Tag Archive for: webinar

Accessibility in Practice, T-206 (W)

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Accessibility In Practice title slide

In our series of free weekly webinars November 27th saw a session focused on Accessibility in Practice, which coincided with the European day for people with disabilities. Understanding how people read with assistive technology, and the difference even small considerations in ebook creation can make is crucial and this session helped us to recognize the impact that recent accessibility innovations in digital publishing have already had on the user.

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • Thomas Kahlisch, DZB Lesen
  • Joakim Uppsäll-Sjögren, Svenska Daisykonsortiet
  • Robin Spinks, RNIB
  • George Kerscher, The DAISY Consortium

Session Overview

In his welcome Richard Orme remarked that our efforts in the world of born accessible publishing are often “somewhat detached from the real world implications of our work”. This session endeavours to correct that.

Thomas Kahlisch

Thomas is blind and he is extremely excited by all the improvements in digital accessibility that he has experienced as they affect all aspects of his daily life.

During the 80’s, when he was at university, it wasn’t possible to access the educational materials that he needed. He relied on others to read content to him and he read braille when it was available.

Today in his work, Thomas uses a PC, together with a screen reader or a refreshable braille display, giving him the option to read with his fingers.  Thomas uses talking book libraries often and he’s astonished at the improvement in quality of synthetic speech.

Whilst braille will always be one of the ways that Thomas reads, it is wonderful to be able to use digital ebooks instead of heavy braille editions. The navigation features provide a massive advantage particularly in a business environment. It would be good to have more born accessible ebooks available in professional fields which he understands are a challenge for the publisher, with their many tables etc. But, the blind community is eager for these and his close work with the publishing industry has shown that there is huge motivation to overcome these challenges.

Robin Spinks

Robin has low vision and accessibility means that he can now access many products and services that have been developed using the principles of inclusive design. Robin reminded us of the days of OHPs, slide displays etc which he couldn’t read. Today he is able to access content via a multitude of ways, even audio books via his sunglasses!!

Today there is a dynamic portfolio of reading opportunities

Robin makes good use of the various customization options available in digital books, trying out most of the features to meet his own specific needs at particular times in the day.  When he gets tired Robin loves to switch on the read aloud function, using a  mixture of both synthetic speech and human narrated audio. Synthetic speech is improving all the time and it’s important to keep an open mind when choosing how to read.

In the future Robin looks forward to “ultimate customization” being available to all readers.

Joakim Uppsäll-Sjögren

Joakim has dyslexia and cerebral palsy and says that improvements in digital accessibility have given him the opportunity to participate in society. In the 80’s, at school, he didn’t have EPUB or DAISY talking books which he now relies on. He doesn’t read conventional audio books as he requires the synchronization of text and speech that the other 2 formats offer.

Joakim finds that the Text to Speech (TTS) or Read Aloud feature of ebooks is a great help with his dyslexia, allowing him to comprehend the content rather than focusing on understanding the characters and words. He also prefers to increase the speed of these to 2.5 / 3x the spoken speed.

Looking forward, Joakim hopes that there will be improvements in PDF accessibility (a format which he finds very frustrating).

George Kerscher

George joined the webinar for the Q&A and is blind. He chooses to read via a smart phone or PC, using a screen reader. He primarily uses his Windows PC and an iPhone and switches between them depending on the type of content he is reading. Human narration on the iPhone is a terrific reading experience. For more sophisticated and complex materials he chooses to use his PC together with the Thorium reading system for the best navigation and accessible experience.

Related Resources

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Reading Solutions, T-241 (W)

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Reading Solutions webinar title slideIn our series of EAA monthly webinars October 23rd saw a session that explored innovations being made to improve the accessibility of reading solutions.  Ensuring people can read accessible ebooks across a variety of different platforms, customizing the presentation of that content, and supporting the use a diverse range of assistive technology is far from a simple task. This page contains:

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • Terra Masiel, Amazon
  • Wendy Reid, Rakuten Kobo
  • Daniel Weck, EDRLab

Session Overview

Richard Orme introduced the speakers reminding us all that the term “reading solution” covers a vast range of unique solutions, benefits, accessibility features and challenges.

