E-books and digital technologies offer extraordinary opportunities to extend and ease the possibility of reading to a number of people that suffer from different kinds of visual impairment but to fully exploit this potential, a coordinated effort is needed by all parties involved. E-books, distribution channels, payment tools, reading solutions both hardware and software should embed accessibility in an homogeneous way.
Cooperation between the different actors of the supply chain is therefore fundamental since all of them should take care that accessibility is duly incorporated in their products and services since the early stages of design to allow the final user an accessible reading experience.
In recent years, these different players have made progresses towards a major accessibility but there are still wide areas where structured dialogue and cooperation between the different parties can be game changing.
In particular joint efforts should be promoted between publishers/distributors on one side and hw/sw producers on the other; e-books produced with accessibility criteria must be discovered and purchased in platforms that take into consideration the needs of visual impaired and be fully enjoyed in a seamless fruition through any reading software and devices available on the market.
The goal of this seminar is to provide an overview of the state of the art concerning development in content accessibility pursued by publishers, distributors, hardware/software producers and identify priority areas of development, challenges to be tackled and perspectives for joint cooperation.
Speakers
– Cristina Mussinelli, Secretary general Lia Foundation
– Virginie Clayssen, Chairman’s advisor Editis
– Jean-Marie Geffroy, CEO and Founder Mantano
– Michael Vogelbacher, Director information services MVB
– E.A. Draffan, Senior Research Fellow, Web and Internet Science, University of Southampton
The seminar will be chaired by Paola Mazzucchi, Project Manager, mEDRA
To read the review of the event, have a look HERE.