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Page breaks in EPUBs

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From: Jackson, Derek
Date: Mar 15, 2018 2:04PM

Hello,


We have an issue with denoting page breaks in our EPUBs that have print sources. We currently provide a page-list-nav and also markup the location of the page break with a span tag (e.g. <span aria-label="page 3" class="pagebreak" epub:type="pagebreak" id="pg3" role="doc-pagebreak" title="page 3"/>). For the moment we are also required to insert text at the point of the page break, which frequently occurs in the middle of a paragraph. We have been including the text in the span tag ( a relic from EPUB2) and I hope to get rid of this now that the page-list nav is available. However, in the meantime we need to include the text to indicate a page break for visual users (<span aria-label="page 3" class="pagebreak" epub:type="pagebreak" id="pg3" role="doc-pagebreak" title="page 3">[Page 3]</span>) however, this is is a very strange experience for screen readers who will have the "Page 3" announced in the middle of a paragraph. It has been proposed that we insert the text using CSS, that a screen reader will not read, but it will display visually. I know that someone using a screen reader should have access to all the same information available to a user that can see the screen, but the experience is so jarring I wonder if a case can be made for an exception. I know ideally we should just remove the text that indicates the page break and make it a better experience all around, but excluding that possibility for the moment, what are people's opinions for exposing versus hiding this page-break text from being read by a screen reader, and providing access to page-breaks through the page-list nav?


Thank you!

Derek


Derek Jackson

Manager, Content Production



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