The new edition of Readmagine, the event focused on digital innovation in the publishing and reading field, will be held from the 16th to the 18th of November in Madrid, hosted by the cultural centre Casa del Lector: conversations, workshops, conferences, and meetings about the transformation process of books.

Readmagine is organised by the Germán Sánchez Ruipérez Foundation (FGSR), a non-profit organization devoted since 1981 to promoting reading, to training professionals and to research on reading behaviour and innovation within the publishing industry.

FGSR is fostering the adoption of accessibility within the Spanish book industry and, for this reason, has invited Fondazione LIA to take part in Readmagine and hold an in-depth workshop on the topic. This practical session is also organised in the framework of the European Book Fairs network Aldus UP.

Topics and speakers

Cristina Mussinelli, Secretary General of Fondazione LIA, will introduce the theme presenting the European Accessibility Act and its impact on every actor of the value chain, explaining why accessibility should become a crucial element of the strategy of the whole publishing industry.

Then, Gregorio Pellegrino, Chief Accessibility Officer of Fondazione LIA, will explain how accessible e-books with accessibility metadata can be produced and distributed.

Participants will be able to understand the obstacles that a visually impaired person has to deal with in searching, accessing, and reading a publication and the advantages that accessible digital publications, websites, and apps can offer.

The workshop will continue with two Italian case studies: two publishers will describe their journey in the accessibility field, the reasons why they started it and the results they achieved.

Paolo Casarini, CTO/IT Director of Società editrice Il Mulino, will speak about the accessibility update of the educational web platform Pandoracampus and Maurizio Mattioli, Director of Educational Digital Products of Zanichelli Editore, will share his experience and illustrate how an educational publisher can face the accessibility challenge.

Their contribution will be valuable to discover different strategies a publisher can adopt to approach accessibility and implement it to be in line with the new EU legislative requirements.