Putting eAccessibility at the core of information systems

1. EPUB 3 – ebooks designed for all Putting eAccessibility at the core of information systems 26/03/2012, Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, Paris Markus Gylling, CTO, IDPF & DAISY Consortium mgylling@idpg.org

2. What is the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)? • Not for profit Trade and Standards organization with over 300 members from 35+ countries, working together to advance the Digital Publishing Ecosystem with open, interoperable standards • Members include publishers, vendors, libraries, national associations, government and industry organizations • Focus is EPUB digital publication format http://www.idpf.org

3. <Adoption Timeline> • 2011 • - EPUB 3.0 (October) • EBPAJ endorse 2009- Google: 1M PD EPUBs - Sony store to EPUB • 2012 • Readium EPUB 3 Reader • Sub-projects: • Fixed Layout • Indexes • Dictionaries • … 2010- Apple iBooks - 25+ eReaders - 25+ smartphone apps - Most Kindle sales from titles ingested as EPUB - EPUB 2.0.1 - EPUB 3 WG chartered 2008 - Assoc. Am. Pub. (AAP), UK Pub. Assoc. (PA) endorse 2007- EPUB standardized

4. http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920022442.do

5. <EPUB 3 in five bullets> • Open, industry-driven e-book format standard • Builds on W3C web standards (XML, HTML5, SVG, …) • Is nature agnostic: usable for books, magazines, corporate documents, ... • Includes rich layout, rich media and interactivity features • Has extensive accessibility support built-in…

6. Accessible EPUB 3 http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025283.do

7. <EPUB 3 accessibility> Structure and Semantics Web Techniques (HTML5/WCAG) Media Overlays Text-to-Speech Metadata ARIA Rich Navigation

8. <the complete chain> The complete chain must be accessible: • production: authoring, print-first or digital creation • ebook: format and features • distribution interface (retail, library, etc.) • reading system design and features • assistive technology (AT) itself

9. <structure and semantics> • The DNA of your document: describes the data • Enables intelligent behaviors in reading systems • Facilitates access to content and simplifies navigation • HTML5/EPUB 3 improves the base vocabulary • section, aside, article • audio, video, canvas, figure • MathML, SVG • EPUB 3 adds annotation mechanism for domain- specific semantic inflection: epub:type

10. <rich navigation> • EPUB 3 includes the required and dedicated Navigation Document, which offers the following declarative navigation features: • TOC navigation –navigate the main publication structure • Page navigation – navigate to positions corresponding to page boundaries in a print source (and the source publication can be identified using metadata) • Landmarks – navigate to fundamental recurring book components • Extensible for additional publication-specific navigation list types

11. <media overlays> • EPUB3 includes DAISY-style synchronization of text with pre-recorded audio • Bridges the gap between the audio book and the text-based ebook – lets the user decide on modalities http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSYNy9x1lHk

12. <text-to-speech (TTS)> • EPUB 3 adds ability for producers to include pronunciation and prosody instructions: • PLS • SSML • CSS 3 Speech • Lexicons can be reused

13. <interactivity and ARIA> • Scripted content poses new challenges for usability and accessibility • EPUB 3 includes rules for script integration: progressive enhancement • Accessibility/Usability features native to the HTML5 specification • W3C WAI/WCAG (http://www.w3.org/WAI/) • By adoption of HTML5, EPUB 3 also includes support for W3C ARIA markup (http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/) • Provides state and property information to AT dynamically

14. <accessibility metadata> • Facilitate discovery of accessible publications in delivery channels • New extension to ONIX to describe accessibility features of e-books • codelist 196 – vocabulary for description of accessibility of an e-publication • works with ONIX 2.1 and ONIX 3 • process in place for revision and extension • ONIX records can be referenced from EPUB 3 publications and embedded within them http://www.editeur.org/

15. <inclusive publishing> EPUB 3: a state-of-the art foundation for inclusive e-publishing • Design for Usability – target all users • Sound authoring practices and basic HTML5/WCAG Techniques will often be all you need for accessible output Use XHTML5 elements properly - structure and semantics Do not use bitmap images to convey information Use EPUB 3 semantic inflection where necessary Use basic Web HTML5/WCAG techniques • Scripted content needs extra attention Use with care, and utilize ARIA techniques • Add Media Overlays for a rich multimodal experience for everyone, get the accessibility benefits for free • For academic books in particular, include TTS features • Make use of accessibility metadata in retail channels

16. <moving forward (2012-2013)> • EPUB 3 Best Practices, continued • Accessible EPUB 3 content: • condensed online checklists • accessibility evaluation tool • Accessible EPUB 3 reading systems: implementation guidelines • Readium: open source reading system reference implementation • Inclusive authoring solutions • accessibility features in mainstream authoring tools • interactive widgets: reusable libraries

17. <links and further reading>