In our series of free weekly webinars November 3rd saw a session focused on the validation and conformance of EPUB content. When using the EPUB format a few simple steps can help highlight any issues and guide you on the path to creating more usable and accessible content.
This page contains:
Full Video of the Webinar
Speakers
- Richard Orme, DAISY Consortium—host and chair
- George Kerscher, DAISY Consortium
- James Yanchak, Taylor and Francis
- Charles La Pierre, Benetech
Session Overview
Richard Orme introduced this session explaining that it’s not enough to create content in any format and simply hope it works on reading systems and that it can deliver accessibility. The three experts presenting this webinar looked at validating EPUB from their perspective angles.What Is An Accessible EPUB?
Many publishers have switched to EPUB as their format of choice for their digital content workflow but, despite it being the format which offers the greatest opportunity for accessibility, some have missed the mark. By failing to include a table of contents, for example, or by not having a clear reading order, EPUB content was often disappointingly lacking in accessibility support. For an EPUB file to be accessible, the publisher must make the most of the features that the format offers. An understanding of this together with knowledge of the legal requirements in your market are a good place to start an accessibility journey. Add to this an alignment with publishing and web standards and some technical research to provide a base of knowledge and publishers should be in a position to make the most of their EPUB workflow.3rd Party Certification
Having a 3rd party certify your accessible content helps the publisher to navigate the standards and specifications and Charles La Pierre talked us through the Benetech Scheme, Global Certified Accessible (GCA), outlining the process required for a publisher to be certified. A score is attached and for content to be certified as Born Accessible, 80% is needed.Developing Internal Standards
Internal standards help the publisher to narrow the technical landscape and make it relevant to their specific workflow. James Yanchak described how this is achieved at Taylor and Francis and explained how this has helped them to reach their accessibility goals. Any internal standard must adhere to the industry standard and it’s vital that training is offered to both in-house colleagues and external vendors.Validating the EPUB
There are a number of tools which our panel recommended:- EPUBCheck – should be one of the first checks and if this is integrated into the workflow using the command line version then it becomes very straightforward.
- Ace by DAISY – checks conformance of the EPUB to WCAG and offers a command-line version and a desktop version for one-off title checks
- Ace SMART – to be used in conjunction with Ace and helps the user perform the manual checks that Ace identifies.
- The DAISY Knowledge Base has been developed to help resolve accessibility issues and is constantly maintained.
Related Resources
Standards
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
- Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1
- EPUB Accessibility 1.0 – Conformance and Discovery
- Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0
- EPUB 3.3
- HTML
- Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2
- Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0 2nd Edition
Accessibility Criteria
Tools and Resources
- EPUBCheck (Currently 4.2.6)
- DAISY Accessible Checker for EPUB (Ace)
- DAISY SMART Tool
- DAISY Knowledge Base
- GCA™ Website
- GCA™ Certified Publishers
In our series of free weekly webinars October 20th saw a session focused on accessible math and some of the complexities surrounding the creation and reading of math for students.
This page contains:
Full Video of the Webinar
Speakers
- Stacy Scott, RNIB, host and chair
- Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium
- Joseph Polizzotto, Wake Technical Community College
- Neil Soiffer, Talking Cat Software
- Homiyar Mobedji, Benetech
Session Overview
Stacy Scott introduced this week’s session explaining that the presentation would remove some of the complexities surrounding the creation of accessible math by talking us through the workflow required and showing us via demos and examples that accessible math is achievable and relatively straightforward. Support for accessible math has improved greatly over recent years and it’s exciting to be able to show our audience some of the new methods, tools and solutions in this area.
Page Image
Neil Soiffer gave us a quick run through of the various math formats that are in existence and Joseph Polizzotto then explained where to start if the math in question isn’t available in one of these specific math formats and is appearing as an inaccessible image. OCR can help in this situation and there are various options here depending on your role and the scale of work involved eg. EquatIO, MathPix and Infty Reader. OCR can either be used on the fly for individual math expressions or it can be used to convert an entire document and Joseph talked us through the pros and cons of each tool in these scenarios, ending with an example of EquatIO in action.
