LIALIA The LIA Project Italian Accessible Books London Book Fair– April, 11 th

LIALIA LIA Italian Accessible Books What accessible titles Why More books for people with reading disabilities Who AIE in collaborati on with UIC Thanks to Italian Ministry of Culture When in a two- year period of time

LIALIA Lia will create a service delivering online accessibile editorial products (fiction and non fiction books) for visually impaired people working in collaboration with all the involved stakeholders By the end of titles a year: Italian authors, 500 foreign authors, 500 on demand All the big Italian publishers and some of the small and medium ones: more than the 55% of the Italian book market The project is financed by the Italian Ministry of Culture within a specific call aimed at providing services for blind and visual impaired people The project foresees the collaboration of the Italian Blind Union

LIALIA State of the art currently the production process for accessible formats is managed by specialized facilities producing accessible version of books in specific format (Braille, audiobooks, large print) process is slow and expensive a quite small number of books is accessible the production of accessible formats is mainly realized after the production of books by scanning them or starting by digital files provided by publishers

LIALIA The situation in Italy is similar to the one in place in other European countries: common aim is to find the best productive system to produce accessible versions transition vs fully digital process based on standard growing awareness on need for specific licensing agreements ebooks market is starting to grow

LIALIA LIA’s goals provide guidelines for actors involved in the production processes in publishing to produce books in accessible formats (in synergy with the Enabling Technologies Framework) identify the best accessible formats possibly enabling simultaneous publication of mainstream and accessible ebooks in Italy, particularly of “simple texts” – fiction and un-illustrated non-fiction implement or utilize a technical infrastructure to catalogue, preserve and distribute accessible books in the Italian market establish a coordination point supporting constructive collaboration among all the actors realize an online bibliographical catalogue of available books in accessible formats, periodically updated, where to find available specific formats for all titles (Braille, audiobooks, large print)

LIALIA How collaborate with the main specialist organizations representing people with visual disabilities collaborate with other international projects involved in accessibility issues collect feedbacks by stakeholders promote awarness among Italian publishers on how introduce accessibility within mainstream production proces

LIALIA When 1.first step (pilot project) - 6 months realize all preparatory studies: –analize the actual editorial workflows and define the ones requested for the production of accessible version (taking in consideration the different complexity of the structure of the books and the expected file formats) –investigate the users’ habits and requirements –analize and define the CMS, the distribution channels and the issues related with DRM –define standard identifier and metadata schema to be used for the produced files degli standard di identificazione e metadatazione define the architecture of the technological infrastructure

LIALIA First phase: preliminary studies What we need to know to define the following steps? There are specific problems related with the different kinds of books? Which are the file formats produced? Which are the requested files format (Daisy, pdf, other)? Epub, pdf, In- Design, XPress, … Are accessible specifications taken in consideration? Which are the preferred distribution channels? Publishers and distribution platforms Users LIA How are the titles distributed? Which are the most used software and devices

LIALIA First phase Production process analyse the existing production processes in publishing and plan the best productive flow to produce books in accessible formats in particular analyse the complex interaction between: the file that is created by the publisher (or the publisher’s digital supplier); the software platform; the specific reading device; and the degree and type of assistive technology required by the individual user. take in consideration that with EPUB 3 there is a convergence between the delivery format which is increasingly used for mainstream ebook publishing applications (now EPUB) with the delivery format primarily adopted for accessible editions (the DAISY delivery format)

LIALIA First phase Users’ requirements In collaboration with Università Bicocca, Unione Italiana Ciechi and CNUDD (University organization focused on supporting Italian students with disabilities) we will manage a specif survey to better understand the actual reading habits and the further requests Tecnological infrastructure In collaboration with Cefriel (Politecnico Milano) we will analyze the actual distribution, make a survey of the new possibilities offered by digital distributors and identify the best solutions to implement the service Standard identifier and metadata schema In collaboration with Medra we will define them focusing on alredy existing ones (ISBN/ISBN-A/ONIX)

LIALIA When 2. second step (complete realization) – 18 months support/implement the conversion of the files working in strict collaboration with publishers and prepress suppliers create the accessible books’ catalogue create an ad hoc technological infrastructure or define to use existing platforms or infrastructures put in place an online distribution service for accessible books by the end of 2012 test the service with people with reading disabilities

LIALIA Contacts Coordination Cristina Mussinelli – Organizing Secretary Rosa Mugavero –