Public Forum on Advancing Digital Accessibility for Scientific and Technical Publications

Dear Publishing Community,
 
I think this will be of interest to many in the publishing community.
Best
George
 

 
<https://inclusivepublishing.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=02c190250490
ebd7d7970f2b0&id=e99deea776&e=dd24b4ccab> The DAISY Consortium, the
<https://inclusivepublishing.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=02c190250490
ebd7d7970f2b0&id=8a39f4cbe6&e=dd24b4ccab> World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
and the
<https://inclusivepublishing.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=02c190250490
ebd7d7970f2b0&id=4c60f68e1f&e=dd24b4ccab> National Information Standards
Organization (NISO) are pleased to announce that they are partnering to
support and advance the accessibility of scientific and technical
publications to people with disabilities through a series of virtual public
forums. Building
<https://inclusivepublishing.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=02c190250490
ebd7d7970f2b0&id=e5bb2fb6ad&e=dd24b4ccab> on work initiated in 2024 by the
U.S. White House
<https://inclusivepublishing.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=02c190250490
ebd7d7970f2b0&id=11b9f357cc&e=dd24b4ccab> Office of Science and Technology
Policy (OSTP), these meetings will seek to advance the goal of ensuring the
digital accessibility of content to advance the goal of ensuring the digital
accessibility of content. 

Recognizing that advancing accessibility is a community effort, the three
organizations will work to bring representatives from publishers, research
societies, libraries, US Federal Agencies, and institutional and government
repository hosts, and others around the world together to share knowledge
and support best practices. With a long history of leadership in both
promoting accessibility and engaging the information and publishing
communities, DAISY, W3C, and NISO are well positioned to pursue the vision
for a more open, accessible, and inclusive future for science and
innovation. Building upon the voluntary commitments of the three
organizations, the effort will initially focus on the priority areas
identified by OSTP: 
*	Meet and surpass federal requirements for digital accessibility of
publications.
*	Promote awareness of barriers to digital accessibility, advance
training to reduce such barriers, and increase accountability for improving
the digital accessibility of publications.
*	Promote improvement and use of platforms, apps, testing tools, and
resources that facilitate the design, creation, production,
interoperability, and user experience of accessible publications.
 
The goals of this initiative are to continue to build community around this
effort, support ongoing voluntary actions, share knowledge, and help to
catalyze support for the continuing advancement of best practices regarding
the accessibility of scientific and technical content. 

The first meeting in this webinar series will be held on Tuesday, December
17 at 10:00-11:30 am Eastern Standard Time (US/Canada). The event is open to
the public and all are welcome to participate by completing the
<https://inclusivepublishing.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=02c190250490
ebd7d7970f2b0&id=6b35cc338b&e=dd24b4ccab> webinar registration form.
Organizations that would like to share their own voluntary commitments
regarding this initiative during the public event are encouraged to note
this on the registration page. 
 
***
 

The DAISY Consortium

The DAISY Consortium is a not-for-profit global collective of organizations
committed to delivering worldwide change to achieve the common vision that
"People have equal access to information and knowledge regardless of
disability." DAISY contributes to mainstream standards, develops guidelines
to promote best practices, raises awareness of accessible reading systems
and supports open standards and tools for inclusive publishing. 
 

NISO

Based in Baltimore, MD, NISO's mission is to build knowledge, foster
discussion, and advance authoritative standards development through
collaboration among the cultural, scholarly, scientific, and professional
communities. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages with libraries,
publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support
learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization,
management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting
communities of interest and across the entire life cycle of information
standards. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI).  
 

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international public-interest
non-profit organization where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and
the public work together to develop Web standards. Founded by Web inventor
Tim Berners-Lee and led by President & CEO Seth Dobbs and a Board of
Directors, the Web Consortium's
<https://inclusivepublishing.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=02c190250490
ebd7d7970f2b0&id=2f1714cc41&e=dd24b4ccab> mission is to lead the web to its
full potential