Accessibility-first workflow, especially for K–12 projects, is gaining momentum at Lapiz Digital. “We are meeting this demand head-on and automating many of our processes in order to bring down project costs for our clients,” says head of operations Meena Prakash, whose company is Benetech-certified for accessibility services. “As awareness about accessibility increases and technology becomes more integrated, there is a growing emphasis on making digital content accessible for everyone.”
Producing accessible video content was one complex project that the Lapiz team recently completed. “We needed to assemble a team of subject matter experts to assess the audio descriptions from a content quality viewpoint, focusing on the descriptions over the relevance or brevity of the visual elements,” Prakash says.
E-book production services that guarantee the accessibility of digital publications for people with disabilities is a fast-growing segment at Lapiz. “This includes adding features such as text-to-speech, scalable font sizes, and navigational assistance for users with visual impairments or reading disabilities,” Prakash says. “Our team is specifically trained to offer meticulous planning and seamless coordination with an attention to detail that guarantees our accessible digital services and content are usable by people with disabilities.”
Automation at all levels and across various processes is a crucial business strategy. “Our digital conversion team, for instance, has made enormous improvements in terms of quality and productivity through fully automated solutions for XML, SGML, and EPUB deliverables,” Prakash says. “Our turnaround times have shortened significantly for e-book projects and XML conversions. For our clients, this translates into shorter time to market and higher cost efficiency.”
The company’s robust project management tool Lazuli has completely transformed the workflow for independent and trade book publishers. “Cloud-based Lazuli can handle both book and journal workflows and is very easy to use,” says Prakash, adding that the tool addresses common project management challenges such as communication gaps, deadline tracking, and task organization. “We have also developed an AI-aided automation solution for style editing of complex mathematical journals, and it is capable of handling basic language editing tasks as well.”
E-book conversion remains a specialty for Lapiz, Prakash says. “There has a been a steady inflow of accessible EPUB3, enhanced audio e-books, and EPUB2-to-EPUB3 conversions. Last year, we processed well over a million pages in both English and non-English titles. Our automated end-to-end EPUB3 workflow, which also covers accessible e-book production, has been instrumental in speeding up the process while improving the quality output—and that makes us and our clients happy.”
