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Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: Karen Mardahl
Date: Tue, Nov 22 2011 1:48PM
Subject: EPUB 3 and accessibility for ebooks
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Yesterday, as @stcaccess, I tweeted an article from O'Reilly Radar
called "Why we needed EPUB 3: New reading devices, multimedia
storytelling and accessibility needs made EPUB 3 a necessity."

The article is at
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/11/epub3-multimedia-devices-accessibility.html

I received a few comments on Twitter where 140 characters simply
wasn't enough, so I came here.

1. Does anyone know whether EPUB 3 will be *the* format for publishing
accessible ebooks? My impression from a forgotten article is yes -
that this format will render DAISY obsolete. (Or will it?)

2. How well *is* EPUB 3 doing on accessibility? I get the impression
exciting things will happen with math markup.

3. What exactly is the relationship between EPUB 3 and HTML5: is EPUB
3 waiting on HTML5 for anythig or is it just going ahead with what's
available now?

Of course, even if EPUB 3 is perfect, a manufacturer can implement it
poorly or close down some part. (Here I'm thinking about Amazon
turning off the text-to-speech service on one of the Kindles to please
some publishers.)

I don't have an ebook reader. (I can't afford another gadget, and I
have enough paper books and audio books demanding my attention!) I am
also put off by the number of devices available. They give me a
Betamax versus VHS feeling. "What if I buy the version that is a
dinosaur in 1 year?" I have a naive hope that at some point the
manufacturers could agree on a standard, at least.

I'm curious to hear what other people think and know on this subject.

regards, Karen Mardahl

From: Andrews, David B (DEED)
Date: Tue, Nov 22 2011 2:00PM
Subject: Re: EPUB 3 and accessibility for ebooks
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As I understand it, -- and I could be wrong, or at least slightly off, the DAISY standard and the ePub standard have been on a path to come together at some point in the future. As I understand it, there are now many similarities, and as I understand it, the plan is to have the ePub standard become the standard used by everybody to produce text-based e-books, and the current Z39-86 DAISY3 standard will primarily be used for audio-based e-books. Now quite sure how true multi-media books will be handled, but there is probably stuff in both versions that would allow it.

Dave

From: Kevin Chao
Date: Wed, Nov 23 2011 2:21AM
Subject: Re: EPUB 3 and accessibility for ebooks
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HI Karen,

Please see answers inline.

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 22, 2011, at 2:50 PM, Karen Mardahl < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

1. Does anyone know whether EPUB 3 will be *the* format for publishing
accessible ebooks? My impression from a forgotten article is yes -
that this format will render DAISY obsolete. (Or will it?)

EPUB3 will be the standard by which most eBooks/textbooks, whether these be commercial or specialized/accessible will be published. A goal of the IDPF has always been to not have two different formats, EPUB and DAISY, but to have a unified universal design/acccessible format, which EPUB3 is the first step in that direction. EPUB3 will take all the features, especially the accessibility ones, and build it right into EPUB3.

2. How well *is* EPUB 3 doing on accessibility? I get the impression
exciting things will happen with math markup.

EPUB3 spec was finalized around the middle of October. THE specification/standard does have a lot of accessibility. For the past few months, I've been testing a variety of EPUB3 eBooks, reading systems, and screen readers. Unfortunately, even though the EPUB3 specification/standard has accessibility, which is very good, it's all about it being implemented properly. This requires work from the reading system vendors, publishers, assistive technology vendors, etc. For example, EPUB Reader extension for Firefox, NVDA screen reader, and Pearson publishing would all have to work together to make an accessible EPUB eBook. In other words, it's very early on, it's not good at all, and the community needs to come together to build best practices, guidelines, tips, etc.

3. What exactly is the relationship between EPUB 3 and HTML5: is EPUB
3 waiting on HTML5 for anythig or is it just going ahead with what's
available now?

EPUB3 carries over all the HTML5 features, such as MathML and SVG. Math is one that you raised in point 2, but again this goes back to proper implimentation, guidelines, best practices, and the need for the various parts to work together properly to form a unified universal design/access experience.

Of course, even if EPUB 3 is perfect, a manufacturer can implement it
poorly or close down some part. (Here I'm thinking about Amazon
turning off the text-to-speech service on one of the Kindles to please
some publishers.)

Amazon Kindle does *NOT* use EPUB3/2, but it's own Mobi format, which is a wrapper around EPUB, which is very limited, not allowing for any multimedia or interaction, which are two key parts in EPUB3. Unfortunately, these two parts in EPUB3 and accessibility are very challenging and there have been huge struggles in making them accessible.

I don't have an ebook reader. (I can't afford another gadget, and I
have enough paper books and audio books demanding my attention!) I am
also put off by the number of devices available. They give me a
Betamax versus VHS feeling. "What if I buy the version that is a
dinosaur in 1 year?" I have a naive hope that at some point the
manufacturers could agree on a standard, at least.

I would recommend iPad 2, which has over 100,000 apps, such as: iBooks, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc. eReader/book apps and a variety of other apps.

I'm curious to hear what other people think and know on this subject.

regards, Karen Mardahl

From: John E Brandt
Date: Wed, Nov 23 2011 2:54PM
Subject: Re: EPUB 3 and accessibility for ebooks
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Thank you, Kevin for your response and thank you Karen for your question.

