For the 2024 edition of the Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16th – 20th), Fondazione LIA is organizing two professional events and some Readings in the dark to promote the theme of accessibility in publishing, with the collaboration of international partners and in the framework of APACE project – Accelerating Publishing Accessibility Through Collaboration in Europe.

The Accessibility Era. Are you ready for it?

October 16th, 1 pm

Frankfurt Studio, Hall 4

Similar to Taylor Swift’s evolving musical eras, the publishing industry has recently transitioned through various phases: e-books, subscription models, big data. Now, it has entered the era of accessibility, with publishers and all actors in the value chain working diligently to meet the upcoming European Accessibility Act deadline in June 2025.

Panel

Simon Holt, Elsevier UK

Simon Holt is Senior Product Manager, Content Accessibility, at Elsevier. He has worked in academic publishing, across books and journals, for over 15 years, and is a Director of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. A visually impaired person himself, he is an advocate for greater disability inclusion across the scholarly communications industry. He is also a Trustee of sight-loss charity MyVision Oxfordshire.

Elisa Molinari, Fondazione LIA

Elisa Molinari is the project manager of Fondazione LIA, where she is responsible of projects, events and training activities aimed at spreading the culture of accessibility. She is the coordinator of the European project APACE – Accelerating Publishing Accessibility through Collaboration in Europe. On behalf of LIA, she participates to the Accessibility Task Force of the Federation of European Publishers and to Publishing Accessibility Action Group.

Alessandra Porcelli, Mondadori Education

Alessandra Porcelli has broad international experience in the Educational Publishing industry. After 15 years spent at McGraw-Hill Education, where she was General manager and Programme & Portfolio Director EMEA, she moved to Mondadori Group to cover the role of Rizzoli Education Publishing Director. She is currently New Business Director at Mondadori Group, Educational area. As part of the role, she is also leading the Accessibility project applied to School books.

Porter Anderson, Publishing Perspectives

Editor in Chief at Publishing Perspectives. Anderson will moderate the panel.

The seminar is organized by Fondazione LIA in collaboration with the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the Federation of European Publishers, the International Publishers Association, in the framework of APACE, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Accessibility Meet-up

October 16th, 2-4 pm

Room Entente, Hall 4

The APACE project is glad to invite you to a networking event with international colleagues and accessibility experts, an opportunity to bring forward your questions, challenges and solutions when it comes to accessibility in publishing.

 Join the international crowd of accessibility experts for a drink and a snack and find your peers to discuss challenges of inclusive publishing. Participants will have the chance to further discuss with accessibility experts.

Event organized in the framework APACE, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.