Dolphin present Elsevier with JISC TechDis Publisher Lookup Award for accessibility
Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information, has won the first ever JISC TechDis Publisher Lookup Award.
30th Apr, 2010
The awards recognise publishers who excel in changing and adapting their business processes to meet their customers' accessibility needs. Elsevier received the award at the London Book Fair on Wednesday, 21st April 2010.
The JISC TechDis Publisher Lookup Awards are the brainchild of Alistair McNaught, senior advisor at JISC TechDis. Alistair said;
"Elsevier was selected from a really strong field of candidates. Judges were impressed by Elsevier's response rates to customer enquiries and their embedded accessibility strategy. Accessibility is a cross-management responsibility at Elsevier and evidently part of the organisational culture. Focusing on accessibility benefits everyone and now, thanks to the Awards, we've created a kind of community of practice where publishers are learning from each other."
Andrea Kravetz, Vice President of User Centered Design for Elsevier, said;
"Elsevier and its User Centered Design team strive to create electronic products that are accessible to all users. We are very happy to receive this award, as it recognizes the emphasis we put on accessibility of online products for our end users. Elsevier was also recognized for the many initiatives created for internal use. Our team of experts has worked for years behind the scenes to educate the business about accessibility."
Publishers Palgrave MacMillan and Sage, also present at the awards ceremony, were both highly commended for their accessibility strategies and received commemorative plaques.
The awards were sponsored by Dolphin Computer Access Ltd. Noel Duffy, Managing Director at Dolphin comments:
"Dolphin is extremely proud to support the JISC Publisher Lookup Awards. EasyConverter enables schools and colleges to create accessible talking book, audio, large print and Braille versions of their learning materials. However, before any conversion can take place, they need to receive electronic versions of books from Publishers in a timely manner. The Publisher Lookup awards indicates one thing above all, and that is that accessibility really matters and is being taken extremely seriously by the Publishing world."
The JISC TechDis Publisher Lookup Awards were presented by Mark Bide, Executive Director at EDItEUR, leaders in global standards for the exchange of bibliographic information in the book and journal supply chains, and sponsored by Dolphin and Iansyst Ltd, organisations that promote independence amongst disabled people, and who have been keen supporters from the beginning.
A second award ceremony for e-text services will be held in London at the CILIP Digital Information Conference in October and is aimed at publishers who have been nominated by library staff for their excellent service in supplying books in alternative formats.
Find out more about the Publisher Lookup Awards on the Dolphin website.
