The document summarizes key findings from a 2016 survey conducted by the DAISY Consortium on the transition to EPUB 3. The top reasons delaying the migration to EPUB 3 according to the survey were the lack of accessible reading systems and lack of production tools. The survey also found that 38% of content produced was leisure reading and 36% was educational. It provides recommendations on accessible EPUB 3 readers and tools that support MathML for displaying mathematical expressions accessibly across different formats and platforms.

1. Steve Noble
- University of Louisville
Presenting on behalf of the
DAISY Consortium
1
IFLA/LPD Satellite Conference
August 2016

2. George Kerscher & Steve Noble (plus Nesbit)
hiking in Missoula, Montana

3.  An Open Electronic Publishing Standard from the
International Digital Publishing Forum (idpf.org)
 Based on existing open standards, such as HTML5,
MathML, SVG, CSS, etc.
 Widely adopted in the ebook publishing industry
 Transition to Inclusive EPUB 3 Ecosystem (TIES) is
now being promoted by the DAISY Consortium

4.  DAISYTIES 2016 Survey results shed light on
perception among libraries
 29 DAISY members responded, but only 4 from
“developing countries”
 12 members have begun some level of EPUB 3
production
 Only 6 have begun some level of EPUB 3
distribution

5. DAISYTIES 2016 Survey results indicated the “Top
Reasons” that are delaying migration to EPUB 3
1. Lack of accessible reading systems (17 ranked
this as “priority 1”)
2. Lack of production tools (7 ranked as “priority 1
or 2”
3. Lesser ranked issues: “users preferences” and
“cost of migration”

6.  EPUB 3 Support Grid: http://www.epubtest.org/
 A project of the Book Industry Study Group's (BISG)
Content Structure Committee in partnership with the
International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) and the
DAISY Consortium.

7. Highest-rated systems for accessibility:
1.VitalSource Bookshelf (Windows, iOS, Android,
Mac OS X)
2. Adobe Digital Editions (Windows)
3.Voice Dream Reader (iOS)
4.iBooks (iOS)
5.Gitden Reader (iOS)
6. Readium (Chrome in Windows)
7. Kobo app for iOS

8. A few things to note from the 2016 DAISYTIES survey:
 38% of content is “leisure reading”
 36% of content is “educational”
 [Based on per capita production]
 13 (out of 29) members high level of interest in adding
MathML
 12 members cited desire for extended description
 11 members cited desire for supporting tactile
diagrams

9. EPUB3 Readers that are Accessible + MathML support
 IDEAL Group Reader (Android) apps4android.org – highly
accessible, but not yet reviewed by BISG
 Dolphin Easy Reader (Windows) - no BISG review yet
 ReadHear PC Premium by gh (Windows) very accessible –
no BISG review
 VitalSource Bookshelf
 Adobe Digital Editions
 iBooks
 Readium
 See http://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/misc/epub.html

10. • Key is MathML
<math>
<mroot>
<mi>x</mi>
<mn>3</mn>
</mroot>
</math>
10
3
x

11. • HTML5
• DAISY 3
• NIMAS
• EPUB3
• PDF/UA
• DocBook
• Open Document Format (ODF)
• AQTI (Test Question Interoperability)
11

12. 12
 
 
    
2 2
2 1 4
x x
f x
x x x


  
Made possible via MathType and MathPlayer
Works in EPUB, Powerpoint, Word, Web, PDF
energy
2 2 6 12 6 26CO 6 H O C H O 6O  

13.  AppleVoiceOver
 Safari on Macs, IPads, Iphones (has Braille support)
 ChromeVox
 Chrome OS (CromeVox); Chrome browsers on all platforms
 JAWS 16 +
 IE and Firefox | Braille support in JAWS 17 |Pre-16 = MathPlayer
 Windows
 MathPlayer + NVDA (has braille support)
 MathPlayer +WindowEyes (no math braille); many other AT also
 Works in IE or Firefox onWeb; also math inWord, PowerPoint, …
13

14. http://msf.mathmlcloud.org/
14

15. • MathType :Word, iWork, …
• Wiris: Web-based MathML editor
• MathFlow: ArborText, XMetaL, XMAX
• Open Office
• Scientific Notebook
• TeX→MathML:TtM,TeX4ht,LaTeXML, MathJax
• Mathematica, Maple, MathCAD
• Central AccessToolbar
• MathML Cloud :Web-based or API/source code for
building into automated processing
15

16. • The problem: cross-browser, cross-platform support for
native MathML in web pages
• The solution: a JavaScript display engine with accessibility
support called MathJax
• Limitations: (1) JavaScript must be enabled…not an option for
DAISY books, but fine for EPUB; (2) requires either a live
internet connection, or a local installation of MathJax library
• Website link: https://www.mathjax.org/
• MathJax 2.6 Accessibility:
http://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/misc/accessibility-
features.html
• MathJax Accessibility extensions:
https://github.com/mathjax/MathJax-a11y/wiki/MathJax-
Accessibility-Extensions-Documentation

17. • Math expressions inWord documents can easily be read
and navigated with the right AT, even without exporting.
• How??  MicrosoftWord stores math in MathML.
• Method 1: Use MathType + MathPlayer + NVDA or
WindowEyes
• Method 2: Use Central Access Reader (self-voicing; works
inWindows or Mac)

18. • Good News:Yes! Math images can be inserted on the page
and MathML code embedded in a <formula> tag [This is
part of the PDF/UA standard]
• Not so good news: NVDA onWindows (with MathPlayer
installed) is the only AT that can currently read this.
• Bad news: At this time, none of the PDF
authoring/conversion tools automate this process. For
each expression, the MathML code must be created in
another application and copied/pasted into a <formula>
tag.

19.  Tools from inftyreader.org
 InftyReader
– Math OCR software (standalone or as an ABBYY plug-in)
– Data conversion (LaTeX, MathML, Word XML)
 InftyEditor
– Free editor of math documents including math handwriting
recognition
 ChattyInfty
– InftyEditor + speech output
– Authoring and editing tool of math documents for visually
impaired users

20. 20
Steve.Noble@Louisville.edu