The incorporation of the DAISY accessibility requirements into the non-proprietary EPUB 3 standard holds significant promise for the increased availability of commercial products that are useable, out of the box, by a wide range of consumers.

1. EPUB 3 and DAISY
State of the Art and Accessibility
George Kerscher
March 1, 2012

2. EPUB 3 and Accessibility
The incorporation of the DAISY accessibility
requirements into the non-proprietary
EPUB 3 standard holds significant promise for the
increased availability of commercial
products that are useable, out of the box, by a wide
range of consumers.
Specification is available at http://idpf.org/epub/30

3. Accessible Publishing Ecosystem
Wide array of pieces must fall into place in order to have
an accessible publishing ecosystem:
•Commitments from the accessibility community
•Standards and Guidelines
•Samples
•Validation tools and accessibility checkers
•Accessible reading systems
•Math support
•Beautiful user interfaces
•User friendly ways to purchase content

4. Accessibility Guidelines and Support
• Guidelines in support of accessible publishing in EPUB
3 are accessible for all and will be frequently updated.
• ‘Accessible EPUB 3’, published by O’Reilly, available at:
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025283.do
• Accessibility Forum on the IDPF site:
http://idpf.org/forums/epub-accessibility

5. EPUB 3 Sample Files
• The DC will collaborate with the IDPF and its
Members and Friends to gather EPUB 3 content
samples.
• Go to http://code.google.com/p/epub-revision/downloads/list
to check out the latest samples
• IDPF Samples include accessibility features

6. DAISY Consortium and IDPF
• The DAISY Consortium will continue to be committed to
collaboration with the IDPF in the development and
evolution of digital publishing standards
• The DC will monitor the development of accessibility check
in EpubCheck and promote accessibility evaluations.
EpubCheck project site is located at
http://code.google.com/p/epubcheck/
• EPUB Validator is now available at http://validator.idpf.org/
• The DAISY Consortium will participate in Readium Project
to bring accessible EPUB 3 content and reading systems to
users faster, learn more at http://readium.org/

7. Other Ongoing Developments
• The mechanisms to handle descriptions of graphical
content - the DIAGRAM Project, more info at:
http://www.diagramcenter.org/development.html
• The DAISY Consortium will continue to monitor and
influence HTML5 developments to increase the
accessibility features in that specification
• The DAISY Consortium will support the NISO process for
the Authoring and Interchange Framework for Adaptive
XML Publishing
• The DAISY Consortium will continue to support the DAISY
2.02 and 3 Standards

8. DAISY Tools
DAISY tool development to support EPUB 3:
•Tobi - accessible multimedia production tool
http://www.daisy.org/tobi
•DAISY Pipeline 2 - next generation framework
for automated production of accessible
materials http://www.daisy.org/pipeline2/

9. DAISY on Mobile Devices
10 mobile applications for reading DAISY
books on mainstream devices are available
and more in development
•DAISY Marketplace: http://www.daisy.org/tools/mobile-
applications

10. Portable DAISY Players
• PlexTalk Pocket, Milestone 212 and 312,
BookSense XT and DS, BookPort, Victor Reader
Stream, Olympus DM-4 and DM-5 players,
ClassMate Reader

11. Hardware DAISY Players
Array of legacy DAISY Players:
•NLS players, available at no cost to qualified
people - does not support text-to-speech yet
•HumanWare Stratus players
•PlexTalk PTX 1 / Pro – DAISY Online Delivery
compatible
•Braille Sense OnHand by HIMS can read DAISY
books

12. DAISY Software Players
• EasyReader - supports DAISY and EPUB
• ReadHear PC and ReadHear Mac - support
DAISY and EPUB, Math support
• Ida-reader - supports DAISY and EPUB
• Book Wizard Reader
• AMIS (free)
Go to our website to see the list of DAISY
players:
http://www.daisy.org/tools/splayback

13. Mainstream Reading Systems
• Kindle - does not natively support EPUB
• Nook – Barnes & Noble working on improving
accessibility
• Adobe Digital Editions - supports EPUB
• iBooks demo
Share your experiences of using
mainstream reading systems

14. Goal: Enriched Accessible Reading
Experience for All
• Work with us to bring DAISY reading
experience into the mainstream, to make ALL
publications accessible to EVERYONE.
• Join the DAISY Consortium!
• More information is available at daisy.org