Nord Compo is delighted to announce that we are growing our North American presence. As a long-established French prepress, digital, design, and audiobook production service, we are also leaders in accessible and multilingual publications and we embrace learning about how AI can improve efficiency.

Upcoming Events

Our return to attending the Association of University Presses’ annual meeting is part of our growth. Larry Bennett, Executive Director of Nord Compo, North America, will be in Montreal from June 11 to June 13. If you will be there for the AUP meeting, we encourage you to schedule some time to discuss Nord Compo services, innovation, and accessibility.

Accessibility Part 1

A point of Nord Compo pride is our investment in accessibility, which includes the integration of information into digital books, allowing persons with disabilities to engage with the content of the book as fully as possible. AI and accessibility have become the hottest topics at recent book fairs and conferences. It is critical for publishers large and small to have an accessibility strategy in place, a need driven by legal requirements and changing consumer perceptions.

The passage of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) in 2019 established accessibility requirements for different products and services across EU member countries. Since that time, Nord Compo, a EU business, has been enabling the accessibility protocol for publishers of all sizes. We would like to bring our expertise in producing accessible ePubs to our North American clients especially given that the EAA goes into effect June 28, 2025. All reflowable epubs published on or after that date must meet the AA accessibility requirements. For epubs published before that date, there is a 5-year grace period, meaning ALL epubs on sale in EU countries must become compliant by June 27, 2030. Fixed layout epubs (children’s picture books) are exempt.

Accessibility features are hidden/cached data in the digital book and include:

  • The information lets the reader know what media the digital book contains before purchasing the book.
  • For books containing something that flashes, it is essential to convey that information, as some people may have an adverse reaction, such as a seizure.
  • Images considered necessary for understanding the work require text descriptions embedded in the image (alt-text) and read by the screen reader.

Watch for our next newsletter issue to read more about Accessibility! And until then please follow us on our new Nord Compo, NA Linkedin and Instagram.

Meanwhile, in France

Paris is preparing to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. With this preparation comes cleaning up the iconic River Seine for the swimming leg of the Triathlon Events. Through clever urban planning design, a new reservoir has been created to keep out stormwater and bacteria, keeping the athletes safe. To read more about this effort, the Washington Post has a wonderful overview.