Re: EPUB Accessibility

CS has many good reflowable titles. I haven't looked at Physics or Chem.
Mathematics is terrible. In general there are less than a handful of
reflowable Calculus books and past that reflowable books are not deep
enough for upper division classes for STEM majors. Accessible graduate
texts don't exist.
I use a 40-inch screen. That gives me a font size of 30 to 36-point with
lots of juggling. That is a little small for me, but good enough for study
with mild discomfort.
If you consider the number of mathematics classes a STEM student must take,
you see that this is like steps to a wheelchair.
I like VitalSource a lot, but this is a serious problem. There has been a
lot of research, many starts, but we need to pull this together. Maybe we
need a planning session at a big conference. I don't know, but this problem
is solvable.
best, Wayne


On Sat, Jun 17, 2023 at 7:07 AM <kerscher@montana.com> wrote:

> Hi Wayne,
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> You might want to check out the titles from VitalSource in this collection:
>
> https://benetechaccessiblebooks.vitalsource.com/
>
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> I am finding reflowable EPUB STEM content.
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> These titles have passed Global Certified Accessible (GCA).
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> Best
>
> George
>
>
>
> *From:* Wayne Dick <wayneedick@gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Friday, June 16, 2023 3:18 PM
> *To:* W3C WAI ig <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
> *Subject:* EPUB Accessibility
>
>
>
> EPUB  is an international standard based on HTML. They have an
> accessibility standard https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-a11y-11/. This is tied
> to WCAG 2.1. This is good. If the reflow criterion  1.4.10 is needed
> anywhere, it is needed in published books, articles, monographs etc.
>
> There is a "fixed format" for ebooks. This is inaccessible categorically.
> I  hope that  this  is  called out by the EPUB organization in its
> literature  on accessibility.
>
> When we address the overhead cost of 2-dimensional scrolling for articles,
> monographs and books we are talking about thousands, tens  of thousands and
> hundreds of thousands of scrolls.
>
> There are no textbooks in mathematics beyond  calculus that reflow, and I
> only know  of one calculus that reflows.
>
> Special attention should  be given to  STEM textbooks. Lack of accessible
> STEM textbooks is the reason for low participation in STEM subjects for
> people with print disabilities. It is very difficult to succeed in a course
> when you don't have a textbook.
>
> best, Wayne
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