From the professor's word processor to the student's mobile reading experience November 14, 2018

Objective In addition to published books and journals, learners also need access to accessible documents produced by their own school and professors. This session will demonstrate practical workflows for creating accessible and flexible course materials. EPUB has been extensively been adopted by large and small publishers as modern and accessible format. There are many way to read EPUBs on large and small screen devices, with eyes, ears and fingers- in other ways, to suit the circumstances and abilities of the individual learners. But how easy is it create an EPUB? This session will provide some often requested simple steps so that a busy professor or school admin can use familiar tools to quickly make great EPUBs that can be used by learners with and without disabilities.

About your speaker Richard Orme, DAISY Consortium in collaboration with Joseph Pollizotto, Alternate Media Supervisor, University of California, Berkeley

Context The global disability community have been on twenty year journey with the publishing industry to solve the challenge of print disabilities The nature of this collaboration is very positive, and technology is central to the solution. The publishing and disability communities have embraced EPUB In addition to published books and journals, learners also need access to accessible documents produced by their own school and professors. There are many use cases that require simple, practical workflows for creating accessible and flexible materials.

Why bother with EPUB? Highly accessible and navigable Familiar web-like experience Non-proprietary and cross platform Reflow for different size text screens, line lengths Choice of reading systems on different devices

Example use cases A professor in a university has authored a paper which now they wish to share this with their class A student has completed their Masters dissertation and will now publish this on their university platform A professional development conference will distribute their materials for delegates to use before and during their event

What options for these packages? Apple Pages Google Docs Libre Office Microsoft Word and as straightforward as printing or making a pdf

Out of scope tools Calibre Jutoh InDesign Pandoc Web conversion services We’re seeking an integrated or add in tool to afford a familiar experience for the busy professor

Methodology From a test document, use the word processor to generate an EPUB Consider the simplicity of the process for a novice user Check the EPUB is valid Check the support for key features in the generated EPUB

Key feature list Headings Images and alt text Bulleted and numbered lists Tables References (footnotes and end notes) Table of contents Page numbers

Apple Pages Demo Supports: TOC- yes Headings- yes References -yes Tables- yes Alt text on images- yes Some metadata Available on iOS also Familiarity (yes) accessibility (yes) Warning when making an EPUB Possible to edit the title, author Possible to add a cover image No errors with epubcheck Ace errors were only a11y metadata Has the intriguing ability to include audio and video Not supported: Lists handled poorly Page numbers Messy HTML

Apple Pages - Results Yes Mmm Nope Valid EPUB Headings Images and alt text Numbered and un-numbered lists  Mmm Tables References Table of contents Page numbers  Nope Supports: TOC- yes Headings- yes References -yes Tables- yes Alt text on images- yes Some metadata Available on iOS also Familiarity (yes) accessibility (yes) Warning when making an EPUB Possible to edit the title, author Possible to add a cover image No errors with epubcheck Ace errors were only a11y metadata Has the intriguing ability to include audio and video Not supported: Lists handled poorly Page numbers Messy HTML

Google Docs Demo Supports: TOC- yes Headings- yes Lists- yes References (only footnotes) -yes Tables- yes Alt text on images- yes Some metadata Cross platform Familiarity (yes) accessibility (yes) No errors with epubcheck Ace errors were html-lang and a11y metadata Not supported: Page numbers Messy HTML

Google Docs - Results Yes Yes (footnotes) Nope Valid EPUB Headings Images and alt text Numbered and un-numbered lists Tables References  Yes (footnotes) Table of contents Page numbers  Nope Supports: TOC- yes Headings- yes Lists- yes References (only footnotes) -yes Tables- yes Alt text on images- yes Some metadata Cross platform Familiarity (yes) accessibility (yes) No errors with epubcheck Ace errors were html-lang and a11y metadata Not supported: Page numbers Messy HTML

LibreOffice Writer Demo Supports: TOC- yes Headings- yes References (only footnotes) -yes Tables- yes Some metadata Available on Windows, Mac and Linux Familiarity (yes) accessibility (yes) 1 error with epubcheck- direction in the CSS Ace errors were html-lang and a11y metadata, and ARIA roles Able to change cover image, metadata, or have a ‘direct’ export. Not supported: TOC was only H1 Alt text on images- no Page numbers Messy HTML

LibreOffice Writer - Results Valid EPUB Yes Headings  Yes (poor TOC) Images and alt text  No – aaargh! Numbered and un-numbered lists  Yes Tables References Table of contents Page numbers  Nope Supports: TOC- yes Headings- yes References (only footnotes) -yes Tables- yes Some metadata Available on Windows, Mac and Linux Familiarity (yes) accessibility (yes) 1 error with epubcheck- direction in the CSS Ace errors were html-lang and a11y metadata, and ARIA roles Able to change cover image, metadata, or have a ‘direct’ export. Not supported: TOC was only H1 Alt text on images- no Page numbers Messy HTML

Microsoft Word A built in accessibility checker does a great job The checker is getting even better and more obvious However, no ‘in box’ support for Save as EPUB Some tools exist but they are sub-optimal Word documents can be converted to EPUB by moving the document to another word processor  Most commonly used productivity suite Comes with amazing accessibility checker No native support for EPUB export

Microsoft Word – proof of concept Demo Most commonly used productivity suite Comes with amazing accessibility checker No native support for EPUB export

Microsoft Word (POC) – Results Valid EPUB Yes Headings  Yes Images and alt text Numbered and un-numbered lists Tables References Table of contents Page numbers

Reading the generated EPUBs The generated EPUBs are cross platform Choose from many different reading systems on different platforms Reading systems roundup at: inclusivepublishing.org

Identified shortcomings Moving between wp apps isn’t perfect Poor support for Math & other complex content No support for page numbers Batch conversion time consuming No currently available Word solution Others?

Take aways Making an EPUB isn't rocket science The tools to make an EPUB are familiar and simple to use There are options for most common platforms

Please fill out the evaluation for this session at: https://accessinghigherground.org/evaluate

Thanks for your attention Questions and discussion