Tag Archive for: webinar

Publishing Accessibility Policy and Practice T-66 (W)

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Publishing Accessibility Policy and Practice title slide

In our series of free weekly webinars April 30th saw a session focused on Publishing Accessibility Policy and Practice concentrating on some of the behind the scenes efforts that publishers and service providers are making to support accessibility practices.

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Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • Elisa Molinari, The LIA Foundation
  • Kristina Kramer, Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e. V.
  • Stacy Scott, Taylor and Francis

Session Overview

Richard Orme welcomed everyone and introduced today’s topic of Accessibility Policy and Practice.  As we count down the days to the EAA this session looks at how having communication systems and internal practices n place can help us all approach the new legislation.

Elisa Molinari

Elisa shared with us the latest updates from the EU project APACE (accelerating publishing accessibility through collaboration in Europe), which involves participants from Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Finland and the Netherlands. Some interesting survey results from the initiative revealed a noticeable rise in awareness and responsibility for accessibility being taken by departments other than publishing production departments.

That being said, there are still challenges that remain around training needs, image description, backlist remediation and AI. But the outstanding takeaway from this project is the notion of collaboration between the stakeholders. This type of work has paved the way for future projects and provided an opportunity for information sharing and co-ordinated work groups.

For the LIA Foundation, the arrival of the EAA has helped to make accessibility the most notable drive for innovation in the publishing industry at the moment. All publishers work differently and it has been enlightening to experience how varied the approach can be. Some begin with training whereas others dive straight into the weeds of the technical areas. Some concentrate on their platforms and websites, publishing an accessibility policy and focusing on customer service. But everyone needs to think about quality assurance and metadata at some point – making sure that the content is accessible and that readers know about it. The LIA Foundation is currently working hard to help retailers and publishers to display accessibility metadata – the recent publication of the Accessibility Metadata Display Guide 2.0 is a huge help with this.

Elisa reminded us that accessible publishing is all about producing high quality digital content and in the words of Andre Angiolini (Il Molino)

As we began producing ebooks, we raised the quality standard of our printed books. Similarly our involvement in accessibility has advanced the quality of both our ebooks and websites.

Kristina Kramer

Kristina explained that the EAA was implemented into German law in July 2021 before being enforced in June 2025 and the German Booksellers and Publishers Association has a diverse membership from many different areas of the publishing ecosystem. In order to serve their members the association set up an accessibility task force in 2020 collaborating with colleagues from many German speaking nations and many international bodies.

The task force has formed many specific working groups to focus on topics such as EPUB, metadata, educational materials to name but a few. In all areas the concentration has been around awareness building and training, resulting in a large pool of resources and ongoing events.

Kristina urged publishers not to be afraid of accessibility. It is indeed a process and every small step is worth taking. There is a huge amount of information available and it’s important to have conversations with colleagues and contacts about how they are approaching accessibility in their working environments. But if there is one thing you do, make sure it is to include accessibility metadata in all your content!

Stacy Scott

Stacy is a strong advocate for accessibility both at Taylor and Francis and as Chair of the Publishers Accessibility Action Group (PAAG) in the UK. With 2 pieces of legislation coming up, the EAA and the ADA Title 2, Stacy reassured everyone that both are based on WCAG and, as a result can be “conquered in harmony”!

Although Taylor and Francis is well informed about what is required in pulling together a policy and strategy, it’s not always straightforward to drive this forward in terms of resources and budget. Very often support for accessibility isn’t driven by company leaders and it can be difficult to advocate upwards.

Building grassroots support for accessibility by gathering advocates, demonstrating small wins and proving value are some of the key ways to get leadership fully on board to drive accessibility from the top down.

To do this it’s a great idea to form an accessibility working group in-house that garners members from all areas of the organization. There is strength in numbers and this can be a useful way to influence senior staff. In addition, having an internal community is crucial for converting policy into practice.

Once accessibility becomes part of company policy and practice it’s important to let customers know that accessibility matters. There are many ways to do this, via marketing, metadata, end user testing, conformance reports and accessibility statements. Allowing your customers to make informed choices about content is excellent and providing them with a roadmap of what’s to come is even better! Their support also provides convincing for your working group and internal leadership.

Stacy finished by giving us some quick wins to help turn policy into practice:

  1. Form an accessibility working group
  2. Develop an accessibility roadmap
  3. Establish a key accessibility contact in-house

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The Essentials in Your Toolbox, T-122 (W)

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In our series of free weekly webinars February 26th saw a session focused on The Essentials in Your Toolbox, showcasing a portfolio of tools and services which are available to content providers as they navigate their accessibility journey.

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Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • Romain Deltour, The DAISY Consortium
  • Daniel Weck, The DAISY Consortium
  • Laura Brady, Accessibility Expert

Session Overview

In his welcome Richard Orme informed us that there are a portfolio of tools available free of charge to the publishing industry to assist with the production of accessible EPUBs. Anyone using these tools on a regular basis should consider supporting the continued maintenance and development of these and similar DAISY solutions by sponsoring this work.

Romain Deltour and EPUBCheck

Romain concentrated on the EPUBCheck tool which is maintained by DAISY on behalf of W3C. Used almost universally by publishers for their EPUB files, EPUBCheck is the go-to utility tool for EPUB conformance. It is not an accessibility checker but is the first essential step in a conformance work flow. EPUBCheck tells the creator whether the EPUB conforms to the current standards. It’s important to note that an EPUB can conform correctly but still have serious accessibility issues!  However it is:

the foundational ground for a good reading experience and good interoperability across reading systems and assistive technologies.

