RE: Seeking comments on draft EPUB Accessibility specification and techniques

Dear Neil,
 
Thank you for the comment. I am also copying the EPUB Accessibility chairs
and the editor.
 
As you know, EPUB is based on HTML and the open web platform. DAISY is
participating in the Auto-WCAG group in the W3C, which identifies the
various tests that can be done on HTML documents to check accessibility.
 
DAISY has received funding from the Google Impact Challenge to do a number
of things, including building an open source EPUB accessibility checker. The
approach would be to build on HTML checking tools and add the pieces that
are specific to digitally published EPUB materials. The first step would be
reporting of issues, and we will encourage authoring tools to incorporate
the tool or create similar functionality in their systems.
 
The WAI Interest Group is one of the lists where we will post progress on
this software development.
 
Best
George
 
 
From: Rogers N.R.E. [mailto:N.E.Rogers@southampton.ac.uk] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 8:41 AM
To: George Kerscher
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: RE: Seeking comments on draft EPUB Accessibility specification and
techniques
 
 
Dear George Kerscher and the WAI-IG,
 
The PAVE tool provides the means to check the accessibility of PDFs and to
fix them.
 
The IDPF EPub Check tool, does just that check. It does not, as far as I can
tell, provide a publisher with assistance to fix the accessibility of an
ePub.
 
In light of the  draft ePub accessibility specification, can a walkthrough
or accessibility wizard for publishers also be considered?
 
Many thanks,
 
Neil Rogers
University of Southampton
http://id.ecs.soton.ac.uk/person/29744
 
 
From: George Kerscher [mailto:kerscher@montana.com] 
Sent: 12 July 2016 23:44
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Seeking comments on draft EPUB Accessibility specification and
techniques
 
Dear WAI Interest Group,
 
The second editor's draft of the EPUB accessibility specification and
techniques are now available. This new draft adds additional clarity to
publication conformance requirements and provides a full set of techniques
for review.
 
We are looking for input from all sectors. The specification and techniques
build on WAI guidelines. We believe these specification and the conformance
requirements have the potential to revolutionize access to published works
by persons with print disabilities. Included in the spec and detailed in the
techniques are items such as:
 
The Schema property "accessibilitySummary," which for the first time would
make a human readable explanation of the accessibility of an EPUB
publication discoverable and available.
and
Another Schema property, "accessModeSufficient," which would clearly
identify the modes of access available to read the whole publication, e.g.
textual and auditory.
 
We fully expect the publications to be approved in 2016. You can provide
comments directly to me: Kerscher@montana.com
 
You can find them at:
EPUB Accessibility Conformance and Discovery Requirements for EPUB
Publications
http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/
 
EPUB Accessibility Techniques
http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/techniques/
 
Best
George
 
George Kerscher Ph.D.
-In our Information Age, access to information is a fundamental human right.
Chief Innovations Officer, DAISY Consortium
http://www.daisy.org
Senior Advisor, Global Literacy, Benetech
http://www.benetech.org
President, International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) 
http://www.idpf.org
Member of the National Museum and Library Services  Board (IMLS)
http://www.imls.gov
Chair Steering Council Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a division of the
W3C 
http://www.w3c.org/wai 
Phone: +1 406/549-4687
Cell:+1 406/544-2466 
Email: kerscher@montana.com