iorad Introduces Demo Defense to Fight Censorship
August 25, 2022In preparation for the annual Banned Books Week, iorad, a Boston-based software company, has launched Demo Defense, a nationwide resource to help combat censorship.
After reading about the year-long battle against book challenges faced by New Jersey high school librarian Martha Hickson, iorad’s Chief Happiness Officer Dipti Patel wanted to help. “With iorad’s free tool users create interactive user guides. The nation-wide string of book challenges was the perfect opportunity for us to provide school and public librarians with a service to help them report and show others how to report the book challenges they encounter,” Patel said.
Patel encouraged iorad’s Director of Program Engagement and former school librarian Arlen Kimmelman to get involved. Kimmelman, who has defended books against challenges, collaborated with Hickson to develop Demo Defense, a collection of iorad guides for reporting book challenges and supporting the organizations that defend intellectual freedom. Demo Defense is available for free at https://bit.ly/DemoDefense.
Within 24hours after Demo Defense was posted to Twitter, the posts received more than 2,264 impressions and 110 engagements. “iorad’s philosophy is that knowledge belongs to everyone and it's meant to be shared,” said Patel. “Our goal is to get Demo Defense into the hands of every school and public librarian nationwide as a way to both prevent and effectively fight censorship.”
About Banned Books Week
Launched in 1982, Banned Books Week is an annual event that celebrates the freedom to read and open access to information, even ideas that some consider unorthodox or unpopular. According to the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, in 2021 there were 729 challenges to library materials affecting 1,597 titles, the highest number of attempted book bans since the ALA began tracking challenges in 2000. For more on Banned Books Week, visit bannedbooksweek.org
About iorad
iorad is the quickest and easiest tutorial creator on the web, enabling users to instantly make guided, step-by-step directions for any website in the browser.