Editing Math Equations in Word
Richard Orme discussed the next stage in a math workflow now that the math expression is in a word document but may require some editing. Currently there are 2 options here: the Microsoft Equation Editor, a built-in method with various options available for editing math expressions, and MathType, a powerful equation editor with lots of different integrations (and relatively affordable).
From Word to the Web
There are three routes to publishing your word document on the web:
- Word-Save as web page
- MathType-Publish as math page
- WordToEPUB-creates an HTML version
Reading Math on the Web and with a Screen Reader
Joseph explained that in an educational environment, the Learning Management System provides a way to share contents with students. All institutions are different but it has become recommended best practice to use MathJax to render math in all types of browsers and LMS. MathJax provides consistent display and ensures that the math remains accessible. Joseph’s top tips are worth noting alongside the demo of math being rendered in the LMS, Blackboard. Neil talked the audience through the finer details of how to read math using a screen reader showing us examples and demos that highlighted some of the options and choices that the reader has available to them.
Related Resources
- PowerPoint slide deck (154 MB)
- Full transcript Word document (30 KB)
- Samples used in the demos (194 KB zip)
Tools mentioned in the webinar:
- Access8Math NVDA Addon
- EquatIO
- GrindEQ Math Utilities
- Infty Reader
- Mathjax
- MathPix Snip
- MathPlayer support
- Mathtype for Office Tools
- Mathtype
- TeX4ht
- WordToEPUB
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In our series of free weekly webinars October 6th saw a session focused on EPUB Accessibility. Our speakers showed everyone what happens under the hood of an EPUB file to support accessibility and managed to demystify some of the technicalities surrounding EPUB.
This page contains:
Full Video of the Webinar
Speakers
- Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
- Rachel Comerford, Macmillan Learning
- Tzviya Siegman, J. Wiley and Sons
Session Overview
What is EPUB? The Basics
Rachel Comerford took us through some of the “acronym soup” that makes up an EPUB file, namely:
- Mimetype – which tells the reading system being used that this is an EPUB file
- META-INF – which points to the file and allows the reading system to find it
- OEPS-OPS – containing the content and everything needed to display that content (including the CSS which describes how the book should look)
What is EPUB? Focus on HTML
The text of an EPUB publication is written in HyperText Mark-Up Language (HTML) and Tzviya Siegman explained to us the importance for accessibility of the native semantic elements that can be conveyed within the HTML. Every element in the HTML mark-up contains a meaning and greatly assists with content navigation and order of reading layout.
What is EPUB? Focus on DPUB-ARIA and epub:type
Sometimes content is more complex than the available HTML elements can cope with and Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) provide another way of applying semantic meaning to content i.e. it describes a content component to the reader. DPUB-ARIA specifically maps to the epub:type vocabulary for EPUB content.
Navigating EPUBS
Rachel explained that all EPUB packages contain a navigation document (within the OPF file) from which the Table of Contents (TOC) is generated. The TOC is crucial for accessibility and together with headings, it generally echoes the familiar structure of printed content.
Links are also valuable for accessibility and it’s important to choose a reading system that exposes internal and external links to the reader.
The Value of EPUB Metadata
Also found in the OPF file, EPUB metadata provides information about the accessibility features and potential limitations of the content. Rachel urged us all to make as much use of metadata features as possible, not least via The Accessibility Summary section where the publisher can provide specific information for readers in a non-technical way. See the slide deck attached to this overview for a terrific example of this type of summary provided by Macmillan Learning.
Related Resources
- PowerPoint slide deck (1.2 MB)
- Full transcript Word document (38 KB)
- DAISY Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base
- EPUB Accessibility Using InDesign LinkedIn Course
- EPUB 3.3 specification
- EPUB Accessibility 1.1 specification
- BISG Guide to Accessibility
- Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.1
- WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.1
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On Thursday October 14th we will be hosting a free information sharing day via Zoom, bringing you updates on a broad range of projects and activities from DAISY and our member organizations. We’ve divided the session into 3 parts to enable easy access to the topics you find of most interest.
