This presentation was provided by Charles LaPierre of Benetech during the NISO Virtual Conference, Convergence: The Web and Publishing Onto the Web, held on May 17, 2017.

1. Impact on the User: Accessibility - Digital
Publishing and the Web
Charles LaPierre, Technical Lead, DIAGRAM and
Born Accessible

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Standards at the Core of
Accessibility
● World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
– HTML5, CSS, SVG, MathML
● Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
– Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)
– Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA 1.0)
● International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)
– http://www.idpf.org/
– EPUB the digital publishing standard built on Web
technologies (i.e. HTML5, CSS, ARIA, etc…)

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● The merger between the W3C and the IDPF has placed
EPUB under the domain of W3C
● A new W3C Digital Publishing Working Group is
currently being formed along with a Publishing
Business Group, and a Community Group who will
maintain the existing EPUB 3.1 specification
IDPF and W3C Merger

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● W3C Interest Group Note Published 03 May 2016:
Identifies the gaps between Digital Publishing issues
and W3C Standards
● https://www.w3.org/TR/dpub-accessibility/
– Navigating Within Multiple Documents or Packaged Documents
– Discoverability
– Optimized Publications
– Skippability / Escapability
– Page Markers / Pagination
– Correct Pronunciations
– Deeply nested Headings
– Semantic List Heads and Semantic Markup
Digital Publishing and Accessibility
in W3C Documents

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● The Digital Publishing Interest Group in the W3C has produced
an ARIA 1.1 module to help add some Digital Publishing
semantics to ARIA
● Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0
● https://www.w3.org/TR/dpub-aria-1.0/
● This is currently under review and has not yet been adopted as a
recommendation
● Sample of the proposed new Roles:
– doc-abstract
– doc-appendix
– doc-chapter
– doc-introduction
W3C DPUB’s ARIA 1.1 Module

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● EPUB is fundamentally web pages bundled together in this “EPUB”
container, and any accessibility improvements for the web will
ultimately end up in EPUB.
● EPUB 3.1 is an approved recommendation
– http://www.idpf.org/epub/31/spec/epub-spec.html
● Included is EPUB Accessibility 1.0
Conformance and Discovery Requirements for EPUB Publications
– http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/accessibility.html
● Important: First ever specification to enable accessibility
certification!
● We want to be practical in that publishers should readily be able to
produce accessible EPUB from their normal production process
EPUB within the World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C)

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● Requires accessibility conformance in the EPUB
publication
● Builds on WCAG 2.0 with some additional publishing-
specific items
● “conforms To” metadata pointing to WCAG “A,”
“AA,” or “AAA” Accessibility metadata must be
included
Interestingly: publishers have actively participated in the
EPUB Accessibility Spec development and have been
updating their production process to support accessibility
Baseline Accessibility Features

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● All headings must be marked in the HTML as headings
(Critical for navigation)
● All textual content must use HTML text markup, e.g.,
paragraphs, block quotes, list items
● All content must be in a logical reading order
● Images are marked as decorative, described in
surrounding text or captions, or have “alt” text
Concrete Examples of Some MUSTS

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Discoverability:
Metadata Requirements to Be Compliant
● EPUBs wishing to be conformant MUST:
– include accessibility discovery metadata
– include the following [schema.org] accessibility
metadata
• accessMode
• accessibilityFeature
• accessibilityHazard
• accessibilitySummary

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Accessible Reading Systems
● There are three sides to having an accessible reading experience
– 1. FullyAccessible Book
– 2. Assistive Technology such as a Screen Reader / Text to Speech, or
Braille Display that can access the accessible text from the book
– 3. FullyAccessible Reading System that exposes all the accessibility
Features of the Book to the Assistive Technology
● The BISG, IDPF, and DAISY have created EPUBTest.org where
they test the accessibility fundamentals with a 100% accessible
Test book with all reading systems and publish the results.
● Currently Vital Source’s BookShelf Reader has scored 100% on
all platforms for the fundamental book.
● These tests continue to evolve as the standards change, and also
test more advance features which some reading systems
are starting to include as well.