Terra Masiel

Amazon distributes millions of ebooks every year, ingesting content in many formats that needs to be converted to the kindle format for distribution. To support publishers in their efforts to supply accessible content, the team at amazon communicates best practice for accessibility, which must then be retained during the conversion process to the kindle format. To help with this there are a number of innovations afoot eg – a new approach to math is being brought in with support for mathml on some of the amazon reading solutions and will be rolling out to more shortly. To do this amazon have had to develop solutions for each reading system as they are all different – by leaning into user patterns for each device the result is an intuitive reading experience for each individual device or system. This bespoke approach can also come with it’s own challenges and amazon continue to work to align the accessibility gaps that are inevitable.

Reading system development is challenging, not least because the act of reading is very personal and Terra and colleagues are working to support the various user requirements, preferences and needs of readers. Understanding that these can vary greatly is imperative to this work.

Wendy Reid

Rakuten Kobo factor accessibility concerns into the ingestion and display of all ebook material and Wendy shared with us a list of points that publishers should consider when submitting content:

  • Test your content via epubcheck and Ace by DAISY
  • Check content on a variety of screen sizes
  • Design for flexibility
  • Separate files for each part of the book
  • Right-size your images
  • Embed fonts for special characters and unusual scripts
  • Don’t use non ASCII characters in file names
  • Submit EPUB 3 files

A particular issue for Kobo is that they have multiple reading solutions available to readers on multiple platforms, all with different accessibility requirements. When combined with individual user preferences and hardware challenges, innovations can be challenging. Developing reading system accessibility is a complex task and there are many layers to ensuring that the reading experience is as accessible as possible.

When developing reading solutions Kobo test using a wide variety of assistive technology with a particular focus on screen readers, keyboards and magnification use cases initially.

User testing has been the most informative way to understand the impact of our efforts, and to research new features and approaches to features.

Daniel Weck

Daniel spoke to us about the Thorium reading system, a free reading solution built with open source software. With desktop technology developing at a fast pace there are many creative opportunities to implement accessible user experiences. One of Thorium’s main objectives has always been to meet the needs of users with diverse abilities by combining visual, auditory and touch reading opportunities (reading with eyes, ears and fingers) and Daniel gave us examples of these within his presentation. EDRLab rigorously test Thorium with users with lived experience to make sure that the reading solution works seamlessly with assistive technology. Input at the design and implementation phases has been crucial.

It’s worth pointing out the that underlying operating system being used can affect the reading experience and, in some cases, unlock additional features. This can be challenging for Daniel and colleagues as they endeavour to provide a uniform experience across platforms.

Related Resources

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Image Description, T-269 Days (W)

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Image Descriptions webinar title slide

In our series of EAA monthly webinars September 25th saw a session that explored the practical workflow approaches available to publishers to ensure image descriptions for both front and back list titles are authored in a timely fashion and to a high quality.  This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • Katy McIntosh, Cambridge University Press
  • Huw Alexander, textBOX Digital
  • Lars Wallin, Colibrio
  • Terra Masiel, Amazon
  • Simon Kitchen, Dolphin

Session Overview

Katy McIntosh – Implementing Alt Text in Workflows

Katy spoke mainly about frontlist book content and divided her presentation into 3 parts beginning with:

Alt Text Creation

Publishers have 3 options when implementing workflows to create alt text.

  • Author creation. Authors know the text better than anyone and the cost is low or free. However they are not alt text specialists and guidance is needed on best practice. It is a good idea to consider including the provision of alt text in author contracts if this is the route that you have chosen.
  • Vendor creation which can include human created alt text or indeed some AI assistance. Some vendors claim to be specialists in certain subjects but they won’t necessarily have the background knowledge of the context. This route can also be costly so it’s important to research vendors carefully.
  • In-house creation. This can be a good way to manage the quality of alt text and to provide consistency but it does require significant resource allocation and subject experts would be needed to work closely with authors.

All 3 options have their own advantages and disadvantages and whichever route works best has to be balanced with the cost, quality, time and available resources that the publisher has. Guidance and expectations are important in any type of workflow.

Quality Assurance

Whichever workflow is in place, a robust QA process is essential. Author created alt text should be checked by an alt text expert, vendor alt text should be spot checked in-house and in-house created descriptions should be checked by the author. QA of the alt text is as important as the main body text of the ebook.