Romain’s demo of the EPUBCheck tool used the command line version but it is also available to use with a GUI. Watch the demo to gain some inside tips and features that you may not be aware of.

Daniel Weck and Ace by DAISY

Daniel has been a core contributor to the development of Ace by DAISY, a software tool that checks EPUB files for accessibility. Ace is not a certification tool but it does evaluate for conformance and facilitate remediation. Available as a command line tool or as an app, Ace is free to use and available on Windows, Mac and Linux. Conformance is checked against the EPUB 1.1 Accessibility specification and WCAG and the rules it checks against include, discoverability metadata, navigation,  the reading order of synchronised text and audio, and many others.

The report generated by Ace is very user friendly and for those using the app there is a bonus feature – a metadata editor which Daniel describes in his presentation.  The Ace report integrates the DAISY Knowledge Base to help interpret issues that have been reported, providing guidance on how to solve issues. Daniel hopes that the future will see usability improvements with Ace and how it interprets technical standards.

Laura Brady and InDesign

Laura uses InDesign as an ebook creation tool and is part of The Accessible EPUB from InDesign Expert Group which works on improving the accessibility of the EPUB export files from this widely used solution. InDesign is page layout software and the starting point of 95% of ebooks and Laura’s demo shows how to use InDesign to create ebooks that prioritize accessibility.

Some important pieces of progress have been made recently and Lauras presentation looks at some of these more closely. This includes the ability to create a page list so that it remains faithful to the print version and how to ensure that navigation is maintained as you export to EPUB. The demo also focuses on accessibility metadata and how to ensure that it is included in the export file as well as giving an overview of the various options that can be included.

Laura uses a number of scripts and plugins every day and the presentation showed us examples such as Break Text Thread to assist with the application of semantics and the Access-Aide Sigil plugin to automate mapping epubtype semantics to aria roles.

Lots of useful tips and tricks to get the best of the InDesign software. In the future Laura hopes that EPUBs will only need minor remediation work upon export.

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Accessibility Metadata, T-157 (W)

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Accessibility Metadata title slide

In our series of free weekly webinars January 22nd saw a session focused on Accessibility Metadata, a topic that everyone in the publishing industry will agree is essential, particularly as we count down towards the European Accessibility Act (EAA) this year.

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Full Video of the Webinar

Speakers

  • Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
  • George Kerscher, The DAISY Consortium / Benetech
  • Gregorio Pellegrino, The LIA Foundation
  • Matt Garrish, The DAISY Consortium
  • Marian Oosting, Dedicon
  • Laura Brady, Accessibility Expert

Session Overview

In his welcome Richard Orme remarked that metadata is a topic that everyday consumers easily overlook, but which provides the framework that enables the publishing industry to function. It is a requirement of the EAA so great care must be taken in this area.

George Kerscher

George outlined the work that has been done on the Accessibility Metadata Display Guide – in the summer the draft of version 2 of this guide was published and a further draft was released in November 2024 following indepth feedback received from the industry. The guidance is aimed at publishers and distributors to ensure that metadata that is displayed to end users accurately reflects the accessibility of digital content.

Key points to note (and display in your metadata) in this guidance include:

  • Ways of Reading – allowing for visual adjustments, support for nonvisual reading and prerecorded audio
  • Conformance data – what does the publication actually conform to
  • Navigational display statements
  • Rich content
  • Any hazards that may be included
  • Accessibility summary
  • Legal considerations
  • Additional information

This new version is extremely practical and easy to use and will include localizations for approximately 37 languages, examples of implementation and techniques for both ONIX and EPUB schema.org metadata.

George confirmed during the Q & A that feedback is still welcome and that this is a living document which must be kept up to date.

Gregorio Pellegrino

Gregorio reminded is that the EAA states that all digital publications must be discoverable via metadata. He outlined the supply chain for metadata processing that all publishers and distributors should be familiar with and why there are considerable benefits to using metadata standards in order to comply with the upcoming regulations.

Standards are robust and the result of joint work of many supply chain players from around the world.

By using the standards available publishers will be able to make use of the techniques documents that have been prepared to assist them. Gregorio took us through examples of these documents.

Matt Garrish

Matt introduced us all to an exciting piece of development which complements the guidance and technique documents. We were given a preview of a new accessibility metadata viewer tool which will “convert the accessibility metadata in an EPUB package document or ONIX record into display statements in accordance with the W3C Accessibility Metadata Display Guide for Digital Publications 2.0.”

Perspectives

Marian Oosting told us of her accessibility hopes for the future which include:

  • Finding out which standards will be used to check for accessibility in the region
  • Looking forward to the Dutch government providing some concrete regulations in the near future

Laura Brady anticipates the supply chain being revolutionized by accessibility metadata and hopes that the new guidance will have a significant impact. She hopes that the EAA will enable and drive this forward. Looking forward Laura commented that there is still plenty of room for plain language guidance and that the backlist is going to require significant attention from everyone with regards to metadata.

In Conclusion

To finish Richard asked George what success looks like in a year’s time. George hopes that all distributors and libraries will display accessibility metadata and that educators and course content designers will use metadata to select accessible course content for students.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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