IPEd, APA to launch guide to inclusive publishing

Friday, 26 April 2019 Books+Publishing

The Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) and the Australian Publishers Association (APA) will launch a guide to inclusion and accessibility in the publishing process at the IPEd National Conference on 8 May.

Inclusive Publishing in Australia: An Introductory Guide offers workflow strategies and resources for creating accessible digital books that are inclusive by design, and explains how inclusion and accessibility benefit the community and business.

The resource has grown out of the Australian Inclusive Publishing Initiative (AIPI), which launched in 2016 with the aim to increase access to published material for people living with print disabilities in Australia. Its members include representatives of the publishing industry, libraries, publishers, authors, editors, print disability peak bodies, copyright experts and government.

APA president and AIPI participant Lee Walker said inclusive design ‘is a strategic investment for the publishing industry’, allowing publishers to service a growing market. ‘It also provides publishers with the opportunity to create clever, more efficient, and more cost-effective workflows and opens up new ways of thinking about content, formats and user experience,’ said Walker. ‘This guide provides information to help publishers realise this vision.’

Vision Australia representative and AIPI participant Anthea Taylor said ‘those who ultimately benefit from this guide are part of a broader pool than most might think’. ‘The reasons people have a print disability are quite varied,’ said Taylor. ‘They range from having a vision impairment or blindness through to having Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis, having a brain injury, dyslexia, literacy issues or early dementia.’

Inclusive Publishing in Australia: An Introductory Guide will be launched at the welcome reception for the IPEd National Editors Conference. Printed copies of the guide will be available to conference delegates, and the guide will be available for free download after the launch from the AIPI website.

To learn more about the AIPI, read the Books+Publishing interview with the APA’s Sarah Runcie here.

Category: Local news