You only need to register once for free to attend any part of the webinar.
Part A: Update on DAISY Projects
Starting at 1200 Universal Time (500 PDT, 800 EDT, 1300 BST, 1400 CEST)
Welcome
Maarten Verboom, President of the DAISY Consortium
DAISY Projects highlights
Update on various projects driven by the DAISY Consortium.
Avneesh Singh, DAISY Consortium
DAISY Pipeline case study
How NLB is leveraging the DAISY Pipeline for production of accessible content.
Jostein Austvik Jacobsen, NLB
DAISY reading experience in your Browser!
What if your favorite DAISY full text full audio or EPUB Media Overlays titles start working on your favorite browser? This will be a game changer not only for making reading more convenient but will also empower the reach of accessible reading to parts of the world which cannot invest in reading solutions due to resource constraints. This presentation will provide a glimpse of the research being done in this direction.
Marisa DeMeglio, DAISY Consortium
Responding to COVID with DAISY Online Training
Dipendra Manocha, DAISY Consortium
Preparing for the revolution in born accessible publishing in Europe
Reporting on the first year of the DAISY European Inclusive Publishing initiative.
Thomas Kahlisch, dzb
Improving access to music braille
Update on the achievements of the DAISY Braille Music project in 2021, and next steps.
Sarah Morley Wilkins, Project Manager, DAISY Consortium
Part B: Updates from DAISY Members
Starting at 1300 Universal Time (600 PDT, 900 EDT, 1400 BST, 1500 CEST)
DAISY in Egypt
This cooperation initiative raises awareness of the challenges encountered by persons with print disabilities in the COVID-19 Pandemic situation, promotes the provision of accessible publications such as DAISY as well as encourage the acceleration of Egyptian Ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty.
Hiroshi Kawamura, ATDO, Japan
Digital braille innovations
Two major braille libraries share will experiences and plans as they expand digital braille reading options for their users.
John Brown, NLS, USA, Dave Williams and Paul Porter, RNIB, UK
Voice Assistants and DAISY Online
Connecting Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant to DAISY Online.
Daniel Ainasoja, Pratsam, Finland
Sign language video in digital publications
How Kenyan education content organization eKitabu is creating early grade reading materials for deaf readers.
Georgine Auma, Digital Literacy Trust, Kenya
Leveraging Machine Learning with Page AI
Bookshare’s latest developments in advanced artificial intelligence for better book conversion.
Brad Turner, Benetech, USA
Part C: Accessible Mainstream Publishing
Starting at 1400 Universal Time (700 PDT, 1000 EDT, 1500 BST, 1600 CEST)
The born accessible movement has been gaining momentum in different parts of the world. We will share information how the DAISY Consortium, members and partners are accelerating the global movement towards publish, discover, buy and borrow accessible publications.
We will highlight the new standards and guidelines raising the bar for accessibility that are aligned with the EU Accessibility Directive, facilitating search and discovery, and will also provide a glimpse of the near future plans. And we will share how a DAISY led initiative helps developers improve their eBook reading systems for people with print disabilities, and guides consumers and institutional purchasers to select the solutions that meet their accessibility requirements.
Avneesh Singh, George Kerscher, Richard Orme, DAISY Consortium; Charles LaPierre, Benetech, USA; Erin Kirchner-Lucas, RedShelf, USA; Gregorio Pellegrino, Fondazione LIA; Stacy Ray, VitalSource, USA
Register now to attend any part of this webinar.
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The Publishing Community Group at W3C has announced the release of the report, A User Experience Guide for Accessibility Metadata this week and we welcome this additional resource for the publishing industry. Written and designed to be used by all areas of the publishing workflow at any technical level, this guide neatly explains the absolute need for accessibility metadata and why it is so important for readers who may have accessibility requirements. Gregorio Pellegrino (The LIA Foundation) , co-editor of the guide makes the point:
On one hand more and more digital publications are published natively accessible, on the other hand more and more local legislations require to inform the user about the accessibility features of publishing products (before buying or borrowing an ebook). For this reason it becomes more and more strategic to show the accessibility metadata: the risk is that each platform displays the information in a different way. These documents are meant to be a starting point to offer the end user the information in a user-friendly and consistent way across different vendors.