Implementation

Katy highlighted 4 areas for consideration when implementing an alt text workflow:

  1. Platforms and systems need potential updates to enable alt text and long description – eg, where a screen reader will automatically read alt text, this is not the case with long descriptions and publishers need to decide how to indicate that a long description is available. Making sure you have a consistent approach to including alt text and QA is crucial, as is including metadata about the alt text feature.
  2. Workflow changes can determine how you implement alt text as you need to ensure guidance and best practice is established. Equally you need to build in your QA process and what to do if the alt text is not fit for purpose.  This involves training and cost!
  3. Disproportionate burden is an area of the EAA which you should liaise with your legal team. If you think adding alt text falls into this category then you should seek advice.
  4. Price impact can be significant and it’s important to keep abreast of the cost implications of any additional work.

Huw Alexander – Alt Text Decision Making

Finding A Vendor

The relationship between alt text vendor and publisher has to be a good fit. Publishers should think about:

  • Pricing breakdown
  • Deliverables
  • Turnaround times
  • Quotation based on your content
  • Samples based on your content
  • Existing clients
  • Expertise and experience in your specific area of publishing (content-vendor alignment)
  • Recommendations

These points will help you to develop a stable of alt text writers who you can call on for a variety of different genres.

Content Prioritisation

With the EAA coming up, publishers are having to think about prioritizing content for the provision of alt text. There are different approaches to this depending on whether content is frontlist or backlist, whether the author is high profile, whether its a bestseller etc.

Improving Alt Text Outcomes

A number of areas need consideration:

  • It’s a really good idea to develop an Alt Text Style Guide to show your authors and vendors what you expect from your alt text. Start off with 10 image types and develop and these will evolve as you learn and understand what works best for you.
  • Establish a consistent and accurate Testing Process which can be embedded as part of the workflow.
  • Contracts, Statements of Work and Service Level Agreements help to clarify your requirements, establish areas of responsibility, use of AI etc.

Logistics

It’s important to establish certain items with your vendor:

  • The Deliverables e.g. specify the format you need alt text to be delivered in, make sure your vendor knows that you require proofing etc.
  • Schedules should be established with clear information on turnaround times, publication etc.

All of these points and tips should help publishers to create a seamless and effective workflow.

Industry Perspectives

Our remaining 3 speakers spoke about their enthusiasm for the EAA, looking forward in particular to the next webinar in this series on Reading Solutions. Lars Wallin, Terra Masiel and Simon Kitchen are all excited about the new directive:

Access to books is crucial and everyone deserves an accessible reading experience.

Terra Maziel also commented that Amazon’s vision remains the same as ever, to partner with industry stakeholders to provide more content. Simon Kitchen is looking forward to more collaboration with accessible library services to ensure a future where more digital information is available to all and Lars is busy working in the weeds prepping materials to enable greater navigation for screen readers.

Related Resources

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Technical Approaches to Upgrading the Backlist for the EAA, T-339 Days (W)

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Technical Approaches to Upgrading the Backlist title slide

In our new series of EAA monthly webinars July 24th saw a session focused on the complexities of reworking existing materials to incorporate accessibility. This can vary greatly depending on the nature of the published content. There are however a series of strategies that, if adopted, can aid the remediation process. This webinar heard from those actively involved in supporting the rework of backlist titles to ensure they’re compliant with EAA.

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • James Yanchak, Taylor and Francis
  • Gautier Chomel, EDRLab
  • Chiara De Martin, Fondazione LIA
  • Thomas Kahlisch, Medibus, Germany
  • Katie Durand, French Federation for the Blind
  • Daniel Frelen, MTM, Sweden

Session Overview

James Yanchak, Taylor and Francis

With a backlist of over 200,000 titles Taylor and Francis are heavily invested in the backlist issue and their Internal Accessibility Working Group is fully committed to supporting the EAA. James summed up the enormity of the task: Starting out they

had a huge volume, no budget to speak of, gaps in our knowledge, and unknown costs.

To get to grips with this the working group set about making sure that all areas of the company were doing their part to comply with the EAA – in particular joining global conversations, working groups and industry collaborations which brought about the introduction in-house of EPUBCheck and Ace by DAISY to ensure compliance with current standards for ebooks.

This was very revealing and resulted in closer internal checks being put in place to assess accessibility features of EPUB files. This was initially intended for the frontlist but the backlist loomed. Evaluation showed that there were 65,000 titles in EPUB 2 which required remediation. Using a staggered approach with vendors, the task of remediation began. All files were evaluated both by the vendor and via the new in-house EPUB evaulation system.

