Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Inclusive Publishing

The Key to Accessible Digital Books15 August 2013, Cape Town, South Africa

Legal Affairs Committee Meeting, Publishers Association of South Africa

Prashant Ranjan Verma Consultant – DAISY Consortium

www.daisy.org

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

A TRUE STORY

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Without “access to knowledge”•Right to education•Right to employment •Right to information•Right to life

is DENIED!

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

LESS THAN 5% OF PUBLISHED INFORMATION IS

AVAILABLE IN ACCESSIBLE FORMATS

In developing countries this is as low as 1%

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

CAN EVERYONE

READ YOUR

BOOKS?

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

CAN EVERYONE READ YOUR BOOKS?

NO• Blind • Low vision• Mobility impaired • Intellectual disabilities

Print disabled: Visual, physical or cognitive disability that hinders the ability to read print

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

What is accessible format?• Transcription of books or other content (such as

notes or newspapers or magazines) into a format usable by people with special needs

Examples * Large print * Braille * Tactile diagrams* Audio * DAISY

Sometimes just conversion from one type of file format such as PDF to another such as Word

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Universal design • Can a separate road transport service be maintained

for the persons with disabilities?• Then why special books for persons with disabilities?

Persons with disabilities strive throughout their lives to live their life like others in the society. They do not want to be treated as “special”

All services and products need to be designed in such a way that it can be used by everyone regardless of disability

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Why focus on persons with special needs?

• 10% to 15% of the population has special needs / disabilities (WHO)

• Demographic changes: 21% people over the age of 50 years experience severe vision, hearing or dexterity problems

• Legal compliance (South Africa has ratified UNCRPD)• Inclusive Education (students with special needs / disabilities are

educated in “mainstream” classes vs. “special schools”) • Corporate Social Identity

“If we live long enough, each one of us will be a person with disability.”

EnhancedPublishing

Technology

How Publishing works, today

Enhanced Publishing standardsand laws

Re-distributionRe-distribution People with People with disabilitiesdisabilities

How we readHow we publish

Mainstream Distribution

MainstreamPublication(Authors & Publishers)

People without

disabilities

PublishingTechnology

Industry

Publishing standardsand laws

Mainstream

Customised

Re-Re-publication publication (Enhanced Publishers)

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Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

The consequencesDisabled people get• A fraction of the mainstream• Delivered late• Inefficient for everybody• Additional costs• Duplication of effort

Frustration all around!

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

No one gains !• Publishers lose out on potential customers • Non-profits spend their valuable resources

on re-publishing instead of creating new services & products

• Persons with special needs get little reading material, with delays and at extra cost

• The charity money used for re-publishing could be used to buy accessible books if they existed

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Current situation• Re-publishers are fighting a losing battle. With

their meager resources they can only convert a small percentage of the publications into accessible formats

• Books that were created inaccessible cannot be transformed overnight

• Conversion processes can be complicated and time consuming

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

People with disabilities say they want:

• To easily find publications I can read• Far better availability of Braille & talking

books• More publications with accessibility built in • A great reading experience with eyes, ears or

fingers

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

What do authors and publishers want?

• To reach a wider audience, regardless of disability

• To create publications that benefit everyone • To comply with inclusion legislation

(especially employers and in education)• Avoid huge costs on integrating access for the

disabled

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

What do Governments want?

• Access to information and education as required by the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities (UNCRPD)

• Inclusive Laws & partnerships that deliver:– Inclusive Society – Inclusive Education

• Effective use of our funds

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Everybody wants

Inclusive Publishing.

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

So how do we deliver

Inclusive Publishing?

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

eBook - an opportunity• Exciting development for print-disabled and

blind readers • Their properties make them ideal for finding

alternative forms of access• When an e-book is presented in an accessible

format on an accessible e-book reader, the user can choose to read the book using text-to-speech, Braille, or magnification

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

eBook - an opportunity….

• Publishers are re-designing workflows to produce print and e-books together

THIS IS THE RIGHT TIME• To adopt a workflow which takes care of

accessibility requirements

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Accessible e-books in an open market benefit everyone

• Publishers gain access to an otherwise untapped revenue stream, those who cannot access traditional print materials

• The general public gains access to books that are even more flexible and feature-rich

• Blind and other print-disabled users, for the first time in history, gain access to the same books and publications at the same price and at the same time as the rest of society

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

How do we grasp this opportunity?

• We must build in inclusiveness (not retro-fit)• Built-in inclusive publishing will cost far less,

overall, to everybody• Must adopt open and interoperable standards • Adopt best practices

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Where to start?• Accessible Publishing - Best Practice Guidelines

for Publishers (http://www.editeur.org/109/Enabling-Technologies-Framework-Guidelines/)

• Make the Inclusive Publishing a top priority at the senior management level of the company [appoint a person responsible for accessibility concerns]

• Build up partnerships with agencies specialized in providing accessible material (libraries for the blind, service centres for disabled students etc.)

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

WHERE TO START - TECHNICALLY?

