WIPO
WIPO’s Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) has launched a new application that makes accessible digital books available for direct download by individuals who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled.
ABC Global Book Service’s business application is provided free of charge and connects participating libraries for the blind, known as authorized entities, to allow the sharing of accessible books.
People who are print disabled will now be able to search directly in the new ABC beneficiary application hosted by WIPO and immediately download accessible digital books – making it easier for them to obtain titles from around the world.
The outgoing president of the International Publishers Association, Hugo Setzer, talks about the unexpected second half of his term and about publishing’s resilience and opportunities.
Hugo Setzer. Image: Porter Anderson
‘One Common Goal’
The “United Nations for publishers,” as Hugo Setzer refers to the International Publishers Association (IPA), has a singularity of purpose that many at the UN would envy. That “one common goal,” as he describes it, is “to improve the business environment for publishers and our associates authors and booksellers and so on. That’s really the aim.”
And having had his two-year term as president of the IPA blindsided midway through by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Setzer has an acute understanding of what that goal of improvement can mean under extraordinary circumstances.