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[Automated voice:] Accessibility.
Standards containing accessibility requirements such as epub and pdf are helpful tools to ensure that digital publications are accessible to people with impairments in the way intended by the author, regardless of platform and device used.
What are the specifications of epub and pdf and how can we use them properly? Epub is an electronic publishing standard created by the International Digital Publishing Forum and currently maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. An epub typically consists of web content including XHTML, HTML5, CSS, SVG, images, fonts and other resources. These files are bundled in a zip archive with an epub file extension.
The epub standard integrates many accessibility features. For example:
– Navigation: a key element for all users that enables them to easily access the content of any publication.
– Semantic markup: thanks to HTML5, markup is meaningful, so that assistive technologies can easily recognize the document’s structure.
– Dynamic layouts: epub is designed in such a way that epub reader applications can optimise the text for a certain resolution independent of the dimensions of the screen by changing the size of letters and the type of fonts. By changing the colour of the background, the document becomes more readable.
– Text-to-speech features allow control over speech synthesis settings such as pronunciation, pacing and other voice characteristics.
– Alternate renditions of a publication can be provided in case the original format is not accessible for a user, for example audio descriptions or video transcripts.
The latest specifications of epub can be found on the W3C website.
For people with experience in publishing, pdf is probably the most familiar format. It is also one of the easiest ways to produce an accessible digital publication. Well prepared Microsoft Word documents can easily be converted into accessible pdfs.
However, not all pdfs are accessible; some contain only images or do not follow the semantic structure. The most important features of an accessible pdf are:
– Tags: created to describe the document’s semantic structure such as headings, lists and tables, these tags must follow the logical reading order.
– Information is conveyed by logical headings and by avoiding the use of colour or contrast as the only means to convey information.
– Use of meaningful graphics with alternative text descriptions.
– Accurate metadata that allows assistive technologies to recognise the language.
Pdf preserves the layout of a page as it was designed. Depending on the size of the page the layout can be difficult to display on mobile devices. However, if the file is properly tagged and structured the content can still be consumed via the navigation.
The current standard for an accessible pdf is pdf UA. This standard is approved by the ISO committee. It is identified as ISO 14289.
For more detailed information on creating accessible pdf and Microsoft Word publications see https://op.europa.eu/en/web/accessibility
[Automated voice:] Accessibility.
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