Congratulations to the 5 authors whose books have been nominated for the 2025 Atwood Gibson Writer's Trust Prize. Accessible versions of these titles can be found in our collection for people with print disabilities. Happy Reading! celalibrary.ca/2025Atwood_Gibson #CanLit #a11y

Congratulations to all the authors whose books are nominated to the 2025 Giller Prize longlist. We have a number of the titles already in our collection, ready for you to read. Find them at celalibrary.ca/2025Giller_Long

CELA has subscriptions to OWL magazines in accessible formats to support kids with print disabilities: vision loss, physical and learning disabilities. And we have free accounts for educators to get materials on behalf of their students so that all kids can participate. celalibrary.ca/educators

Basic transcripts are a text version of speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand content. Descriptive transcripts also describe the visual information needed to understand the content, helping people who are both Deaf and blind. www.w3.org/WAI/media/av...

Don't use color alone to convey information. Marking required fields by only using colored labels won't help people who use screen readers or who can't distinguish colors. If using color, also add text like asterisks and/or "required." www.w3.org/WAI/tips/des...

Are you assisting a person with a print disability manage their CELA service as they transition from reading CELA materials on CD to a variety of players and apps? Join us tonight Sept 9 at 7pm EDT for a webinar to learn tips and tricks to make things easier. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Congratulations to all the authors who have been nominated to the Toronto Book Awards short list. Find the list in accessible formats in our collection. celalibrary.ca/2025Toronto_Short www.toronto.ca/city-governm...

Your site's users need enough time to interact with content and fill out forms. People with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, dexterity impairments, and cognitive disabilities might need more time for things such as forms. Allow users to turn off or extend time limits.

Make sure web pages appear and operate in predictable ways. Things like the header, navigation, and footer should be the same on each page. Navigation links should be the same on every page and always in the same order. Things should be labeled consistently.

Rejoignez-nous aujourd'hui à 15h (HE) pour une séance de questions-réponses afin d'accompagner les utilisateurs qui abandonnent les CD. Posez vos questions et découvrez de nouvelles façons de lire vos livres audio. Pour y assister par téléphone composez 1-855-655-2273 bibliocaeb.ca/webinarsfory...

Join us today at 2pm ET for our Q&A session supporting users who are transitioning away from CDs towards new ways of reading. Bring your questions and learn new ways to read your CELA audiobooks. Register below or to attend by phone, please call 1-855-655-2273. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

When writing alt text, ask yourself if you would picture an approximation of the image if it was described to you over the phone using the alt text you've written. Doing that exercise can be a good way to determine if you're on the right track.

CELA is delighted to support expanded access to braille across Canada, thanks to our cost sharing partnership with NNELS supported by the Government of Canada’s Equitable Access to Reading Program. This collaboration also supports CELA braille services.

Le CAÉB et le NNELS ont eu le plaisir de rencontrer Leslie Church, secrétaire parlementaire des secrétaires d'État pour le Travail, pour l’Enfance et la Jeunesse, et pour les Aînés, et de la ministre de l’Emploi et des Familles (personnes en situation de handicap) la semaine dernière. 1/2

CELA and NNELS met with Leslie Church, Parliamentary Secretary to the Secretaries of State for Labour, for Seniors, and for Children and Youth, and to the Minister of Jobs and Families (Persons with Disabilities). We appreciated the opportunity to highlight the importance of accessible reading.

Many struggle with writing alt text for charts and other other data visualizations. Amy Cesal's "Writing Alt Text for Data Visualization" hammers home the importance of explaining the chart type, the type of data, and the reason for the chart. medium.com/nightingale/...

Participez dès maintenant au Combat des livres du #CLÉTD! Lis /écoute les titres Les aventuriers des mondes perdus: Le secret de Nazca et Pigeons de fortune proposés par le CAÉB. Consulte le site Web du CLÉTD pour voter pour ton livre favori celalibrary.ca/node/25713781 celalibrary.ca/node/25713776

Il est possible que notre site web soit lent ou indisponible. Nous sommes conscients du problème et travaillons à sa résolution. Merci de votre patience.

Users may experience slowness or intermittent availability on our website. We're aware of the issue and working to resolve it. Thank you for your patience.

For screen readers to recognize headings, heading text can't just be body text or normal text that's been made to look bigger and bolder. It must be formatted as a heading. In Microsoft Word and Google Docs, this can be done in the styles box. In HTML, use the tags h1 through h6.

Rejoignez-nous le mardi 15 juillet de 14h30 à 15h30 pour en savoir plus sur notre nouveau service Lecture Accessible Canada qui permet aux usagers d'écouter leurs livres CELA à l'aide d'un appareil de haut-parleur intelligent Alexa. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Have you read this week’s @TDSRC Battle of the books? Listen to/read Game Changers: Stories of Hijabi Athletes from around the World and Alina in a Pinch and vote for your favourite. www.tdsummerreadingclub.ca/books/battle... celalibrary.ca/node/25719716 celalibrary.ca/node/24423547 #TDSRC

Color contrast affects readability on the web and in print. It is especially important for users who are low vision or for users who are colorblind. Good color contrast means all users can see your content no matter the device they’re using or the lighting of their surroundings.

