Reading Apps User Requirements Published
Offering an accessible reading experience can prove to be quite complex. What people want and need can vary significantly, often based not just on accessibility needs from the format (audio, large print, braille, synchronized highlighting), but also ways to engage and interact with the text, especially for educational materials.
Throughout 2025 work was undertaken to identify and document the functionality users want from a current accessible reading solution. This was designed primarily to aid developers working on specialist reading apps, but will also be of use to those working on mainstream reading apps.
This work was grounded in the needs of users, with contributions from individuals, user organizations, content providers, app developers and accessibility experts.
With their help more than 120 user requirements were documented under 11 themes to aid navigation and technical reference. These themes include:
- Screen Reader Support
- Read Aloud
- Embedded Audio
- Visual Adjustments
- Bookmarking
- Highlighting
- Making Notes
- Entering Answers
- Library and Bookshelf
The requirements are supported by 18 unique user stories that highlight how users benefit from the recommended functionality, providing a useful resource in a format commonly used by developers.
Further user requirements were documented for future consideration but not prioritized for the current version of the publication. These include topics like AI assisted features.
Feedback from the wider community has been incredibly positive, with many app developers sharing the user stories with their team and adding recommended features to their development roadmap.
The Reading Apps User Requirements were formally approved and endorsed by the DAISY Board at the meeting in November 2025. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this work.
You can read more about this project in the Reading Apps User Requirements Project Area.
The current Reading Apps User Requirements can be referenced using the following short link:
https://daisy.org/s/readingURS/