FYI: Ace by DAISY: Open Source EPUB Accessibility Checker - Final Beta

Dear Steering Committee,
 
I thought this would be of interest.
 
Ace, by DAISY, the newly developed free accessibility checking tool for
EPUB, has entered its final phase of testing with a new beta release this
week. The full release of Ace 1.0 is scheduled for the end of January 2018,
and now is the ideal time for publishers and content providers working with
the EPUB 3 format to ensure they are ready to embrace this new addition to
their workflow. 
 
Using Ace can help ensure that your publications meet the accessibility
guidelines, but also aid in the production of standards compliant and
interoperable EPUB files. This will support the delivery of titles which
meet the emerging accessibility procurement requirements, and help to ensure
people with disabilities can access and enjoy your publications.
 
The Ace tool performs a variety of automated checks to assist in the
evaluation of conformance to the EPUB Accessibility Specification and
against the rules defined in WCAG, ARIA, and HTML, producing a list for the
manual checks that need to be performed, as well as data visualizations to
aid the process. Ace, by DAISY can be usable as a standalone tool, or can be
integrated as a third-party component in broader publishing workflows or
authoring processes.
 
This is the perfect time to encourage your technology teams to engage with
the final beta release to help shape this last phase of development advance
of the release in January. You might also consider helping to prepare your
in-house teams to be ready for the full release so that you can build
accessibility requirements and testing into your product development at
various stages. 
 
Ace is a ground-breaking new tool which will help you to meet the
requirements expected of you in your markets, and now is the time to get on
board. Be prepared and enjoy the reassurance of a free, open source tool
that will help make it easier to produce higher quality, interoperable and
accessible publications.
 
For further information on Ace, how to get started and details of how your
tech teams can engage with the Final Beta release see:
https://inclusivepublishing.org/Ace
 
Finally, you can keep up with the latest information on Ace, and as well as
industry accessibility news through the Inclusive Publishing newsletter:
https://inclusivepublishing.org/newsletter/
 
Ace is developed by the DAISY Consortium, the international non-profit
organization contributing to mainstream standards and tools, driving
innovation in accessible publishing since 1996.
 
With regards
Avneesh Singh
COO, DAISY Consortium