CELA, Penguin Random House Canada Improve Access to Canadian Publications

January 19, 2021

The Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) today announced a partnership with Penguin Random House Canada to increase access to reading materials for Canadians with print disabilities.

CELA and Penguin Random House Canada announce collaborative partnership

The Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) and Penguin Random House Canada are pleased to announce a collaborative partnership which will dramatically increase access to reading materials for Canadians with print disabilities.

Penguin Random House Canada is providing its entire collection of Canadian-published titles with Canadian audio rights to CELA. The agreement covers nearly four hundred previously published titles as well as future titles. The collection of human-narrated audio titles includes bestsellers, award winners, fan favourites and classics for adults, and youth which will be made available through CELA to the estimated 1 in 10 Canadians with print disabilities.

Kristin Cochrane, Penguin Random House Canada’s chief executive officer, said, “We are very proud to partner with CELA to provide their patrons access to our audiobooks through the public library system. CELA and Penguin Random House Canada share the same fundamental goal of connecting writers and their work with readers everywhere; we publish books for everyone, and through this partnership, we’re ensuring our authors can speak to all readers. We look forward to continuing to uphold our commitment to provide all Canadians with equitable access to great storytelling.”

Through public libraries offering CELA services, Canadian residents with low vision or vision loss, learning disabilities, or physical disabilities which prevent them from using traditional print books, can access books in a variety of accessible formats.

“Only 1 in 10 books are available to people with print disabilities, and there is a lot of work to be done to create an equitable reading landscape. Penguin Random House Canada is showing true leadership and generosity in providing these books to our readers to help us close this gap,” said Laurie Davidson, CELA’s Executive Director.

The agreement between Penguin Random House Canada and CELA is already in effect, and these titles are now available through CELA.

(Via Centre for Equitable Library Access)