WIPO’s Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) announced the opening of nominations for the 2026 Excellence Award for Accessible Publishing. Next year’s edition will take place at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. 

The ABC International Excellence Award for Accessible Publishing will be presented during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair on Monday, April 13, 2026. ABC particularly encourages nominations from children’s book publishers for the 2026 award iteration, as well as from companies and organisations based in developing and least developed countries. 

For the selection, the following criteria aspects will be considered: commitment to making content available in accessible formats; collaboration with partners in the supply chain to ensure that accessibility is maintained in delivering the product to the print disabled end-user; innovative practices established to advance the accessibility of e-books and digital publications; and widespread positive impact on persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled. For further information on the selection criteria and eligibility, please visit the ABC website. 

The transformative power of this initiative is clearly demonstrated by the recent addition of WIPO’s Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) catalogue through the Dolphin EasyReader. This app is used by visually impaired people to search for, download and read digital books on their phones, tablets or computers. EasyReader is free, allowing readers to obtain books from the ABC catalogue in 18 languages in a variety of accessible formats. According to the ABC Head, Monica Halil Lövblad: “As the name suggests, EasyReader is making it a lot simpler for people who are blind, have low vision, are dyslexic or have mobility impairments that impact their ability to read printed materials to find and enjoy digital books from the ABC Catalogue in the language and format that suits them best – on the devices they already use every day.”

The ABC catalogue in EasyReader is offered to people who are print disabled through libraries for the blind in countries that have joined the Marrakesh Treaty and implemented its provisions into national law.  Participating libraries for the blind in the ABC Global Book Service in such countries can provide their patrons with access to the ABC catalogue through the Dolphin EasyReader App or the ABC Beneficiary Application at ABCGlobalBooks.org.

If you are interested, find out how to obtain books through the ABC Global Book Service here.