Just to contribute a little more to the conversation...I am sharing these
observations. But let me be clear, I am far from being an expert. I have
been working on the conundrum of accessible instructional materials (AIM)
for several years now and I've done a fair amount of reading on publishing
and digital text.

- There are many types and standards of digital text or as Wikipedia calls
them, e-book formats. Some are old, many are new. There is a good
explanation of the many types here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats

- Reading an e-book or digital text does not require a handheld device. You
can read most, if not all e-book formats on any computer if you have the
right software or plugin for your browser. There are several free e-reader
software programs that will read multiple types.

- When Apple, Inc. and Barnes & Noble chose EPUB as a standard for the
iPad/iPod/iPhone and Nook it was a big boost to that format. Given their
clout in the marketplace, many book publishers chose that format. But there
are conversion software packages that will make the conversions for you
relatively easily meaning you can read just about any book with the e-reader
built into iOS. Just about every handheld e-book device will read EPUB.

- For obvious reason, Amazon wants their Kindle device to lead the pack.
They chose to develop their own proprietary Kindle format. I am assuming
they have some kind of licensing arrangement with Apple since iOS will read
Kindle books. But the early Kindles cannot read EPUB, or many other formats
(apparently their new Kindle Fire does).

- The DAISY standard/format was developed specifically with accessibility in
mind and pre-dates the handheld technology boom. It is interesting that it
is excluded from the comparison table of e-book formats on Wikipedia. But
there are lots of DAISY readers out there including an increasing number
that will work on handheld devices. Many of these specialized e-readers do
more than simply portray the content visually. Many provide enhanced reading
tools for individuals with print disabilities. Any many of these DAISY
readers will read other e-book formats. See list of DAISY players:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAISY_Digital_Talking_Book

- Unfortunately, the market forces are pushed by the majority. Hopefully,
some of the developers will recognize - like Apple, Inc. does - the value of
universal design and will build accessibility into both the hardware and
software.

So, to get back to Karen's original questions, I think there is a lot of
cross compatibility out there now so the format is not all that important to
the mass public. If you are concerned about accessibility for people with
disabilities, it is more a matter of how the digital text format works with
various AT. As Kevin suggests, Apple's iOS does have a leg up on the
hardware side since they built accessibility/universal design into the core
of operating system.

If you are looking for a handheld device that is less expensive that the
iPad, you may want to consider the iPod Touch which has all of the iOS
features and e-reader built in. On sale for $199. Such a deal!

~j

John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

From: Karen Mardahl
Date: Wed, Nov 23 2011 3:18PM
Subject: Re: EPUB 3 and accessibility for ebooks
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This is just to say thanks so much to David, Kevin, and John for your
answers. I find this very helpful, and I hope the mere presence of this
thread in the archives will benefit others.

I forgot about my mobile device. I can read epub on my iPhone (4S). I don't
really like to. I am between prescriptions on my glasses, so reading long
texts is just not comfortable. I prefer saving such jobs for when I am in
front of a computer with a large screen. Comfortable reading on the iPhone
means holding it in front of my nose and reading without glasses. Tweets
are fine, but not a book that requires concentration. I've actually thought
that this might tip me over to learning VoiceOver for myself simply to
avoid that visual bother.

Regards, Karen Mardahl

From: Christophe Strobbe
Date: Fri, Nov 25 2011 5:12AM
Subject: Re: EPUB 3 and accessibility for ebooks
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Hi,

At 21:50 22-11-2011, Karen Mardahl wrote:
>Yesterday, as @stcaccess, I tweeted an article from O'Reilly Radar
>called "Why we needed EPUB 3: New reading devices, multimedia
>storytelling and accessibility needs made EPUB 3 a necessity."
>
>The article is at
>http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/11/epub3-multimedia-devices-accessibility.html

There is another interesting article about DAISY and EPUB
developments in the DAISYpedia:
<http://www.daisy.org/daisypedia/presentation-daisy-developments-update-october-2011>;.

This article points out (among other things) that the DAISY-EPUB
relationship is not new, and that Markus Gylling, DAISY Consortium
CTO, who is leading the development of DAISY 4 and EPUB 3, is also
CTO of the IDPF.

Best regards,

Christophe



>I received a few comments on Twitter where 140 characters simply
>wasn't enough, so I came here.
>
>1. Does anyone know whether EPUB 3 will be *the* format for publishing
>accessible ebooks? My impression from a forgotten article is yes -
>that this format will render DAISY obsolete. (Or will it?)
>
>2. How well *is* EPUB 3 doing on accessibility? I get the impression
>exciting things will happen with math markup.
>
>3. What exactly is the relationship between EPUB 3 and HTML5: is EPUB
>3 waiting on HTML5 for anythig or is it just going ahead with what's
>available now? (...)




--
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven - Dept. of Electrical Engineering - SCD
Research Group on Document Architectures
Kasteelpark Arenberg 10 bus 2442
B-3001 Leuven-Heverlee
BELGIUM
tel: +32 16 32 85 51
http://www.docarch.be/
Twitter: @RabelaisA11y
---
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www.aegis-project.eu
---
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