Carefully differentiating between the metadata that you might find within an EPUB package and the metadata that accompanies the book, the ONIX, the guide gives clear examples and technical instructions for both, helping the metadata provider standardize their approach.
Metadata found either inside a digital publication or in the corresponding external record may have important accessibility information that will help end users find and determine if this publication can meet their specific accessibility needs.
The report has 2 parts: Principles and Techniques which will be of enormous help to distributors and libraries alike as they endeavour to make accessible content discoverable as well as readers themselves as they search for content that suits their requirements. We are excited to see how accessibility metadata within the industry improves as these guidelines are adopted.
Charles La Pierre (Benetech), co-editor of this report comments:
Over four years ago the EPUB Accessibility 1.0 Conformance and Discovery Requirements for EPUB Publications specification was created, and now we close the loop on the ability to “discover” these conformant EPUBs. The release of this guide marks an important milestone in the discovery of certified accessible books, and I am thrilled be a part of this effort to aid libraries and bookstores on how to display this very technical information in a user-friendly way.
Staff at The DAISY Consortium were integral to the development of these guidelines with Avneesh Singh, DAISY COO, leading the accessibility task force. Congratulations to everyone involved in the development of the guidelines!
Links
The following links will take you to the report and other resources which we recommend:
- User Experience Guide for Accessibility Metadata
- DAISY Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base Metadata pages
- EPUB Accessibility 1.0
- Accessibility Metadata Project
- ONIX for Books
- Metadata in Publishing: The Hidden Information Essential for Accessibility (DAISY webinar)
- Inclusive Publishing Metadata Overview
- The Magic of Metadata (DAISY blog post)
In our series of free weekly webinars September 22nd saw a session focused on user experience and how people with print disabilities read and the common challenges people encounter.
This page contains:
Full Video of the Webinar
Speakers
- Richard Orme, The DAISY Consortium—host and chair
- Joseph Polizzotto, Wake Technical Community College
- Robin Spinks, RNIB
- Amy Salmon, Accessibility Expert
Session Overview
Richard Orme introduced the session and explained that today we would be concentrating on 3 types of print disability: learning difficulties, low vision and blindness.
Reading with Learning Disabilities
Joseph Polizzotto is an accessibility technologist with many years of experience assisting learners and staff in education. This has given him a unique insight into what it is like to read with a print disability, with the following comments typical of students with learning disabilities:
- “I spend over 6 hours to read one chapter.”
- “I don’t remember anything that I have read.”
- “I totally missed the word *not* and inferred the opposite meaning of the author.”
- “I have to work much harder than others.”
- “I know a lot more than I can demonstrate.”
A learning disability is a neuro-developmental condition that interferes with learning basic skills such as reading, writing or math and it is key for students to be able to develop reading strategies to cope with the challenges of learning.
Reading strategies are at the core of coping
Strategies such as question asking (SQ3R method), note taking, colour coding and creating patterns within the text all serve to simplify the task.
In addition to these Joseph highlighted some other techniques which encourage learning and retention of information for students:
- Memorization to help with long term storage of information (apps like Quizlet have flashcard tools)
- Mind Mapping also help with retention and breaks information down into well organized chunks
- Screen Masking helps to avoid the distraction that surrounding text can create
- Text Adjustments help provide the optimum environment (font, text size, line spacing)
- Read Aloud helps learners stay focused and this is particularly useful with complex content
- Audio using human narration
Reading with Low Vision
Robin Spinks is an accessibility expert and reader with low vision. Common challenges that people with low vision encounter include:
- Focusing on text (acuity)
- Reduced contrast sensitivity
- Glare (photo sensitivity/photophobia)
- Reduced field of vision
- Sensitivity to movement
- Perceptual differences
- Visual fatigue and changing vision
- Contextual factors
He presented a very revealing set of images giving us a glimpse which emulate what is like to read with a variety of conditions (cataracts, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration).