For simple titles vendors converted directly from EPUB 2 to EPUB 3. For everything else, they converted to EPUB 3 via the XML. Titles that seemed more straightforward were prioritized but there were various challenges along the way. Close communication with vendors was necessary to identify missing items and inconsistencies resulting in at least 30% of titles requiring manual rebuilds.

Working in batches of approximately 3,000 per month, content was fed through to distribution partners who were in danger of being overwhelmed by the flood of remediated backlist titles – some even refused to use them citing the impact on the user experience as a reason! Metadata is also being updated and the hope is that all titles will be replaced with these new, accessible versions.There is still a lot of work to do but this coordinated and thoughtful approach has ensured that Taylor and Francis are on the right road to compliance.

James finished with some top tips for our readers:

  • Be prepared to work with your vendors to ensure they understand the accessibility requirements.
  • Participate with industry groups to bolster your accessibility knowledge.
  • Review and update internal practices to keep them up to date.
  • Make sure your accessibility metadata is captured and distributed.
  • And finally, always test and review your files because you are the one who must make sure they are accessible.

Gautier Cholmel, EDRLab

Gautier has been very involved in co-ordinating the accessible backlist ebook laboratory project or ABE Lab, which aims to provide publishers with information about options and costs for the remediation of backlist ebooks. This EU funded project has just been completed and it included EDRLab, the LIA Foundation and the National Library of The Netherlands. Amongst the deliverables for this project were:

  • a report on backlist data and a gap analysis that provided stakeholders with insights into the number of ebooks actually in the EUmarket and details of their categories, formats and year of production.
  • a set of guidelines that provides high level information for producers and developers of remediation tools which Chiara will speak about in this webinar
  • the final project report that sums up activities, main findings and outcomes.

What this project has revealed is that there are 3.5 million ebooks on sale in Europe with less than 1% claiming any accessibility metadata! These are hugely diverse, ranging from some countries with an overwhelming number of pdf files to deal with and others with EPUB 3 content. Some are richly integrated with graphics and imagery and others more straightforward to remediate.

Of greater concern is the lack of robust open source tools, apart of course from the validators built by DAISY, namely EPUBCheck, ACE by DAISY and ACE SMART. Gautier gave feedback from three EDRLab members: De Marque, Fenixx and TiteLive, all of whom had specific insight into the remediation of backlist titles in preparation for the EAA. Distribution and service providers are mobilised.

Gautier recommends taking a step by step approach with the following enhancements to workflows and actions

  • Add existing open source tools to your workflows now.
  • Support organizations working in this field
  • Prioritize gradual progress
  • Foster understanding and empower ownership
  • Image triage – identify images in your files which need correction.
  • Send accessibility metadata using the ONIX codelist 196
  • Check out the DPUB 2024 presentation: High Impact Action item for your activity workflow.

Chiara De Martin, Fondazione LIA

Working with Gautier and colleagues, Fondazione LIA has been an active participant in the ABE Lab project, a key part of which was researching and testing remediation tools. For the purposes of the project these remediation or conversion tools included a wide variety of technological solutions and IT products from web and cloud platforms to stand alone desktop application to API. These tools all ingest ingest ebook content with the aim of outputting an ebook that should be compliant with accessibility requirements. However, they vary greatly!

For the purposes of the ABE Lab project the focus was on PDF and EPUB files as the ingestion format. The tools can be integrated into remediation workflows, addressing accessibility issues and some of them support batch working methods whilst others work with one file at a time. LIA managed the testing of these tools, assessing their performance and also their shortcomings. A variety of different workflows were tested as detailed by Chiara. The question that was asked during this process was:

Are there remediation tools currently available that are able to fix the accessibility issues and problems that can be found in backlist ebooks?

Sadly there is no easy answer to the question. LIA discovered that there are no magic tools at the moment and the quality of the EPUB 3 export files varied greatly. What has been discovered and worth highlighting is:

  • Trying to remediate PDF is very difficult indeed and it’s easier to create a born accessible EPUB 3 file from the source file.
  • The remediation of EPUB 3 fixed layout to an accessible reflowable EPUB 3 file is poorly supported. |This is unsurprising as there is no firm consenus on what this might look like.
  • Technical issues within the tools themselves seemed to be holding back the success of the solutions – tool development was not good enough.
  • The quality of the output isn’t being checked by humans and the AI solutions have some way to go.

