Fondazione LIA will cooperate with Casalini Libri to achieve and ensure full compliancy of its technological infrastructure with the European Accessibility Act.

Founded in 1958, Casalini Libri is recognized as one of the leading suppliers of publications from across Southern Europe to libraries and institutions worldwide. It currently works with over 3,000 libraries and institutions, and more than 5,500 publishers from over 40 countries.

Through the years Casalini Libri has provided increasingly advanced tools to facilitate access to academic research and cultural content for scholars from all over the world. Its Digital Division and Torrossa platform have offered libraries and institutions the possibility to consult academic texts in the Humanities and Social Sciences in digital format.

“Ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to use Torrossa for study and research is an absolute priority for us”, affirms Michele Casalini. “Thanks to the experience of Fondazione LIA, this year we will acquire the skills necessary to make Torrossa accessible also to users with visual disabilities. From next year we will look to strengthen our synergy with publishers with the aim of having new digital contents published natively in accessible formats”.

“We are enthusiastic about this collaboration”, declares Cristina Mussinelli, Secretary General of the foundation. “Accessibility is an increasingly strategic issue for publishing, in terms of both content creation and its distribution. The partnership with Casalini Libri aims to involve other Italian and international realities, allowing us to work together to build an increasingly accessible publishing ecosystem in line with recent regulations”.

Casalini Libri web developers and programmers have already begun a specialized training with the LIA team of experts in accessible publishing and assistive technologies. This training is functional in order to adapt the Torrossa platform to conform with accessibility standards by the end of 2021, referring to internationally recognized requirements for rendering Web content and reading solutions as accessible as possible.

The project includes an intense program of activities over a three-year period. Full details are available online at the constantly updated web page www.casalini.it/accessibility.asp