Legible Inc. (“Legible” or the “Company”), a browser-based, mobile-first, globally accessible online eBook reading and publishing marketplace, is excited to welcome Laura Brady, an internationally renowned and respected accessibility, eBook, and publishing professional, as Head of Accessibility.
Legible’s advanced browser-based eBook reading and publishing platform, Legible.com, has been designed to improve accessibility to eBooks globally – both through its browser-based eBook reading platform, but also in terms of providing improved accessibility to books to those with disabilities. Readers on Legible.com can already use browser-based accessibility solutions, as well as tools in Legible’s reading system for the dyslexic community.
“While accessibility is one of Legible’s four founding values, addressing and improving accessibility also presents a large market opportunity in the world,” commented Kaleeg Hainsworth, CEO and founder of Legible. “Many disabled people are tired of not being considered at all and embrace the opportunity to not only be considered, but also valued and addressed as a powerful segment of the consumer population.”
According to published insights from the Return on Disability Group (ROD Group), a data-driven insights and design firm that leverages disability to help its clients delight their customers and employees, people with disabilities (or PWD) constitute an emerging market larger than the population of China, with their numbers estimated at over 1.85 billion people globally. Friends and family who act on their emotional connection to PWD add another 3.4 billion people globally, and together these groups control over $13 trillion in annual disposable income.
“Legible’s browser-based innovation stack and business model is ideally suited to this emerging market, and in recognizing this opportunity we are also very happy to welcome Laura Brady to Legible as our Head of Accessibility,” stated Hainsworth. “Laura is an eBook accessibility expert and brings to Legible a profound respect for the various needs of readers, a vast experience with print and eBook production, and a gift for sharing her knowledge. Nothing can stop her drive to create accessible content.”
Laura brings twenty-five years of trade publishing experience working for large and small publishers as well as freelancing. She’s produced beautiful children’s books with eBook and braille editions. Laura’s work has included rendering complex poetics and mathML into digital environments, and she has also worked with Cree syllabics. A sought-after consultant, trainer, and public speaker, Laura has advocated with government funders, accessible library organizations, and publisher associations for disability issues. She serves on the board of directors of eBound Canada and the Accessible Books Consortium, helps to organize ebookcraft and the annual Accessible Publishing Summit, and her blog posts, workshops, and videos have taught hundreds of people to make eBooks more accessible.