Re: FXL Accessibility (was Re: [Minutes] EPUB WG, 2nd vF2F day minutes 2021-10-29)

Just as we have continued to improve support for generating accessible reflowable EPUBs from InDesign – I would expect us to do the same with FXLs.  I think it’s simply a matter of “chicken and egg” – does the work of this group to define the best practices/standards for a11y in FXL proceed the creation or should we (Adobe) try to take the lead by exporting some things that we think will/do work?!?

Leonard

From: Laurent Le Meur <laurent.lemeur@edrlab.org>
Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at 11:29 AM
To: Leonard Rosenthol <lrosenth@adobe.com>
Cc: W3C EPUB 3 Working Group <public-epub-wg@w3.org>
Subject: Re: FXL Accessibility (was Re: [Minutes] EPUB WG, 2nd vF2F day minutes 2021-10-29)
Hi Leonard,

On the topic of alternate representations – specifically those that are prepared in advance – my recommendation is *DON’T*.  In addition to all the issues raised in the meeting, let me also add one that most of you don’t think about…user additions to content!  Think annotations & bookmarks!  They need to work on both the FXL and reflowable versions of the content, in reasonable and understandable ways.  Today Web Annots are targeted to a specific HTML document, which means that w/o some work (and going beyond the spec), they wouldn’t show on the alternate.  Even if it did work, would it be as meaningful if the content isn’t in the “same place”?   It’s a problem for both the annotation creator as well as the annotation presentation system.

You're totally right, there should be a solution which does not rely on an alternate representation. And your remark on annotations and bookmarks is up to the point.

The practical issue here is that most (if not all) EPUB3 FXL on the market are not properly accessible today.
The reason we always hear about is that EPUB designers don't master the accessibility tools available in their authoring studio.
And the ubiquitous authoring studio for EPUB FXL is today Adobe InDesign, in which accessibility tools appear to be hidden, more or less.

So ... is it simply a matter of tutorials? or do you think there is a chance that an evolution of InDesign could bring easy to use accessibility tools, so that accessible FXL can be exported from the software?

Best regards
Laurent