Calendar: Upcoming Events

Germany‘s biggest exhibition for Aids for the Blind and the Visually Impaired. Free entrance. More information is provided on the Sight City website.

At IDPF Digital Book 2012 you'll hear about the latest business and technical developments in the rapidly evolving digital publishing industry.

This two-day conference will feature insightful keynote sessions and three parallel tracks of targeted in-depth content designed to be directly applicable to addressing the current challenges faced by technologists, marketers, and publishing executives, both in the U.S and internationally. eBooks, tablet apps, multimedia, social integration, content clouds… what's next on the horizon and how do we get there? More information is provided on the IDPF website.

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:20 pm

Location: 1E04

Speakers:

Cristina Mussinelli (Project Coordinator) Libri Italiani Accessibili

Matt Garrish - Publishing Solutions Consultant

Description: Cristina Mussinelli, the LIA Project Coordinator, has been responsible for the technological innovation and digital publishing within the Italian Publishers Association since 1988. The guiding concept of the LIA (Libri Italiani Accessibili) project and its research is to make accessibility part of production and distribution workflows in mainstream publishing. EPUB 3 has emerged as a preferred format as it is in line with overall technological evolution, allowing publishers to adjust the way they produce their e-books, without radically changing processes. But the efforts of the publishers need to be widespread along the value chain as the whole publishing / distribution and reading ecosystem needs to be accessible to deliver a fully accessible reading experience.

Accessibility is an imperfect concept that means different things depending on the reader’s need. While validators are able to verify the structural conformance of publications to a standard, they can’t tell you whether the resulting document will be usable by any reader, regardless of ability. Matt Garrish, author of Accessible EPUB 3 (O’Reilly), will review the features that make the new EPUB 3 standard uniquely adaptable to reader’s needs, and also examine the issues we still face in making content accessible at the source. Resources in support of inclusive publishing in EPUB 3 are developed through joint efforts between the DAISY Consortium and IDPF. More information is available on the BEA website.

The printed world is converging with the digital world in new ways every day. More and more publications are available in electronic formats. These formats, when they are accessible, provide blind and print disabled users with a wealth of material which they have never had access to before. Many members of the print disabled community have been determined and voracious readers, despite a lack of large-scale adoption of formats they can utilize. These users love the written word, and want to access it with the rest of the world, and this is where the promise of ebooks is so exciting. Unfortunately, not all ebook platforms provide accessibility to this subsection of society. At this conference, the DAISY Consortium and the National Federation of the Blind are teaming up with other experts in the field to meet the challenges of ebook accessibility for everyone. Presentations will include:

• The place of DAISY in today’s ebook landscape
• An overview of present levels of accessibility in the market
• The place of Accessibility standards in ebook systems
• The browser-based reading system
• Accessible math, science, and other advanced topics.

Do not miss this opportunity to learn about the state of the accessible ebook market, interface with experts in the industry, and ensure that your print-disabled users can join the rest of the world in enjoying the convenience and power of the ebook revolution.

Register online

Preconference: July 9 - 10, 2012
Check http://www.icchp.org regularly for calls & updates!

Topics will cover a broad spectrum of technology as it is being applied to all disabilities and age groups in education, rehabilitation, vocation and independent living. More information is provided on the 30th Annual Closing The Gap Conference website.