The document outlines various accessibility standards relevant to digital publishing, including those from W3C, EPub, and ARIA, aiming to enhance inclusivity for users with disabilities. It details the requirements and conformance guidelines that ensure digital books are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust across different platforms. Resources for implementation and further reading are also provided, emphasizing the importance of accessibility metadata in digital content.

1. Accessibility
Standards from the
Inside Out
Madeleine Rothberg
National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH
June 16, 2016

2. So many standards!
 Web standards from W3C: WCAG, HTML, ARIA
 W3C DPUB Note and ARIA DPUB roles
 EPUB for Education
 EPUB Accessibility: Conformance and Discovery
Requirements for EPUB Publications
 Schema.org and ONIX metadata
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3. What is a digital book?
Words, images,
widgets...
Arranged with
structure
Wrapped in a
book format
Sold or offered
from an online
catalog
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4. Standards guide accessibility in every layer 4
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Words etc. in
accessible HTML
with ARIA
Arranged with
structure using ARIA
DPUB roles
Wrapped in a book
format using EPUB
a11y standard
Offered in an online
catalog using
Schema.org and
ONIX metadata

5. Words etc. in
accessible HTML
with ARIA
Arranged with
structure using ARIA
DPUB roles
Wrapped in a book
format using ePUB
a11y standard
Offered in an online
catalog using
Schema.org and
ONIX metadata
Not quite so neat 5
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6. W3C Accessibility Standards
 HTML5
 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
—Start with “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG) Overview”
—Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust
—Success criteria
—Specific techniques and code samples
(HTML, CSS, PDF, ARIA, Flash, other technologies)
 User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
—Ebook readers are user agents
 Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
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7. ARIA and DPUB
 Accessible Rich Internet Applications 1.0 and soon 1.1
—adds accessibility semantics to a host language, i.e.
HTML or EPUB
—always use native HTML or EPUB when that has
semantics
—layer on ARIA, but not too much
 Digital Publishing Working Group (DPUB)
documents in progress
—Note offers overview and use cases
—ARIA module offers roles, states and
properties specific to the digital publishing industry
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8. EPUB Standards
 EPUB 3.1 in progress
—3.0 added accessibility support
—3.1 new accessibility features
Metadata, audio formats
 EPUB for Education (formerly EduPUB):
profile of EPUB with rich educational semantics
 EPUB Accessibility: Conformance and Discovery
Requirements for EPUB Publications
Editor's Draft 26 April 2016 – Please comment
—Requirements doc
—Techniques doc
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9. Accessibility Metadata
 ONIX
—extensive accessibility features list
—Code List 196
 Schema.org and a11ymetadata.org
—accessibility features, hazards, control, API
—work in progress:
access mode, access mode sufficient,
accessibility summary, braille details
 Work in progress: harmonize ONIX and Schema.org
accessibility metadata
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10. 10
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11. Accessibility Metadata in HTML 11
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12. Resources for HTML and ARIA
Web Accessibility Initiative:
https://www.w3.org/WAI/
WCAG Overview:
https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php
ARIA 1.1
W3C Working Draft 17 March 2016
https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/
Digital Publishing and Accessibility in W3C Documents:
W3C Interest Group Note 03 May 2016
https://www.w3.org/TR/dpub-accessibility/
Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0:
W3C Working Draft 17 March 2016
https://www.w3.org/TR/dpub-aria-1.0/
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13. Resources for EPUB
EPUB for Education :
Draft Specification 22 February 2016
http://www.idpf.org/epub/profiles/edu/spec/
EPUB Accessibility
Conformance and Discovery Requirements for EPUB
Publications:
Editor's Draft 26 April 2016
http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/accessibility.html
EPUB Accessibility Techniques:
Editor's Draft 26 April 2016
http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/techniques.html
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14. Resources for Accessibility Metadata
ONIX:
Download the specification and all code lists
http://www.editeur.org/93/Release-3.0-Downloads/#Specification
Accessibility Metadata:
Specification, examples, crosswalk, and more
http://www.a11ymetadata.org/
Schema.org Metadata Integration Guide for EPUB 3:
Advice on integrating schema.org metadata in the EPUB® package
document
By Matt Garrish, Michael Jay, and Madeleine Rothberg
http://www.idpf.org/epub/guides/schema-org-integration/
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15. Questions
Madeleine Rothberg
National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH
madeleine_rothberg@wgbh.org
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