De Marque is proud to announce a strategic partnership with MOBiDYS Canada, making the company the authorized distributor of an impressive collection of universally accessible children’s ebooks. Canadian schools will be able to purchase these titles online, on two different reading platforms. In Québec, they will be available on Biblius, the platform provided by the Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec, for which De Marque is the technology provider. Elsewhere in Canada, these titles will be available on De Marque’s Cantook Éducation reading platform.
This partnership covers a selection of titles from publishing houses renowned for their children’s literature, including Québec Amérique, Bouton d’or Acadie, Apprentissage illimité, Les 400 coups and Les Malins. It includes close to 200 digital books in FROG format, an accessibility first file format developed by MOBiDYS.
What is a FROG book?
FROG (FRee your cOGnition) is an enhanced ebook format that eases the effort of reading and the cognitive load on a reader, so they can better focus their energy on decoding and comprehension.
Enhanced by artificial intelligence, a FROG file incorporates some fifteen tools aimed at facilitating reading, while promoting comprehension and memorization, without the need for any additional applications or software. These features include:
- choice of font and font size;
- highlighting of syllables and/or phonetics;
- narration provided by human voices;
- a reading window;
- explanation of difficult vocabulary.
The FROG format was developed in partnership with various linguistics specialists, designers, AI (automatic language processing) and speech therapists.
REDEFINE READING : providing accessible reading in schools
Specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, are found in between 6% and 8% of the population. It is estimated that more than one in ten Canadian students do not reach the reading proficiency level expected at Grade 8/Secondary II.
“This partnership embodies our commitment to push back the boundaries of reading accessibility,” adds Marc Boutet, President of De Marque. ” In keeping with De Marque’s mission to make culture accessible to all, we believe that every individual, regardless of their situation, should have access to the tools to foster learning, the acquisition of knowledge, and the pleasure of reading. We are delighted to be working with MOBiDYS Canada to make this vision a reality for Canadian students.”
