*Chairman/CEO, Accessible Publishers Ltd, Mr. Adedapo Gbadega
On the 5th of October 2023, Accessible Publishers Limited (formerly Rasmed Publications Ltd) Nigeria, was announced as the only African Publishing company, alongside two other publishing companies from Sweden and Argentina, shortlisted for the 2023 Accessible Books Consortium’s (ABC) International Excellence Award for Accessible Publishing.
This was contained in a statement released via the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Accessible Books Consortium’s website.
The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) is an initiative by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to encourage publishers all around the world to produce and improve 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 texts.
The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) is located at WIPO’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland which includes organisations that represent people with print disabilities such as the World Blind Union (WBU); libraries for the blind; standards bodies, and organizations representing authors, publishers and collective management organizations.
The ABC International Excellence Award was previously presented at the London Book Fair between 2015 and 2020, at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2021, and at the Guadalajara International Book Fair in 2022. This year’s winners of the Accessible Books Consortium’s (ABC) International Excellence Award will be announced during a ceremony on Sunday, October 29, at 17:30 at the 2023 Sharjah Publishers Conference, UAE.
These global award nominees were judged 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 finalists were selected by an expert jury composed of representatives of publishers, standards bodies and organisations representing people who are visually impaired, as well as accessibility experts.
