations also to Inclusive Publishing Partner, Rakuten Kobo who’s Accessibility and Publishing Standards Lead, Wendy Reid, was also elected to the advisory board.