EPUB Accessibility Techniques

Editor's Draft 26 April 2016

This document is currently under development. More information on meeting the discovery and accessibility requirements in [EPUBA11Y] will be introduced in future drafts.

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http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/techniques/techniques-20160426.html

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Editors

Matt Garrish (Invited Expert)

George Kerscher (DAISY Consortium)

Charles LaPierre (Benetech)

Avneesh Singh (DAISY Consortium)

Authors

Romain Deltour (DAISY Consortium)

Markus Gylling (International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF))

Copyright © 2016 International Digital Publishing Forum™

All rights reserved. This work is protected under Title 17 of the United States Code. Reproduction and dissemination of this work with changes is prohibited except with the written permission of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).

EPUB is a registered trademark of the International Digital Publishing Forum.

Status of this Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document.

This document is a draft produced by the EPUB Working Group under the EPUB Working Group Charter approved on 8 July 2015.

This document is not considered stable and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted at any time. Its publication as a draft does not imply endorsement by IDPF membership or the IDPF Board. The document should only be cited as a work in progress.

Feedback on this document can be provided to the EPUB Working Group's mailing list or issue tracker.

This document is governed by the IDPF Policies and Procedures.

Table of Contents

1. Overview

1.1 Purpose and Scope

1.2 Terminology

1.3 Typographic Conventions

1.5 Conformance Statements

2. Discovery Techniques

3. WCAG Techniques

3.1 General Applicability

3.2 Application to EPUB Publications

4. EPUB Techniques

4.1 Structured Audio Playback

4.2 Page Markers

4.3 Digital Rights Management

Acknowledgements and Contributors

References

Normative References

This document is informative

1. Overview

1.1 Purpose and Scope

This specification, EPUB Accessibility Techniques outlines techniques for meeting the discovery and accessibility requirements defined in EPUB Accessibility [EPUBA11Y].

The techniques for meeting the accessibility requirements are informative, as other techniques can be used to satisfy the requirements.

1.2 Terminology

Terminology specific to this document is capitalized (e.g., Author and Reading System).

See [EPUBA11Y] for definitions.

1.3 Typographic Conventions

The following typographic conventions are used in this specification:

markup

All markup (elements, attributes, properties), code (JavaScript, pseudo-code), machine processable values (string, characters, media types) and file names are in red monospace font.

markup

Links to markup and code definitions are underlined and in red monospace font.

http://www.idpf.org/

URIs are in navy blue monospace font.

hyperlink

Hyperlinks are underlined and in blue.

[reference]

Normative and informative references are enclosed in square brackets.

Term

Terms defined in the Terminology are in capital case.

Informative markup examples are in monospace font.

NOTE

Informative notes are preceded by a "Note" header.

2. Discovery Techniques

The recommended way to add accessibility discovery metadata to EPUB 3.0 Publications is through the addition of [SCHEMA.ORG] accessibility metadata to the Package Document.

For distribution channels that take ONIX records [ONIX], inclusion of accessibility metadata defined in Code List 196 is recommended.

3. WCAG Techniques

3.1 General Applicability

Techniques for meeting the requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 [WCAG20] are defined in Techniques for WCAG 2.0 [WCAG20Techs].

The following sets of techniques are the most broadly applicable to EPUB Publications:

Other techniques will apply depending on the technologies used (e.g., a Flash video in EPUB 2) or any alternative formats embedded in the EPUB Publication (e.g., a PDF form).

3.2 Application to EPUB Publications

Under development.

4. EPUB Techniques

4.1 Structured Audio Playback

Under development.

4.2 Page Markers

Under development.

4.3 Digital Rights Management

Under development.

Acknowledgements and Contributors

EPUB has been developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum in a cooperative effort, bringing together publishers, vendors, software developers, and experts in the relevant standards.

The EPUB Accessibility specification was prepared by the International Digital Publishing Forum's EPUB Maintenance Working Group, operating under a charter approved by the membership in July 2015, under the leadership of:

Work on this specification was undertaken by an accessibility subgroup led by:

Active members of the subgroup at the time of publication were:

IDPF Members

Invited Experts/Observers

References

Normative References

[DCTERMS] DCMI Metadata Terms.

[EPUBA11Y] EPUB Accessibility.

[ONIX] ONIX for Books.

[SCHEMA.ORG] schema.org.

[SMIL] SMIL Version 3.0. D. Bulterman, et al. 01 December 2008.

[WCAG20] Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Ben Caldwell, et al. W3C Recommendation. 11 December 2008.

[WCAG20Techs] Techniques for WCAG 2.0. Michael Cooper, et al. W3C Note.