Tools and Solutions

There are many EPUB tools and solutions available to publishers and each organization will have employed a set of tools suitable for their in-house workflows and content requirements. Inclusive Publishing recommends a couple of accessibility-focused solutions which can be incorporated into workflows or used as stand-alone tools.

Ace by DAISY EPUB Accessibility Checker

This open source free tool has been designed to assist content providers at any stage in their workflow and makes it easier to produce higher quality, more accessible EPUB content files that meet internationally recognized standards.

By evaluating conformance to the EPUB Accessibility Specification, the Ace by DAISY tool performs a variety of automated checks producing a list of violations that need fixing and data visualizations to aid the manual inspection process.

Ace is currently a command line tool and there are step-by-step instructions on how to install, update and use the tool available in our Getting Started Guide. Visit the Ace Resource page for more information and a comprehensive set of FAQs

Benetech Global Certified Accessible

The Global Certified Accessible program has been developed to certify the accessibility of ebooks with the aim of helping publishers to build “born accessible” content.

Certification involves a two-stage approach firstly accrediting a publisher’s workflow to ensure that all titles produced through that process are accessible from the start. Once a publisher is accredited, Benetech issues the publisher an annual subscription license to auto-certify its content, which is subject to periodic reviews.

GCA assesses titles for the full range of accessibility features currently detailed in the EPUB Accessibility 1.0 Specification and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) for levels A, AA, and AAA. Additional features specific to ebooks are also included. The Ace by DAISY tool is a critical element in the GCA process.