October 6, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

House of Anansi Press has been named the first Canadian publisher to receive the Global Certified Accessible™ (GCA) certification for ebooks by Benetech. This recognizes that all of House of Anansi Press’s ebooks will be accessible to readers with print disabilities.

The GCA program is the first of its kind to provide accessibility accreditation to publishers for ebooks. The goal of Benetech’s GCA certification is to help publishers create “born accessible” content, which speaks to the need for digital material to be accessible to all.

Ebook accessibility is a priority for the House of Anansi Press Cross-Media Team, which is led by Cross-Media Director Laura Brady and includes Cross-Media Assistant Matthew Chan, Technology Intern Nicole Lambe, and Production Coordinator Ricky Lima. Of this project, Brady says: “I am so pleased to have this certification for our ebooks. It feels like the work to make content born accessible dovetails nicely with broader work at Anansi to publish inclusively, and our efforts are part of a larger cultural calling to meet the diverse needs and tastes of our readers. We have an excellent Cross-Media Team here whose hard work has paid off.”

With teaching moving online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the accessibility of ebooks is more important now than ever. House of Anansi Press is proud to be contributing to a more accessible landscape of digital publishing for all and will continue to follow Benetech’s imperative: “If content is ‘born digital,’ it can — and should — be born accessible.”

For more information please contact publicity@houseofanansi.com.