The ABE Lab guidance is a high level document for developers, publishers and stakeholders, and it includes two different levels. It lists the technical functionalities necessary for remediation tools and it also includes a checklist for EPUB imitation tools and PDF imitation tools.

Some Industry Perspectives

Our remaining 3 speakers spoke about their enthusiasm for the EAA and what still needs to be done. Thomas Kahlisch is pleased to be collaborating with publishers in Germany in their efforts to create accessible content. Katie Durand is passionate about supporting end users to can benefit from accessible digital ebooks – for many the technology can be overwhelming and it’s important to remember that these readers need support. Daniel Frelen is excited about the levelling of the playing field for readers and hopes that the efforts of EU countries can be streamlined so there are not multiple interpretations in play. This will allow for the further development of open source tools.

Related Resources

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Countdown to EAA, T-367 Days (W)

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Countdown to the European Accessibility Act opening slide

In our new series of EAA monthly webinars, June 26th saw an overview session of the European Accessibility Act, kick starting the DAISY Countdown series of webinar events in the run up to the EAA coming into force in June 2025. Beginning with an interview with George Kerscher, this event also gave an introduction to the EAA itself, exploring the implications for people involved in publishing and reading, and talking to industry professionals actively working to prepare their organizations and others. 

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • George Kerscher, The DAISY Consortium
  • Inmaculda Plancencia Porrero, The European Commission
  • Elin Ljungvall, Hegas
  • Hans Beerens, Dedicon
  • Christina Mussinelli, The LIA Foundation

Session Overview

This introductory webinar was hosted by DAISY’s Richard Orme who welcomed the large audience and DAISY colleague George Kerscher as the “leading thinker and doer” in accessible digital publishing.

Interview with George Kerscher

George gave us a snapshot of his experience as a university student where access to content was impossible for him. This spurred him on to form his first company “Books for the Blind and Print Disabled” which was hugely successful and Richard Orme remembers RNIB receiving disks from the various mailings that George organized. Fast forward to 2001 when George’s Dream speech at the DAISY technical conference was very well received and encouraged the publishing community to start taking accessibility seriously.

Overview of the European Accessibility Act

Inmaculda Plancencia Porrero from The European Commission gave us a high level glance at the EAA and what we can expect from it. Considering issues such as:

  • What is covered in the EAA?
  • What products are in scope?
  • Requirements and provisions for products and services
  • What is an ebook?
  • Enforcements and penalties
  • Ebook related annexes

this was a whistle-stop tour of the major areas for consideration

Some Industry Perspectives

Our remaining 3 speakers spoke about their enthusiasm for the EAA and what still needs to be done. Elin Ljungvall hopes to have clear guidelines to enable her organization to provide the right books to the right child in the right format. Hans Beerens is excited about the prospect of greater accessibility for all and Cristina Mussinelli is looking forward to helping all readers to read and fostering inclusivity. Awareness building, training and skill development were areas that still need attention this year.

A Recent Survey

Richard presented some initial findings resulting from a survey conducted to help us point to relevant topics and resources within this webinar series. There are concerns from all areas about readiness for 2025 and our initial findings did reveal that many governments have set up departments to facilitate this. In the publishing community we’ve seen a lot of mainstream tool support but organization’s reliance of established processes could hinder progress for take up of these various tools. The survey remains open and we encourage continuing feedback as we get closer to the EAA.

Related Resources

Related past webinars:

Guest presenter links:

Discover the other webinars we’re running! This event was just the beginning – be sure to sign up for the next 3 webinars on the backlist, accessibility testing and image description.

Lessons Learned in the Journey to Accessible Publishing (W)

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Lessons Learned in the Journey to Accessible Publishing title slide

In our series of free weekly webinars November 23rd saw a session focused on the lessons that have been learned by speakers from 4 different areas of the publishing industry. This was the perfect way to round off this current season of webinars and an excellent chance to reflect on some of the challenges that have been encountered

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • Anne Bergman, Federation of European Publishers
  • Cristina Mussinelli, The LIA Foundation
  • Simon Mellins, Penguin Random-House
  • Wendy Reid, Kobo Rakuten

