Announcement of 2024 ABC International Excellence Awards Winners

Gerbera Ediciones (Argentina) and the Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities (Australia and New Zealand) have been announced as winners of the 2024 ABC International Excellence Awards in the publisher and initiative categories. They were praised for their exceptional contributions in advancing the accessibility of digital publications for blind, visually impaired, and print-disabled persons.

Publisher Category

Gerbera Ediciones was honored in the publisher category for its dedication to inclusivity, particularly for children and young readers. Gerbera’s commitment to producing books in multiple formats includes braille, dyslexia-friendly print, and audio. These formats are supplied to public libraries and education departments, fostering greater access to literature for children with print disabilities.

Initiative Category

The Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities was celebrated for its contributions to accessibility since its establishment in 1981. Its wide-ranging impact across sectors such as education, government, and business in Australia and New Zealand was praised with a particular emphasis on the resources developed by the Round Table to support the creation of accessible formats and uniting diverse stakeholders through its annual accessibility conferences.

About the ABC International Excellence Award

Award nominees were evaluated on the criteria of outstanding leadership and achievements in improving the accessibility of e-books or other digital publications for persons who are blind, have low vision, are dyslexic or have mobility impairments that impact their ability to read the printed word. The expert jury was composed of representatives of publishers, standards bodies and organizations representing people who are visually impaired, as well as accessibility experts.

About ABC

The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) is a public-private partnership led by WIPO that, together with its many partners around the world, has had real impact over the past decade. Since its inception, the ABC Global Book Service catalogue has quadrupled in size to nearly one million titles thanks to the inclusion of the collections of participating authorized entities. ABC delivered a total of 164,000 accessible digital files from the ABC catalogue to persons with print disabilities through its authorized entities in 2023. In addition, through ABC’s training and technical assistance partners, almost 20,000 textbooks have been made accessible in over 40 low-income countries, improving access to education for thousands of young people. ABC was established in June 2014 to implement the goals of the Marrakesh Treaty.

Originally published here.