Certifying EPUB Publications for Accessibility

People who use accessible publications or purchase learning material want confirmation that what they get is, in fact, accessible. This concept is known as “buy accessible” – or the ability to verify that purchased goods meet accessibility needs.

Benetech and DAISY have formed a partnership under the Google Impact Challenge Award to address this need.  Once there is an approved EPUB accessibility specification, testing for accessibility can begin.  The testing process will document a step by step approach. This is needed for certifying that an EPUB publication is truly accessible.

What’s included?

The process includes the use of human examination and special software designed to test for accessibility features and create a report on what has been found.  The report will flag errors and identify places where human judgment is needed to check a particular item.

The development of the process is already underway, and we are looking at the use of existing HTML accessibility checkers to build upon.  There are specific accessibility tests that need to be developed that go beyond HTML and WCAG.  Stay tuned for updates in early 2017. More information is provided on the DIAGRAM Center blog.