Readers with low vision may wish to take advantage of the following features to improve the reading experience:
- Adjust font size
- Choice of fonts
- Color modifications
- Line spacing adjustments
- Read aloud or Speak Screen
- Combining strategies for low vision reading
combining these with some of the more specific usability features available with particular platforms
Reading without Vision
Amy Salmon is an accessibility expert and legally blind. She began her presentation by explaining that many readers who are legally blind are not necessarily completely without all vision.
Many readers without functional vision choose to read with a screen reader. These are software applications that convert information typically conveyed on screen into audio using text to speech, and many screen readers also support braille displays.
In a recorded video George Kerscher gave us a demo of the NVDA screen reader on the Thorium ebook reader, showing some of the basic controls which allow access to content and navigation within the document.
Refreshable braille displays can be used in conjunction with a screen reader to show braille characters typically using an electro-mechanical device to raise pins creating braille cells creating letters and words.
In order to make sure that content can be properly navigated by a screen reader and refreshable braille display its essential that digital content is correctly structured and includes:
- Table of Contents
- Headings
- Descriptive images and links
- Tables which are correctly formatted
- Lists
- Video with audio descriptive/transcript
- Metadata including document language
Inclusion of these elements vastly improves the reading experience for people without vision.
Related Resources
- PowerPoint slide deck (16 MB)
- Full transcript Word document (40 KB)
- Demo of the NVDA screen reader using a Thorium
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In our series of free DAISY webinars July 21st saw a session focused on The Essentials for Accessible Publishing in 2021. This webinar was held in partnership with the UK Publishers Association, Accessibility Action Group (AAG) in place of their annual in person seminar at The London Book fair.
This page contains:
Full Video of the Webinar
Speakers
- Stacy Scott (RNIB), chair of the PA Accessibility Action Group—guest host.
- Dr Agata Mrva-Montoya (Sydney University Press)
- Laura Brady (House of Anansi)
- Richard Orme (DAISY)
- Graham Bell (EDItEUR)
- Daniella Levy-Pinto (NNELS)
Session Overview
In keeping with previous AAG seminars this webinar promised to be a quick fire journey through this huge topic with lots of speakers, experts in their fields and plenty of take homes for our delegates. Stacy Scott introduced the topic and our first speaker Dr. Agata Mrva-Montoya briefly explained the areas that would be covered.
Advocacy and Policy
Agata briefly took us through the results of an insightful survey conducted in Australia this year, encouraging us to ensure that in-house advocacy is in place accompanied by a clear and thorough accessibility policy so that “publishers can produce born accessible publications themselves”. Her presentation included an extremely useful overview of how to put together and effective accessibility policy and areas that should be taken into account. Publishers shouldn’t forget that this policy together with their overall approach to accessibility requires regular review and should be cognisant of technical standards and provisions for procurement.
- Inclusive Publishing article on the Australian surveys
- Inclusive Publishing in Australia: A Preliminary Report
- Producing Accessible Books in Australia: A Snapshot
Content Workflows
Laura Brady gave us a tour of the various workflow routes to accessible EPUB, emphasising the need for culture change in-house to effect these workflow options and stressing that “buy-in throughout the chain is key to the successful production of accessible content.” Lots of useful resources and options to consider including, WordToEPUB, InDesign workflows and XML workflows (the head of the workflow food chain).
Tools and Solutions
Richard Orme continued Laura’s workflow presentation with a look at post-export tools for validation and conformance checking of content. In particular he highlighted EPUBCheck, Ace by DAISY, Ace SMART, The Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base and the Inclusive Publishing hub, urging everyone to take a look at the latter and sign up for the inclusive publishing newsletter at the very least!