Session Overview

Ann Bergman was our first speaker, reminding us about the work of the FEP during the development, planning and eventual implementation of the European Accessibility Act. This has involved years of preparation for our industry and is the result of over 20 years of engagement at EU level. The EAA, which comes into force in 2025 will have a global impact as it covers ebooks, ereaders and eretailers. The good news is that EPUB has been deemed to fulfill the specifications of the directive, but there are challenges that still remain: backlist concerns, the liability of retailers and DRM, to name but a few! Ann’s advice to everyone thinking about accessible publishing was an important lesson:

“Accessibility is about making the books we publish better, satisfying the needs of all customers and broadening readership”

Cristina Mussinelli and the LIA Foundation have a wealth of advice learned from years of advocating for accessible publishing in Italy and Europe. Lessons include:

  • Collaborations – building bridges with all the stakeholders in the industry is key
  • Accessibility needs to be treated as a strategic resource and the corporate culture should reflect this
  • Implement a roadmap within your organization
  • Training is absolutely key as accessibility can get quite technical

Simon Mellins gave us a snapshot of lessons learned from a larger publishing organization of which the 2 biggest are:

  • Metadata and the challenge of implementing accessibility metadata for such a large volume of content and the backlist remains a huge challenge. PRH have found that metadata templating is practical for trade titles but the challenge remains to get the retailers support display.
  • Image description remains the hardest accessibility challenge for most publishers and there is no one solution that works for everyone. Simon gave us a number of strategies to cope with the challenges and these slides are full of helpful detail on this

Finally a reminder about future-proofing and how accessibility enhances content for everyone’s enjoyment. “A properly structured EPUB file with detailed semantic tagging and metadata is the best way to archive books for future generations.”

Wendy Reid gave us the retailers perspective by highlighting lessons learned at Kobo Rakuten.

  • Communications are key to success, working with publishers on accessibility requirements
  • Implementation of accessibility can be complex in retail
  • User needs and perspectives must be taken into consideration at every stage. Testing early and testing often can result in changes of approach, making sure that readers with print disabilities are included in the feedback process.

Listen to the recording to hear more about the challenges and lessons learned discussed by our 4 speakers.

Related Resources

Useful Links

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Accessible Reading Systems: Requirements and Examples of Good Practice (W)

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Accessible Reading Systems opening slideIn our series of free weekly webinars October 26th saw a session focused on accessible reading systems, hosted by DAISY’s George Kerscher. In his intro George reminded us that “people want to be able to read with their eyes, ears and fingers and its the reading system that enables this.” A crucial link in the publishing and content ecosystem, the accessibility of a given reading system greatly impacts the reading experience.

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • George Kerscher, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • Prashant Verma, The DAISY Consortium
  • Lars Wallin, Colibrio
  • Laurent Le Meur, EDRLab

Session Overview

The session began with an overview of the webinar, beginning with a reminder of the:

Fundamentals for Accessible Reading

Laurent Le Meur asked why this is so important right now and top of his list of answers is the advent of the European Accessibility Act in 2025 which the whole world is preparing for. By this time, every product and service created or sold into Europe must be accessible and this includes reading systems which are within the scope of the new legislation.

The fundamental requirements of an accessible reading system include:

  • the ability to make visual adjustments
  • screen reader support
  • keyboard navigation (when available)
  • text to speech

Laurent’s presentation includes demonstrations of these basic items, including a closer look at Thorium, developed by EDRLab. EDRLab’s unique experience of developing the Thorium reading system is something we can all learn from. The specific challenges that developing an accessible reading system of this calibre include:

  • the development team themselves must have a thorough understanding of accessibility
  • the development framework is often inaccessible itself
  • the budget to develop accessible reading systems needs to be high
  • testing is complex
  • all kinds of complex content needs to be accommodated in a variety of formats.

Advanced Document Interaction

Lars Wallin focused on requirements needed to give a good reading experience when dealing with complex, structured documents such as learning materials or academic papers. These include:

  • Focus management – if reading systems have not been developed with assistive technology in mind, they will not have the level of integrated accessibility that is needed. Focus management is at the core of a successful reading system.
  • Landmark navigation is extremely important in structured documents
  • Highlights, bookmarks and notes
  • Contextual actions and information (especially important for blind readers)
  • Text search
  • Visual aids

Testing and Benchmarking

Prashant Verma reminded that in order to achieve an accessible reading experience, both the content and the reading system need to conform to standards and best practices. By rigorous testing we can ensure that reading systems are accessible. To be successful, the reading system should have:

  • an accessible user interface that can accommodate different input methods and that supports a variety of commonly used assistive technology
  • support for EPUB accessibility features such as table of contents, image alt text etc

The DAISY Consortium has developed epubtest.org in order to evaluate the accessibility of EPUB content via reading systems. Testing is conducted by a panel of experts, assistive technology users and readers with lived experience. Reading systems are tested in a variety of ways and the results enable developers to make improvements to the accessibility of their products. The published results also enable institutional purchasers to make informed decisions.

