Flanker Press Named Benetech Global Certified Accessible™ Publisher

Publisher achieves Global Certified Accessible designation through eBOUND Canada’s Accessible Certification Program.

Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador - Monday, April 25, 2022

Flanker Press is now a Benetech Global Certified Accessible™ (GCA) publisher. Benetech, a nonprofit that empowers communities with software for social good, issues this accreditation to those publishers who produce EPUBs that meet a full range of accessibility features required to support the needs of all readers, including those with disabilities and learning differences. Flanker Press completed certification through eBOUND Canada, a not-for-profit that enables independent Canadian publishers to engage in the digital marketplace.

“We are very pleased to announce that we have reached this important milestone,” says Jerry Cranford, publisher at Flanker Press. “Making books and ebooks accessible to as many individuals as possible, while enabling a more pleasant reading experience for them, is a worthy goal toward which all publishers should strive. And we will continue to pursue such initiatives, keep abreast of advances in technology, upgrade our software and hardware accordingly, and broaden our knowledge base to achieve just that.”

“We’re very happy to be certified as an accessible publisher,” says Peter Hanes, Digital and Social Media Coordinator at Flanker Press. “I would like to personally thank Ashley Cowell from Ebound Canada, and Leah Brochu from the National Network for Equitable Library Services, for their help and guidance throughout the training and certification process. Accessibility is essential in all aspects of life, and we’re happy that our ebooks will be available to a wider readership going forward.”

“All digital content can - and should - be born accessible,” said Brad Turner, Vice President and General Manager of Global Education and Literacy at Benetech. “Readers can select Flanker Press’ Global Certified Accessible ebooks trusting that they meet a wide range of accessibility needs.”

Benetech’s GCA publisher certification program is the first ever, third-party EPUB certification program to verify ebook accessibility. All approved publishers have demonstrated success consistently producing files in accordance with Benetech’s GCA certification standard, meeting the EPUB Accessibility 1.0 Conformance and Discovery specification and exceeding a publishing standard level of WCAG 2.0 AA. Benetech recognizes these publishers as creators of fully accessible EPUBs. eBOUND Canada, a GCA international partner, completed the evaluation.

“eBOUND believes that all content born digital, should be born accessible so that all people can have access to all content. As such, eBOUND is delighted to have formed a partnership with Benetech to support our Canadian independent publisher clients as they go through the important process of having all content born accessible. eBOUND’s goal is to have 80% of our publishing clients producing accessible content by 2024, supporting the goal of the Department of Canadian Heritage, who’s generous support has made this work possible” said Deborah Nelson, CEO of eBOUND Canada.

Independent Canadian publishers interested in becoming a Global Certified Accessible publisher through eBOUND Canada’s accessible certification publishing program can visit: www.eboundcanada.org

To learn more about Benetech’s Global Certified Accessible Program visit: http://bornaccessible.benetech.org

About Flanker Press

Flanker Press is a bright spark in the Newfoundland and Labrador publishing scene. As the province’s most active publisher of trade books, the company now averages twenty new titles per year, with a heavy emphasis on regional non-fiction and historical fiction.

The mission of Flanker Press is to provide a quality publishing service to the local and regional writing community and to actively promote its authors and their books in Canada and abroad.

Now located in Paradise, Flanker Press has grown from a part-time venture in 1994 to a business with eight full-time employees. In the fall of 2004, Flanker Press launched a new imprint, Pennywell Books. This imprint includes literary fiction, short stories, young adult fiction, and children’s books.

About eBOUND

eBOUND Canada is a not for profit organization that works with Canadian independent publishers to help them navigate and compete in the digital landscape. Accessible content creation is foundational to the work eBOUND does.

About Benetech

Benetech is a nonprofit dedicated to reducing social and economic inequity in partnership with the communities that we serve through software for social good. Benetech’s initiatives are transforming how students, jobseekers, and older adults across the globe read, learn, and work. Benetech believes that access to information is a human right, and no person should encounter barriers to education, literacy, or employment due to differences or disability.

Visit www.benetech.org