Thursday September 19th
09:30 Opening plenary session
We’ll kick off our conference with a session with industry leaders as they discuss “How did we get here and where are we going?” in a dynamic panel discussion. Learn how your participation in PAAG is building our expert community and driving greater inclusivity in the UK publishing industry.
11:00 Break
11:30 Workshop sessions
Track 1: Accessible Publishing 101
Start here to discover or refresh yourself on the essentials of inclusive publishing and reading. Gain practical tips, explore key tools, and discover simple techniques to make your publications accessible to all. This session features firsthand insights from people with disabilities who will share how they navigate and read accessible books.
Track 2: Demystifying ARIA and WCAG versions; Accessibility Metadata in Practice
Whilst WCAG ARIA accessibility standards for the web and ebooks are well established, they continue to update and develop. Attendees will learn about the background of the standards and get up to speed on the key differences between past, current and future versions.
In the second part of this session, we’ll look at the practical uses of accessibility metadata, both from the publisher and the end users’ point of view. Its importance in expressing accessibility features, both inside the EPUB3 and outside in ONIX and how critical it is to display this information for the EAA and beyond.
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Workshop sessions
Track 1: Law and Order; Accessibility and eCommerce
Explore the intersection of accessibility and eCommerce. Gain insights into key laws and regulations, followed by a group discussion on strategies to meet these standards across various markets.
In the second part of this session, you’ll discover practical approaches to ensure your eCommerce platform is both compliant and accessible.
Track 2: Techniques for STEM and other complex materials
Dive into the challenges and solutions for making science, technology, engineering, math, fixed layout, and other challenging materials accessible to all readers. We’ll explore practical strategies, tools, and techniques to ensure that even the most complex content is inclusive and usable by people with disabilities.
15:30 Break
16:00 Workshop sessions
Track 1: Winning Business Cases for Inclusive Publishing; Putting ideas into practice
Discover insights into building a compelling business case for investing in accessible publishing within your organization. This session is intended to equip you with knowledge and strategies needed to advocate for and implement accessible practices effectively.
In the second part of the session we’ll hear how organisations build accessibility into processes, touching on executive support, changing business processes, working with third parties, and how to boil the ocean.
Track 2: Validation and testing; HTML, EPUB and PDF compared
How are ebooks evaluated for accessibility to ensure they are usable by individuals with disabilities? Participants will learn and share current practices and tools.
In the second part of the session, we’ll get to grips with the different accessibility features of HTML, EPUB and PDF formats.
17:30 Close of day 1
19:00 Dinner
Friday September 20th
09:30 Workshop sessions
Track 1: Braving the Backlist: Practical approaches for dealing with accessibility’s biggest elephant
When it comes to accessibility transformation, the area that often inspires the most anxiety and concern is the backlist. What are your organisation’s obligations? How can you meet them without falling foul of the law, or having to withdraw titles from sale? This session aims to provide practical tips and strategies to help effectuate this highly impactful change.
Track 2: Personas and UX
Delve into techniques for building out a collection of accessibility personas, recruiting participants for user research, the challenging job of distilling down and combining participants’ experiences, and how representation matters when providing supporting imagery.
In the second part of the session, we will be demonstrating why good accessibility and inclusive user experience on websites are crucial, especially with e-commerce being part of the EAA requirements. You’ll learn best practices for designing accessible websites that cater to all users and ensure compliance with WCAG standards.
11:00 Break
11:30 Workshop sessions
Track 1: Beyond ebooks
Discover innovative approaches to accessibility beyond eBooks in this session featuring demos and talks. Explore large print books tailored to the needs of the individual reader and gain insights into making applications like Excel and PowerPoint more accessible.
Track 2: Where the rubber meets the road: a11y support in reading apps
Ebook apps and accessible content must work seamlessly together to create an inclusive reading experience. This session will cover the critical features that eBook apps should support, how they interact with accessible content to ensure that all readers can fully engage with digital books.
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Plenary session
Real world approaches for image descriptions; Managing and applying AI for accessibility
Join a panel of experts as they share practical strategies for creating and implementing image descriptions. Topics include crafting descriptions, adding them to InDesign files, and using AI for automated generation. The session will conclude with Q&As, offering insights from all panel members.
Closing session
In this session we reflect on the insights and discussions from the two days, the challenges ahead, and the future directions for accessible publishing in the UK. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in a final Q&A, share their takeaways, and discuss how they can apply what they’ve learned to their professional development and organizational practices