Prashant went into the detail of the epubtest.org evaluation systems and how the scoring is allocated. Results are displayed on epubtest.org and an overview is published on inclusive publishing as a quick reference tool, summarizing the pros and cons of the systems that have undergone testing.

Related Resources

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Accessible Publishing Support (W)

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Title slide for the Accessible Publishing Support webinarIn our series of free weekly webinars September 28th saw a session focused on Accessible Publishing Support which gave a round-up of training, tools and resources available to publishers and content creators. There are many resources available worldwide and this webinar highlighted some of the most used tools and guidance followed by an in-depth look at what is happening in two countries, Italy and The Netherlands.

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium
  • Elisa Molinari, The LIA Foundation
  • Hans Beerens, Dedicon

Session Overview

Richard Orme opened this week’s webinar with a general overview of training, tools and resources. We’ve listed these below but the webinar video gives you a lot more information.

Training

  • DAISY webinar series – 35 hours of material on a broad range of topics
  • Online courses which include, W3C learning, EPUB Accessibility Using InDesign, POET image description tool, Inclusive Publishing in Practice & the Accessible Publishing Learning Network
  • Conferences and Seminars – international bookfairs, publishing events
  • Bespoke training

Tools

A variety of tools are in use to validate and check the accessibility of content. These include DAISY’s suite of tools – Ace, SMART (Richard gave a demo) and EPUBCheck (which is maintained by DAISY)

Resources

There are many resources available to publishers who wish to keep up to date with the latest developments in the accessibility space. These include this website, the Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base, epubtest and stakeholder platforms within your own country.

A full list of items mentioned in the webinar can be found at the end of this report.

The Italian Job

Elisa Molinari began her presentation by giving an overview of the work of the LIA Foundation, reminding us of all they have achieved since 2011 when they delivered the first concrete example of the born-accessible principle.

The LIA catalog now features an astounding 30k ebooks from 76 publishers and imprints.

Moving forward LIA still focus on how to make accessibility work via events, certification, consultancy and tailor-made training for their publishers. Having everyone on-board with a shared goal is something that the LIA Foundation urges all publishers to focus on and they have prepared list of tools and resources for all areas of the workflow together with a white paper entitled; “Ebooks For All: Towards an Accessible Digital Publishing Ecosystem”. This was produced with the onset of the European Accessibility Act in mind.

The Dutch Oven

Hans Beerens followed with an overview of how accessible publishing is treated in The Netherlands. From a round table meeting of relevant stakeholders some invaluable resources have emerged giving publishers a set of quick start guides to get them started on their accessibility journey and provide them with some quick wins. This working group have also conducted a number of workshops and training programs together with the national website which hosts all of these resources.

Most recently, a project run in collaboration with German and French colleagues has resulted in the training site Inclusive Publishing in Practice which Hans gave us an overview of. Available in 4 languages this site offers 75 learning units over 4 learning pathways – covering a multitude of areas to assist publishers in the creation of accessible content.

It was terrific to be able to see how many resources are available to our industry. Although not exhaustive, the range of resources listed and discussed in this webinar, provides a solid base for continued learning.

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Resources mentioned in the webinar:

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Reference

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Accessible Publishing: The Fundamentals (W)

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Accessible Publishing Fundamentals title slideSeptember 14th 2022 saw the first in a new season of free DAISY webinars with a session focused on Accessible Publishing: The Fundamentals. Accessible publishing is gaining increasing attention, with many new people approaching the topic, often driven by legislation like the EU Accessibility Act. This webinar went back to the fundamentals, highlighting how people with print disabilities can access digital publications, the importance of adopting accessible publishing practices, and the wider benefits to your publications.

