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Authoring and publishing

Submitted by adrayer on

This is for authors and those who support authors and publishing activities. Some publishing activities may include:

  • Authoring or editing articles, chapters, or books
  • Creating open textbooks or OER
  • Preparing content for digital repositories
  • Advocating for accessible published documents

Introduction

Providing accessible content is only possible if the author and publisher are both aware and taking action to ensure accessibility best practices. From an article written by Oxford University Press titled Accessibility in academic publishing: more than just compliance:

Accessibility is one of the fundamental principles of publishing and disseminating content in a world where the majority of our interactions take place through digital means. At its heart, accessible design is about ensuring all content and digital functionality are available to everyone regardless of physical or cognitive impairment or device used.

While creating accessible content can feel overwhelming, it’s important to know it can never be perfect. What authors and publishers can do is follow best practices and reach out to the disability community for input. From the Accessible Book Consortium’s Accessible Publishing Best Practice Guidelines for Publishers:

A title that is accessible for one person may not be accessible for another; there are many different requirements depending on an individual’s capabilities, skills and preferences. Broadly speaking, a completely “accessible product” is one which offers the maximum flexibility of user experience for all readers and allows the content to be accessed and manipulated with ease by those with or without disabilities.

For those with print impairment, difficulties can range from issues with font size right through to a complete inability to interact with any part of the page or screen. For many, the inflexibility of print based material in the past has meant that any form of access has been difficult, or impossible for blind readers, in the past.

Core skills

Go through the different sources to learn about each topic.

Other general sources

Check out some of these great additional resources:

Return to digital accessibility skills landing page