News Archive
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Do you have knowledge that deserves a stage? Do you have innovative ideas and insights about tactile reading, braille, and accessibility? Then submit your abstract now and seize the opportunity to share them with 400 international experts! Together, we make reading and learning accessible to everyone! The call for abstracts closes on 18 October 2024.
The Tactile Reading & Graphics Conference will take place from June 2-4, 2025 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. During three days, participants from around the world will share their knowledge about tactile solutions for making information accessible. In addition to braille, this third edition of the event will also involve tactile graphics, drawings, and 3D. The conference features a varied program about tactile reading and graphics with inspiring speakers. The venue is the fantastic and inspiring ‘Muziekgebouw’, the most important concert hall in the Netherlands for contemporary music. Discounted Early Bird conference tickets are available now!
To learn more about the conference or to submit an abstract, please visit the website: https://tactilereading.org.
Read MoreNominations are now open for the WIPO Accessible Books Consortium International Excellence Awards 2024. 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 September 16th, and the winners will be announced during a ceremony in December at the Guadalajara Book Fair in Mexico.
Further details can be found on the ABC Awards Announcement page.
Read MoreMany 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.
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