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • James Taylor, International Publishers Association—Guest Host and Chair
  • Gautier Chomel, EDRLab
  • Prashant Verma, DAISY Consortium
  • Brianna Walker, Taylor and Francis

Session Overview

Introduction to Accessible Publishing

Gautier Chomel reminded us that accessible publishing is big business and that digital content is a growing market. With changes in learning methods impacting this trend we can expect the growth to continue, particularly as legislation (such as The European Accessibility Act) impacts the supply chain and changes publishers’ perspectives. This session aims to give us a refresher for what we are all trying to achieve.

About Print Disability

Prashant Verma detailed exactly what a print disability is and how many people are affected by low vision, blindness, learning disabilities and developmental difficulties, all preventing access to printed material. Accessible digital content is revolutionary for readers with a print disability.

How Could People Read Your Publications?

It is well worth watching the video of this session for some examples of how people with print disabilities are able to read using accessible content. These demos and examples include:

  • People with low vision tend to increase the text size and change the background color – Prashant pointed out that there are 240 million people worldwide with low vision.
  • People who are blind use screen readers and/or electronic braille – all made possible by excellent navigation and accessibility features optimized within the content.
  • People with learning difficulties can customize the text layout and use the read aloud function if they need to.
  • Those with physical disabilities have a variety of options now available to them including switch or voice control technology

Accessible Digital Publishing Practices

Brianna Walker gave us the publisher perspective with some wonderful examples of good practice that has been adopted at Taylor and Francis by optimizing the features on offer within the EPUB 3 format. Brianna informed us of 4 top tips for good practice:

  1. Ensure text is text (and not images of text)
  2. Provide good structure
  3. Describe images
  4. Provide accessibility metadata

The Case For Accessible Publishing

The business case for accessible publishing is very often something that we have to advocate for in-house. Senior executives want to know that accessible publishing will help them to:

  • reach more readers
  • comply with the law
  • meet purchasing requirements
  • make better ebooks
  • impact the supply chain
  • promote their image

Where To Start

Brianna encouraged us all to consider a holistic approach when starting out by considering the bigger picture before focusing on what can be done in the short term and long term. It’s key to get commitment in-house and that investment needs to be on-going.

Patience is required but starting the journey is an instant win

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Creating and Reading Accessible Math (W)

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Creating and Reading Accessible Math title slideIn our series of free weekly webinars October 20th saw a session focused on accessible math and some of the complexities surrounding the creation and reading of math for students.

This page contains:

Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Stacy Scott, RNIB, host and chair
  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium
  • Joseph Polizzotto, Wake Technical Community College
  • Neil Soiffer, Talking Cat Software
  • Homiyar Mobedji, Benetech

Session Overview

Stacy Scott introduced this week’s session explaining that the presentation would remove some of the complexities surrounding the creation of accessible math by talking us through the workflow required and showing us via demos and examples that accessible math is achievable and relatively straightforward. Support for accessible math has improved greatly over recent years and it’s exciting to be able to show our audience some of the new methods, tools and solutions in this area.

Page Image

Neil Soiffer gave us a quick run through of the various math formats that are in existence and Joseph Polizzotto then explained where to start if the math in question isn’t available in one of these specific math formats and is appearing as an inaccessible image. OCR can help in this situation and there are various options here depending on your role and the scale of work involved eg. EquatIO, MathPix and Infty Reader. OCR can either be used on the fly for individual math expressions or it can be used to convert an entire document and Joseph talked us through the pros and cons of each tool in these scenarios, ending with an example of EquatIO in action.

Editing Math Equations in Word

Richard Orme discussed the next stage in a math workflow now that the math expression is in a word document but may require some editing. Currently there are 2 options here: the Microsoft Equation Editor, a built in method with various options available for editing math expressions, and MathType, a powerful equation editor with lots of different integrations (and relatively affordable).

From Word to the Web

There are three routes to publishing your word document on the web:

  • Word-Save as web page
  • MathType-Publish as math page
  • WordToEPUB-creates an HTML version

Reading Math on the Web and with a Screen Reader

Joseph explained that in an educational environment, the Learning Management System provides a way to share contents with students. All institutions are different but it has become recommended best practice to use MathJax to render math in all types of browsers and LMS. MathJax provides consistent display and ensures that the math remains accessible. Joseph’s top tips are worth noting alongside the demo of math being rendered in the LMS, Blackboard. Neil talked the audience through the finer details of how to read math using a screen reader showing us examples and demos that highlighted some of the options and choices that the reader has available to them.

Related Resources

Tools mentioned in the webinar:

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