Accessibility Metadata
Graham Bell gave us a clear overview of why it is so important to include accessibility metadata at all stages of content production. “If you optimize the accessibility of your books, then your book metadata should reflect that.” he focused on the 3 types of metadata that should be included: metadata included in web pages, metadata included within the EPUB package and accessibility metadata about the book which is embedded in the ONIX. All three serve quite different purposes and should be considered.
- Web Schemas / Accessibility
- Schema.org
- EPUB Accessibility 1.0
- Accessibility Metadata Project
- ONIX for Books
- Metadata in Publishing: The Hidden Information Essential for Accessibility (DAISY webinar)
- Inclusive Publishing Metadata Overview
Consumer Testing and Feedback
Daniella Levy-Pinto impressed upon us the importance of testing content, using the tools that Richard spoke about and via manual testing using testers with lived experience. It is a necessary and vital part of your content workflow and must take into account the various types of assistive technology that may be used in order to access published works. “Assistive Technology provides opportunities for print disabled readers to access content and its important for publishers to understand this technology and to test their content with it.” Talking us through the testing process, Daniella showed us how an accessibility testing process with user feedback improves awareness and communication amongst employees, consumers and other end users.
Related Resources
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By George Kerscher
I had the great pleasure of knowing Garth Conboy for more than twenty years. We first met in 1999 when the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) organized meetings to work on a new digital publishing standard. We continued to work on these standards for the next 22 years together, until his passing on June 29, 2021. Garth was integral in every aspect of the Open Ebook Publication Structure (OEB) which evolved into today’s EPUB Standard. He co-chaired the development of almost all the specifications at the OEBF, the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), and most recently the W3C, where he was a master at building consensus. I can recall him saying, “Cave early and often.”
On the organization side, Garth held a Board seat for many years. Most recently, he was nominated by the IDPF Board as Chairman where I, as President, relied on him enormously to lead the Board activities. He was a driving force, and I knew I could count on him in every aspect of organizational leadership. He never let any of us down.
On the accessibility front, Garth was always committed to ensuring persons with disabilities would be able to benefit from the standards we developed. At his behest, Google joined the DAISY Consortium as a Friend, and always found time for our many questions. Garth’s unwavering support for DAISY and our mission was immensely important and we received a Google Impact Challenge grant from the charitable arm of Google. In 2019, Garth organized for Google to host the DAISY Consortium’s Board meeting, and leaders in the libraries serving persons with disabilities from all over the world found him to be a gracious host.
Garth had a magical personality that manifested itself in standards working group sessions, in Board meetings, and over dinner with a good bottle of wine. This magical personality wove together friendliness, humor, and rock-solid strategic and technical thinking. This giant of a man will be sorely missed in the digital publishing arena, and in our personal lives. We do have our memories, and he will remain a giant of a friend in my memory forever.
Garth Conboy Obituary on Dignity Memorial
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Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2021 (#GAAD) took place on May 20 this year and received huge attention across industries and, we are thrilled to note, the publishing industry and affiliated organisations celebrated this event more than ever. We are still hearing about wonderful events that took place towards the end of May and we’ve highlighted a few of them in this report.
GAAD Awareness Building
- GAAD Co-Founders Discuss Hybrid Events and the GAAD Pledge – a celebratory event hosted by Abilitynet.
- In Italy the event Accessibility Days discussed many aspects of accessibility over the course of 3 days with DAISY partner, The LIA Foundation, taking an active role.
GAAD Articles & Events with an Education Focus
Many organizations took the opportunity to focus on elearning as part of their GAAD celebrations; something which has become increasingly important for many of us over the last year. Here are a few that we have selected:
- Learn from Disabled Students so Everyone Benefits from the Digital Revolution – On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, the Office for Students in the UK emphasised the importance of listening to disabled students at a critical juncture for digital learning and accessibility.
- Is Accessible Learning Better for Everyone? – Susi Miller for Training Industry
- Joining the Dots: Accessible Teaching and Learning – Alistair McNaught
GAAD Articles for Technical Audiences
- Digita11y Accessible hosted a GAAD event day which included presentations and session on some technical topics.