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● Certify that digital books (and all other publications)
meet the Baseline
● DAISY is building the EPUB Accessibility
Conformance Checker
• Can only test 20-30%
● Additional checking must be supplemented by human
inspection
Certification of EPUB Publications

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Legal Requirements
● WCAG-AA is the accepted level of accessibility for websites
● Section 508 - Requires all Federal agencies make their websites
and information technology accessible to people with disabilities
● Section 508 Refresh now aligns with WCAG-AA which
includes electronic documents. This will go into effect in
January 2018
● Procurement offices are starting to require WCAG-AA
compliance with third party audits

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Legal: Texas Education Agency
Proclamation 2017
● Instructional materials delivered electronically must conform to
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, LevelAA,
and must meet the technical standards of the Federal
RehabilitationAct, Section 508
● Electronic instructional materials that are not compliant with
technical standards of the Federal RehabilitationAct, Section
508 and/or do not conform to the Web ContentAccessibility
Guidelines 2.0, LevelAA, will be removed from the EMAT
system and will not be available to districts through TEA
● A report produced by an independent, reputable third party for
each electronic component that verifies that the components
follow Web ContentAccessibility (WCAG) 2.0 AA

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Legal Requirement: University of Phoenix
● We require our partners make any content or technology
currently utilized by the University of Phoenix accessible and in
compliance with the W3C WCAG 2.0 Level AA specification
by September 1, 2017.

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● Accessibility metadata required to be present in the
EPUB package
● Accessibility metadata supports
• Born accessible
• Find accessible
• Buy Accessible
Accelerating Publisher Adoption:
Conformance and Certification of EPUB Publications

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Born Accessible: Certified by Benetech
● Benetech is piloting the certification process
● A documented process for certification must be
established and followed
● Publisher materials are reviewed and then
remediated by the publisher
● Long term process improvements are
recommended to publishers

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Find Accessible: Certification Metadata
● How to find certified content in the future:
– certifiedBy: Specifies the name of the party that certified the
content. The certifier of the content could be the same party
that created the EPUB publication, but can also be a third-
party accessibility certifier.
– certifierCredential: Identifies a credential or badge that
establishes the authority of the party identified in the
certifiedBy property to certify content is accessible.
– certifierReport: Provides a link to an accessibility report
created by the party identified in the certifiedBy property.
– conformsTo: the Baseline and WCAG-A, -AA, or -AAA

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Buy Accessible: Certified Accessible Content
● Procurement MUST focus on “Buy Accessible”
● “Buy Accessible” - Demand Certified Accessible
EPUB3 by third party credentialed agencies
● All content must be certified. Point them to “Certified
by Benetech” initiative - http://bornaccessible.org

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Benetech Pilot – EPUB Accessibility Certification
● Evaluated over 30 titles from a half dozen publishers,
and a conversion vendor.
● Providing in-depth evaluations of multiple EPUB
books from each
● Accessibility scoring and WCAG compliance testing
● Resulting in each title receiving a detailed accessibility
report outlining the accessibility shortcomings as well
as highlighting exemplary accessibility practices

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Sample Pilot: Summary
Title: Road Runner - Not a Myth
Publisher: Acme Inc.
Author(s): Wiley Coyote Sr.
Package Metadata (Required): FAIL
Page and Publication: FAIL
Page Navigation: PASS
Media Overlays Playback: FAIL
Overall 1.0 Compliant: FAIL
Born Accessible Score: 25.5%
Overall WCAG Compliance Reached: FAIL
EPUB Complexity Score:5 - Very Complex

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Sample Pilot: Born Accessible Scores
Image Accessibility: 39% WCAG FAIL
AudioAccessibility: 22% WCAG FAIL
VideoAccessibility: 0% WCAG FAIL
HTML Tags: 29% WCAG FAIL
General Accessibility: 29% WCAG FAIL
Language: 50% WCAG Level-A
Structured Navigation: 17% WCAG FAIL
Links: 50% WCAG Level-A
Lists: 50% WCAG FAIL
Tables: 0% WCAG FAIL
Notes: 67% WCAG Level-A
Java Script: 0% WCAG FAIL
MathML: 0%
Package Metadata (Optional):50%
DPUBARIA (Future): N/A
Born Accessible Total Score 25.5%

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Future of Digital Publishing
● W3C’s new Digital Publishing Working Group once chartered
will continue the work that the Interest Group started.
● (Portable) Web Publications (P)WP will be the evolution of
EPUB on the web for digital publications that can be viewed
online or can be bundled and taken and read when the user is no
longer connected to the internet.

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EPUB Accessibility1.0 (Specification)
EPUB AccessibilityTechniques 1.0 (Supplemental)
WCAG 2.0 (Specification)
WAI-ARIA 1.0 (Specification)
DIAGRAM Center: Image Description Guidelines
Poet Image DescriptionTraining Module
Helpful Resources for Publishers

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THANK YOU
Learn more about Benetech’s Certification and
Born Accessible Initiatives by visiting us at:
http://bornaccessible.org/
Questions?
Charles LaPierre
E-mail: charlesl@benetech.org
Twitter: @CLaPierreA11Y
Skype: charles_lapierre