Taylor & Francis joins initiative

Taylor & Francis says it has strengthened its ongoing commitment to accessibility by joining the DAISY Consortium’s Inclusive Publishing Partner program, an initiative supporting organizations around the world to produce content that is accessible to all.

Members of this initiative share the vision of a world in which people have equal access to information and knowledge regardless of their reading requirements. To support this vision, the Inclusive Publishing Partner program provides publishers and technology companies with expertise, tools and advice. This includes insight into the latest developments in standards, reading solutions and practices globally. By participating, these organizations are also supporting the continuation of DAISY’s mission: to develop global solutions for accessible publishing and reading.

Through its accessibility program, Taylor & Francis says it has a range of ongoing initiatives to ensure its platforms, eBooks and journal articles are as accessible as possible. Active involvement in DAISY’s Inclusive Publishing initiative will also give Taylor & Francis staff the opportunity to share their experience and to learn from allies in the accessible publishing community, added the publisher.

“The DAISY Consortium is delighted to welcome Taylor & Francis to the Inclusive Publishing Partner program where we look forward to collaborating with them on their accessibility journey,” said Richard Orme, CEO of The DAISY Consortium. “We can all learn from each other and this new relationship with Taylor & Francis will build upon our strong friendship. With upcoming legislation around the globe, it is more important than ever that we all work together to establish best practice and methods of working that will improve the accessibility of digital content for all readers.”

“The DAISY Consortium does fantastic work and our accessibility program has already greatly benefited from access to their tools and resources,” said Stacy Scott, head of accessibility at Taylor & Francis. “Accessibility needs to be permanent priority for every publisher, as we respond to evolving technology, standards and legislation. Being a DAISY Inclusive Publishing Partner will help us get ahead of new developments and ensure we continue to offer the highest quality reading experience for all our sites’ users.”

Taylor & Francis says it continues to invest in the development and delivery of its accessibility strategy, including the recent appointment of an additional colleague dedicated to this activity. Jennie Mather, accessibility officer, has joined the team to monitor accessibility performance and coordinate audits to ensure the whole publishing portfolio meets required standards and is fully inclusive.

Taylor & Francis is a Global Certified Accessible Publisher and signatory of the Accessible Books Consortium and Publishing Accessibility Action Group UK charters. The publisher says it has now made over 175,000 eBooks and one million journal articles available in EPUB3, the most accessible format, and added alt-text image descriptions to over 3,500 articles and 8,500 eBooks.