- The Microsoft Ability Summit was held a few days before GAAD and helped focus attention on the upcoming celebrations, the full recordings are available on the Microsoft Enable YouTube Channel.
Case Studies and Experience Posts
- Kogan-Page took the opportunity to post a case-study on the occasion of GAAD entitled, Accessible Learning: Why eLearning is Not Always Enough a first-hand learning experience from Esi Hardy, a disability inclusion expert.
- Technology for Good – podcast focusing on ICT accessibility, specifically for persons with disabilities. Featuring Dipendra Manocha from The DAISY Forum of India.
- Improving Online Storytelling For Blind and Low Vision Readers – Robin Spinks, RNIB
Inclusive Design Awareness
There were a number of events and articles aimed at increasing awareness about inclusive design and the impact that this can have on the reader:
- Designing for Cognitive Disabilities-Tolu Adegbite blog piece
- Accessibility is about than just Contrast – Nick Groeneveld for The Designer’s Toolbox
- Giving a Damn About Accessibility: A Candid and Practical Handbook for Designers – Fabricio Teixeira
These are just a few of the fantastic events that took place throughout the day and we hope to be able to build on our resources and advice for next year. There was a huge effort worldwide from many digital organizations and we’d welcome feedback on news and information from other sources that may be of interest to our readers.
Resources, Event Planning and Awareness Building
GAAD takes place on May 20 this year and we’d like to encourage all our members to take part so that we can build awareness and play our part to increase the accessibility of digital content to people with print disabilities, particularly during this challenging time when many of us are working from home. If your organization has an accessibility advocate then this is their chance to build awareness and co-ordinate activities that your teams may be able to take part in whilst self-isolating.
How do you want to celebrate GAAD this year? We’ve put together a few ideas to get you started and we would love to hear from you about any activities or events that you are planning.
Awareness Building
You can easily do this from your home office so long as you and your team are online and communicating
- Put together a blog piece in advance of GAAD. This will help to raise awareness amongst your colleagues about what GAAD is all about. We have resources and tools that you can include in your post to spark interest and encourage questions! A good place to start is our Introduction to Inclusive Publishing.
- Alternatively, you are welcome to cross-post any of the interesting articles that we have published on Inclusive Publishing during the last year. Contact us if you need help finding the correct piece for your newsletter.
- Think about updating your accessibility statement in time for GAAD. Have a look at the work of ASPIRE which is all about increasing the effectiveness of your organizational accessibility statement
- Hold an online social event to promote your support of accessible publishing. Set up a “party” online to discuss awareness issues and next steps for your company when you return to the workplace. (Zoom offers the most accessible online conferencing experience we have found).
User Experience
GAAD is a great chance to find out for yourself what it’s like to be a print disabled reader. You can put together all manner of sessions to focus on this but here are a few ideas:
- Go mouseless for an hour—unplug your mouse and only use your keyboard (tab/shift tab, arrow keys, enter and spacebar) to navigate and interact with content.
- Experience reading using assistive technology – try 10 minutes with a screen reader for example
- You may wish to set up a UX session so that your colleagues can experience accessibility features such as Voice Over.
- Try your hand at writing image descriptions—collect a few images from the content that you publish together with some contextual information. See how your colleagues fare in writing alt text! This could be a fun challenge that would be easy or organise for those of you working from home.
Webinars
Encourage your colleagues to watch one of our free webinars available on the DAISY YouTube channel. We have many different sessions available already and lots more planned for the future so this would be a terrific time to ask your co-workers to choose something new and interesting. If you host a discussion following a webinar viewing you could initiate some interesting debate which we would love to hear about.
Other Events We’ve Heard About
There are some amazing events already being planned to celebrate GAAD 2021 and we encourage you to check out a few on our events pages as well as the full list on the GAAD listings.
You may also be interested in the publisher’s toolkit that we promote on inclusive publishing in celebration of GAAD. Feel free to send us your comments and additions to this publishing resource.
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