For the 2023 edition of the Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 18th – 22nd), Fondazione LIA organized some events to promote the theme of accessibility in publishing, with the collaboration of international partners and in the framework of Aldus UP, the European Book Fairs network promoting the internationalization of the book sector and the innovation of book fairs format.

In particular, the seminar “From inclusion to innovation. How accessibility is transforming the book value chain” explored the dynamic relationship between accessibility and innovation, researching how accessibility initiatives are reshaping the publishing industry and fostering inclusivity within the industry.

Through a series of success case histories, this seminar was able to show how accessibility-driven initiatives sparked innovation from content production to distribution and consumption.

Irene Enriques, General Manager at Zanichelli, presented the road the publishing house is going through, updating the internal working knowledge and rethinking the workflows, with the objective to produce complex school books in a born-accessible logic. The speech of Tobias Streitferdt, Director Metadata & Systems at Holtzbrinck Buchverlage GmbH, was about the commitment of the German publishing group towards accessibility. Michael Tamblyn, President and Chief Executive Officer at Rakuten Kobo, talked about the efforts to make accessibility metadata available to readers providing information about the accessibility of a digital publication.

Here is the video of the event:

The seminar is organized by Fondazione LIA in collaboration with the Frankfurter Buchmesse, Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the Federation of European Publishers, the International Publishers Association, in the framework of Aldus UP, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.