Welsh Recruitment Team Up With YUDU Media to Create First Accessible Recruitment Magazine

 

YUDU Media Ltd announced today the release of YUDU Publishing, the groundbreaking solution designed to revolutionize the digital edition reading experience and publication process, as well as dramatically increase the number of digital publications available to the blind and partially sighted.

YUDU Publishing delivers state-of-the-art digital editions of newspapers, magazines, catalogues, brochures and any other printed material, enhanced with interactive rich media features. The cutting-edge capabilities of this new product include improved features such as infinite zoom, Digital Rights Management and YUDU Stats, the comprehensive statistics reporting system for crucial reader information and effectiveness measurement. Additionally, the YUDU Publishing solution doesn't require any special software downloads and is designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind at all times.

The release will mark a revolutionary move in not only the digital edition industry, but the publishing industry as a whole. More readers than ever before are browsing digital editions for news, information, entertainment and trends and our improved software will increase the number of digital publications available to everyone, all over the world.

YUDU Media has also made a commitment to helping those with disabilities gain access to online content, something which we feel is extremely important and often overlooked. Government accessibility compliance is one of our key objectives and all of our YUDU Publishing digital editions can meet government accessibility regulations.

The software is the first of its kind to allow for a parallel production of a fully accessible digital version of all publications. This advancement will mean an increase in the number of publications available for the blind and partially sighted. The parallel, plain text version offers the facility of text to audio, allowing for the integration with screen readers. This means that the blind will now be given access to previously inaccessible books, magazines, catalogues, brochures and any other printed materials that have been transformed into a digital edition.

Until now, accessibility compliance has been regarded as extremely time consuming, difficult and expensive to implement, meaning that many companies have simply ignored the problem. Two million people in the UK alone have sight problems and struggle to read normal-size print. YUDU Publishing Digital Editions use vector text, meaning crisp, clear text at any size. The infinite zoom feature allows readers to select their preferred level of zoom, allowing partially sighted readers to view the editions in extremely large text. Navigation shortcut keys also help those who cannot use a mouse, such as people with motor neurone conditions, as well as those who have difficulty seeing the cursor.

Less than 5% of books are published in an accessible format such as large print, audio or Braille. Over 100,000 books are published in the UK every year and only 1.5% of these are available in large print. The measly 2.8% of publications that are released as an audio cassette often take up to a year after the initial publication was published before they are available, and come with a very inaccessible price tag, at �40 - �50 each.

The problem doesn't stop at fictional books, education is also affected by the alarmingly low number of accessible text books. There are currently 24,000 blind or partially sighted children in the UK. However, only 12% of Math's G.C.S.E. textbooks and 8% of science G.C.S.E text books are available in text or large print. It is therefore no alarming statistic that 3 out of 4 blind and partially sighted people in the UK are currently not in employment.

Welsh recruitment are set to improve this statistic with the introduction of their first ever fully accessible recruitment magazine, created using the YUDU Publishing Solution. The Digital Edition of Welsh Recruitment can be distributed at the same time as their printed counterpart, meaning that their publication is now also available for audiences with sight problems. Digital Editions therefore enable access to publications that would otherwise be unavailable to the blind and partially sighted, such as educational books and recruitment magazines.

The digital edition format allows the blind and partially sighted to access these books from all over the world, using their PC or Mac. The Digital Edition format allows for global distribution, meaning, the whole world can have access to these publications, including those who cannot access the hard copy.

'Keynote' - Devin B. Holmes, Chief Operating Officer of YUDU Media

"Recent studies have shown that an unacceptable number of companies are not complying with current government regulations with regards to the availability of print and online content to the blind and partially sighted. For years, the disabled have been at a huge disadvantage in terms of the number of publications available to them, both digital and in print.

Digital Editions allow the blind and partially sighted access to previously non-accessible publications. Research suggests that, up until now, less than 33% of digital editions, or e-books, are adequately accessible. However, the ground-breaking YUDU Publishing Digital Edition solution incorporates infinite zoom with crisp, vector text to help the partially sighted, and is the first solution of its kind to allow for the parallel production of a fully accessible text version, that can integrate with screen readers for the blind. In addition, this solution also has shortcut keys to help those with motor neurone conditions. The ability for unlimited, global distribution of digital editions also means that these accessible publications will now be available for the disabled all over the world, increasing the number of accessible digital publications worldwide and helping those that cannot access hard copies of publications.

YUDU Media is proud to be producing Welsh Recruitment magazine as our FIRST EVER fully accessible digital edition. It marks an important step forward for us in our mission to significantly increase the number of accessible digital publications available and distributed worldwide to all readers, regardless of sight impairment. This is also an extraordinary feat for Welsh Recruitment, in their drive to help those with sight impairments into employment."

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