EPUB 3 STANDARDNatively supports key accessibility requirements

built-in accessibility

Open de facto standard for eBooksXML based – XHTML5 – HTML5

Developed and maintained by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), not-for-profit [http://idpf.org/]

In close collaboration with the Inclusive Publishing - focused community (DAISY Consortium) [http://www.daisy.org/]

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

EPUB 3 has Accessibility featuresOpen standard (IDPF) with support for video, interactivity

– navigability– read aloud feature (“Media Overlays”)– reflowable – global language support – text-to-speech support– MathML support (scientific content)– scalable vector graphics (SVG) – online / offline reading – rich metadata management

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

EPUB 3 works everywhere

• Computer • Mobile phones• Tablets

• Numerous apps for different platforms • Add-ins for browser

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Retailer adoption of EPUB 3

• Apple• Kobo• Barnes & Noble• Sony• Google

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Association of American Publishers recommends EPUB 3

• Format for global distribution of e-books • The goal is to rapidly advance the adoption of EPUB 3 by

publishers and retailers over the next six months and have publishers release a large number of titles to the marketplace that use the standard in the first quarter of 2014

• “retailers, digital content distributors, device makers, reading systems providers, assistive technology experts and standards organizations” are involved

What would inclusive publishing look like?

How we publish How we read

Mainstream Distribution

MainstreamPublication(Authors & Publishers)

People (With or without

Disabilities)

PublishingTechnology

Industry

Publishing standardsand laws

• ONE version of a book, that anyone can read, the way they want...and it is a better read for all.

• Dramatically increasing the number and timeliness of publications, usable by people with disabilities.

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Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Will there be no need of alternate formats?

• Access-enhanced books would still be required for certain content and users with special needs• These would be a separate version of a mainstream

publication, modified to be read by disabled persons using their eyes, ears or fingers to read. • This may include:

• Re-design for Braille, adding additional description, speech narration.

• Often, distributed separately via a special library.DAISY will continue to be the preferred format for such

use cases

Example of Inclusive Publishing www.unicef.org/sowc2013

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

What is DAISY?• Open standard for structured, accessible digital books

DAISY 2.02 most widely adopted, DAISY 3 (formally DAISY/NISO Z39.86 2005), DAISY features built into EPUB 3

• Synchronized text, audio and image files

• Portable - well received internationally

• Navigable and feature-rich

• 3 types of DAISY books: audio and full text,audio with navigation and text-only

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

The DAISY Consortium

Our Vision• People have equal access to information and

knowledge, regardless of disabilitiesOur Mission• Working to create the best way to read and

publish, for everybody, in the 21st centuryBy delivering global partnerships ... that build a more effective solution for everyone

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

IDPF • The global trade and standards association for

electronic publishing.

• The IDPF develops and maintains the EPUB® standard format for reflowable digital books and other digital publications that are interoperable between disparate reading devices and applications.

• The IDPF also provides a forum that fosters enhanced communication between all stakeholders in the emerging global digital publishing industry

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Partners in change • The DAISY Consortium will continue to be committed

to collaboration with the IDPF in the development and evolution of digital publishing standards

• The DC & IDPF are also sharing key resources: Markus Gylling is the CTO of both organizations

• DAISY Consortium has endorsed EPUB 3 as the preferred standard for eBooks

• DAISY Consortium has developed open source and free tools for conversion to DAISY & EPUB 3

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

THE PATH TO INCLUSIVE PUBLISHING• Focus on EPUB 3

• Assume Social Responsibility - Make Accessibility a top Priority (in your company)

• Think of Image Descriptions (non-textual elements)

• Develop Partnerships (with organizations that can make your eBooks more accessible / access-enhancements)

• Add Accessibility Meta Data (to your products)The ONIX Standard List 196 E-publication Accessibility Details http://www.editeur.org/files/ONIX%20for%20books%20-%20code%20lists/ONIX_BookProduct_CodeLists_Issue_19.html

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

Things to remember • Everything digital is not accessible

• There is no need to sacrifice look & feel of the book to make it accessible

• Accessibility is the result of semantic markup, good coding practices and adherence to standards

• All EPUB 3 files are not accessible unless accessibility guidelines are followed

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

User story A new customer

• An avid reader• Waited for Braille or

audio editions of best sellers for most of his life

• Now purchases eBooks on Apple & Google the day it is published

• Reads books on iPhone or Braille display Blind, age 40

Lives in Mumbai, India

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

TO KNOW MORE (I)

• EPUB Forums: http://idpf.org/forums • EPUB Accessibility Forum: http://idpf.org/forums/epub-accessibility • EPUB Accessibility Guidelines: http://idpf.org/accessibility/guidelines/

O‘Reilly publications http://shop.oreilly.com/

“Best Practices” (February 2013)

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

TO KNOW MORE (II)DAISY, EPUB 3 and Publishers

http://daisy.org/daisy-epub-3-developments/

EPUB 3 Sampleshttp://code.google.com/p/epub-samples/

EPUB 3 Validator http://validator.idpf.org/

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

TO KNOW MORE (III)Reading Systems

• READIUM (reference implementation, developed by IDPF [http://readium.org/]

• READIUM (now on Chrome Web Store) [http://readium.org/news/readium-now-on-chrome-web-store]

• Book Industry Study Group (BISG) maintains the EPUB 3 Support Grid [http://www.bisg.org/what-we-do-16-152-epub-3-support-grid.php]

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

It is a “BOOK FAMINE” for people with print disabilities.

Let us do our bit in ending the BOOK FAMINE

Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

THANK YOUPrashant Ranjan Verma

Email: pverma@daisy.orgWeb: www.daisy.org

Questions?