Accessible publishing

Accessible publishing is an approach to publishing and book design whereby books and other texts are made available in alternative formats designed to aid or replace the reading process. Alternative formats that have been developed to aid different people to read include varieties of larger fonts, specialised fonts for certain kinds of reading disabilities, Braille, e-books, and automated Audiobooks and DAISY digital talking books.

Accessible publishing has been made possible through developments in technology such as Print on demand (POD), E-book readers, the XML structured data format, and the Internet.

The aim of accessible publishing is to make reading easier for those who have difficulties doing such. This group includes people who are blind or visually impaired, people with learning disabilities, and people who are learning a second language. Accessible publishing also aims to allow people to read whichever format allows them to read fastest or allows them to absorb the information in a better way.

In the twenty-first century, the accessible publishing aim is to make every book available in all formats so that every reader can read with ease and proficiency.

Guidelines and techniques for publishing in accessible formats have been made available by several organisations and authors, including:

Prior to the twenty-first century the publishing industry focused on the production of printed books. The predominant publishing theory, which stressed economy of scale, tended to make only one format of a given book available. In this way they could be mass-produced and made available for the general public. This model did not allow for any other format to be widely available, however.

There were a number of developments in technology that increased the accessibility of books. The first of these was the development of the Braille language by Louis Braille in 1821. After this there was the development of audiobooks which originated from the United States Congress in 1931 and became popularised by advances in recording and the use of voice actors.

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