Participez dès maintenant au Combat des livres du #CLÉTD! Lis ou écoute les titres Anthony et la gargouille et Princesse Belzébuth au pow-wow proposés par le CAÉB. Consulte le site Web du CLÉTD pour voter pour ton livre favori. celalibrary.ca/node/25713769 celalibrary.ca/node/25713767

Have you read this week’s @TDSRC Battle of the books? Listen to/read Good food, bad waste and Grounded from CELA and vote for your favourite. @TDSRC celalibrary.ca/node/25632139 celalibrary.ca/node/24663705

Now that school is out, it's time to join your library's summer reading club and enjoy all the fun they have to offer! CELA has books from the BC, NL and TD Summer Reading Clubs. You can find #accessible booklists for each of the clubs on our website: celalibrary.ca/Kids-Teen-Aw...

Did you know each emoji has a coded description that gets read aloud by screen readers? This demo by Alexa Heinrich shows what happens when a screen reader encounters a post that uses an emoji to function as a bullet point. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSMs...

Congrats to IVA Award Winners Rosanna Deerchild for She Falls Down and Wayne K. Spear and Georges Erasmus for Hòt'a! Enough!: Georges Erasmus’s Fifty-Year Battle for Indigenous Rights, who won the 2025 Poetry and Prose Awards respectively. celalibrary.ca/node/25303320 celalibrary.ca/node/25400680

We're so excited for this opportunity!

People often have difficulty reading content when there isn’t sufficient contrast, so it's important to have high color contrast. TPGi’s free color contrast checker tool allows you to determine the contrast ratio of two colors by using an eye-drop tool. developer.paciellogroup.com/color-contra...

Celebrate Juneteenth with this newly added book in our collection! So Many Years, a Juneteenth Story explains the history behind Juneteenth celebrations, acknowledges the history of slavery in the US as well as the astonishing Black resilience and joy. celalibrary.ca/node/25717489

For screen readers to recognize headings, heading text can't just be body text or normal text that's been made to look bigger and bolder. It must be formatted as a heading. In Microsoft Word and Google Docs, this can be done in the styles box. In HTML, use the tags h1 through h6.

Move away from thinking of accessibility as a prescriptive checklist of "always do this, never do that." Write a transcripts that provides context to the people who can't hear the audio and/or who can't see the video. Focus on giving them the context they need to understand and consume the media.

Bluesky has made it easier to add alt text, but some still struggle with HOW to write alt text. Sighted users who don't rely on alt text might feel overwhelmed. They might have questions on what details to include, or how to get started. This post from Veronica Lewis is a great resource.

Many struggle with writing alt text for charts and other other data visualizations. Amy Cesal's "Writing Alt Text for Data Visualization" hammers home the importance of explaining the chart type, the type of data, and the reason for the chart. medium.com/nightingale/...

Avez-vous eu l'occasion de lire nos dernières newsletters ? Retrouvez l'édition de mai et les éditions précédentes sur notre site web. Découvrez les dernières suggestions de livres et l'actualité du CELA. celalibrary.ca/newsletters?...

Did you get the chance to read our most recent newsletters? You can find the May edition, and other previous editions on our website. Check out all the latest book suggestions and CELA news. celalibrary.ca/newsletters

Headings serve as landmarks for users and help them understand how different pieces of information relate to each other. For example, a section with a level 3 headings probably provides information in support of information provided in the previous level 2 heading, and so on.

Basic transcripts are a text version of speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand content. Descriptive transcripts also describe the visual information needed to understand the content, helping people who are both Deaf and blind. www.w3.org/WAI/media/av...

Nous remercions le gouvernement du Canada du financement récemment accordé dans le cadre du Programme d’accès équitable à la lecture, qui vise à améliorer la disponibilité des livres accessibles. 1/2

Thank you to the Government of Canada for our recent funding under the Equitable Access to Reading Program to increase accessible books. We look forward to working on growing the support for people with print disabilities alongside @nnelsca.bsky.social and public libraries across Canada.

Today is National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), a day dedicated to raising awareness and remembering Indigenous women, girls and 2-spirited people who have gone missing. Here's a reading list to learn more. celalibrary.ca/2025_MMIWG2S

As libraries get more and more creative with their marketing and social media, it's important to keep accessibility in mind. Here's a great resource for writing alt-text for memes! Thanks to @a11yawareness.bsky.social for always sharing great content. If you don't already, give them a follow!

Book Week in the news! www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Félicitations aux auteurs et participants du Combat de livres de cette année ! Découvrez les versions accessibles des livres sélectionnés dans des formats accessibles de notre collection. bibliocaeb.ca/2025_Combat_Livres

"An Introduction to Accessibility and Inclusive Design" is a course offered by The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through Coursera. This course introduces some fundamental principles, including assistive technology and adaptive strategies. www.coursera.org/learn/access...

Happy Earth Day. If you are looking to reading something informative or inspiring about our beautiful planet we have some suggestions for you for kids: celalibrary.ca/2025Earth_MonthKids and adults! celalibrary.ca/2025EarthMonth_Adult

Meryl Evans' "Why and How to Create Accessible Social Media and Website Content" introduces content creators to basic accessibility considerations for links, hashtags, emojis, alt text, transcripts, and more. meryl.net/digital-cont...

Congrats to the 5 authors nominated for the 2025 Carol Shields Prize which celebrates creativity and excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the US. Find the nominated titles in accessible formats for people with print disabilities celalibrary.ca/2025Carol_Shields

Join us on Wed April 9 1pm EDT to learn how the Regina Public Library's Accessible Book Club called Sound Bites started, how it’s going, and how libraries can start their own #accessible book clubs. The organizers have lots of insights to share. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...