Prashant Verma's presentation on August 15th 2013, Cape Town, South Africa Legal Affairs Committee Meeting, Publishers Association of South Africa.

1. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Inclusive Publishing
The Key to Accessible Digital Books
15 August 2013, Cape Town, South Africa
Legal Affairs Committee Meeting, Publishers Association of South Africa
Prashant Ranjan Verma
Consultant – DAISY Consortium
www.daisy.org

2. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
A TRUE STORY

3. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

4. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish

5. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Without “access to knowledge”
•Right to education
•Right to employment
•Right to information
•Right to life
is DENIED!

6. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
LESS THAN 5%OF
PUBLISHED INFORMATION IS
AVAILABLE IN ACCESSIBLE
FORMATS
In developing countries this is as low as 1%

7. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
CAN
EVERYONE
READ
YOUR
BOOKS?

8. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
CAN EVERYONE READ YOUR BOOKS?
NO
• Blind
• Low vision
• Mobility impaired
• Intellectual disabilities
Print disabled: Visual, physical or
cognitive disability that hinders
the ability to read print

9. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
What is accessible format?
• Transcription of books or other content (such as
notes or newspapers or magazines) into a format
usable by people with special needs
Examples
* Large print * Braille * Tactile diagrams
* Audio * DAISY
Sometimes just conversion from one type of file
format such as PDF to another such as Word

10. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Universal design
• Can a separate road transport service be maintained
for the persons with disabilities?
• Then why special books for persons with disabilities?
Persons with disabilities strive throughout their lives to
live their life like others in the society. They do not
want to be treated as “special”
All services and products need to be designed in such a
way that it can be used by everyone regardless of
disability

11. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Why focus on persons with special needs?
• 10% to 15% of the population has special needs / disabilities
(WHO)
• Demographic changes: 21% people over the age of 50 years experience
severe vision, hearing or dexterity problems
• Legal compliance (South Africa has ratified UNCRPD)
• Inclusive Education (students with special needs / disabilities are
educated in “mainstream” classes vs. “special schools”)
• Corporate Social Identity
“If we live long enough, each one of
us will be a person with disability.”

12. Enhanced
Publishing
Technology
How Publishing works, today
Enhanced
Publishing
standards
and laws
Re-distributionRe-distribution
People withPeople with
disabilitiesdisabilities
How we
read
How we publish
Mainstream
Distribution
Mainstream
Publication
(Authors &
Publishers)
People
without
disabilities
Publishing
Technology
Industry
Publishing
standards
and laws
Mainstream
Customised
Re-Re-
publicationpublication
(Enhanced
Publishers)
12

13. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
The consequences
Disabled people get
• A fraction of the mainstream
• Delivered late
• Inefficient for everybody
• Additional costs
• Duplication of effort
Frustration all around!

14. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
No one gains !
• Publishers lose out on potential customers
• Non-profits spend their valuable resources
on re-publishing instead of creating new
services & products
• Persons with special needs get little reading
material, with delays and at extra cost
• The charity money used for re-publishing
could be used to buy accessible books if they
existed

15. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Current situation
• Re-publishers are fighting a losing battle. With
their meager resources they can only convert
a small percentage of the publications into
accessible formats
• Books that were created inaccessible cannot
be transformed overnight
• Conversion processes can be complicated and
time consuming

16. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
People with disabilities say they want:
• To easily find publications I can read
• Far better availability of Braille & talking
books
• More publications with accessibility built in
• A great reading experience with eyes, ears or
fingers

17. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
What do authors and publishers want?
• To reach a wider audience, regardless of
disability
• To create publications that benefit everyone
• To comply with inclusion legislation
(especially employers and in education)
• Avoid huge costs on integrating access for the
disabled

18. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
What do Governments want?
• Access to information and education as
required by the UN convention on the rights
of people with disabilities (UNCRPD)
• Inclusive Laws & partnerships that deliver:
– Inclusive Society
– Inclusive Education
• Effective use of our funds

19. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Everybody
wants
Inclusive
Publishing.

20. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
So how do we
deliver
Inclusive
Publishing?

21. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
eBook - an opportunity
• Exciting development for print-disabled and
blind readers
• Their properties make them ideal for finding
alternative forms of access
• When an e-book is presented in an accessible
format on an accessible e-book reader, the
user can choose to read the book using text-
to-speech, Braille, or magnification

22. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
eBook - an opportunity….
• Publishers are re-designing workflows to
produce print and e-books together
THIS IS THE RIGHT TIME
• To adopt a workflow which takes care of
accessibility requirements

23. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Accessible e-books in an open market
benefit everyone
• Publishers gain access to an otherwise untapped
revenue stream, those who cannot access
traditional print materials
• The general public gains access to books that are
even more flexible and feature-rich
• Blind and other print-disabled users, for the first
time in history, gain access to the same books
and publications at the same price and at the
same time as the rest of society

24. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
How do we grasp this opportunity?
• We must build in inclusiveness (not retro-fit)
• Built-in inclusive publishing will cost far less,
overall, to everybody
• Must adopt open and interoperable standards
• Adopt best practices

25. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Where to start?
• Accessible Publishing - Best Practice Guidelines
for Publishers
(http://www.editeur.org/109/Enabling-Technologies-Framework-Guidelines/)
• Make the Inclusive Publishing a top priority at the senior
management level of the company [appoint a person
responsible for accessibility concerns]
• Build up partnerships with agencies specialized in
providing accessible material (libraries for the blind,
service centres for disabled students etc.)

26. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
WHERE TO START - TECHNICALLY?
EPUB 3 STANDARD
Natively supports key accessibility requirements
built-in accessibility
Open de facto standard for eBooks
XML based – XHTML5 – HTML5
Developed and maintained by the International Digital
Publishing Forum (IDPF), not-for-profit [http://idpf.org/]
In close collaboration with the Inclusive Publishing - focused
community (DAISY Consortium) [http://www.daisy.org/]

27. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
EPUB 3 has Accessibility features
Open standard (IDPF) with support for video, interactivity
– navigability
– read aloud feature (“Media Overlays”)
– reflowable
– global language support
– text-to-speech support
– MathML support (scientific content)
– scalable vector graphics (SVG)
– online / offline reading
– rich metadata management

28. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
EPUB 3 works everywhere
• Computer
• Mobile phones
• Tablets
• Numerous apps for different platforms
• Add-ins for browser

29. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Retailer adoption of EPUB 3
• Apple
• Kobo
• Barnes & Noble
• Sony
• Google

30. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Association of American Publishers
recommends EPUB 3
• Format for global distribution of e-books
• The goal is to rapidly advance the adoption of EPUB 3 by
publishers and retailers over the next six months and
have publishers release a large number of titles to the
marketplace that use the standard in the first quarter of
2014
• “retailers, digital content distributors, device makers,
reading systems providers, assistive technology experts
and standards organizations” are involved

31. What would inclusive publishing look like?
How we publish How we read
Mainstream
Distribution
Mainstream
Publication
(Authors &
Publishers)
People
(With or without
Disabilities)
Publishing
Technology
Industry
Publishing
standards
and laws
• ONE version of a book, that anyone can read, the way they want...and it is a
better read for all.
• Dramatically increasing the number and timeliness of publications, usable by
people with disabilities.
31

32. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Will there be no need of
alternate formats?
• Access-enhanced books would still be required for
certain content and users with special needs
• These would be a separate version of a mainstream
publication, modified to be read by disabled persons
using their eyes, ears or fingers to read.
• This may include:
• Re-design for Braille, adding additional description, speech
narration.
• Often, distributed separately via a special library.
DAISY will continue to be the preferred format for such
use cases

33. Example of Inclusive Publishing
www.unicef.org/sowc2013

34. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
What is DAISY?
• Open standard for structured, accessible digital books
DAISY 2.02 most widely adopted, DAISY 3 (formally
DAISY/NISO Z39.86 2005), DAISY features built into
EPUB 3
• Synchronized text, audio and image files
• Portable - well received internationally
• Navigable and feature-rich
• 3 types of DAISY books: audio and full text,
audio with navigation and text-only

35. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
The DAISY Consortium
Our Vision
• People have equal access to information and
knowledge, regardless of disabilities
Our Mission
• Working to create the best way to read and
publish, for everybody, in the 21st
century
By delivering global partnerships ... that build a
more effective solution for everyone

36. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
IDPF
• The global trade and standards association for
electronic publishing.
• The IDPF develops and maintains the EPUB® standard
format for reflowable digital books and other digital
publications that are interoperable between disparate
reading devices and applications.
• The IDPF also provides a forum that fosters enhanced
communication between all stakeholders in the
emerging global digital publishing industry

37. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Partners in change
• The DAISY Consortium will continue to be committed
to collaboration with the IDPF in the development and
evolution of digital publishing standards
• The DC & IDPF are also sharing key resources: Markus
Gylling is the CTO of both organizations
• DAISY Consortium has endorsed EPUB 3 as the
preferred standard for eBooks
• DAISY Consortium has developed open source and free
tools for conversion to DAISY & EPUB 3

38. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
THE PATH TO INCLUSIVE PUBLISHING
• Focus on EPUB 3
• Assume Social Responsibility - Make Accessibility
a top Priority (in your company)
• Think of Image Descriptions (non-textual elements)
• Develop Partnerships (with organizations that can make your
eBooks more accessible / access-enhancements)
• Add Accessibility Meta Data (to your products)
The ONIX Standard List 196 E-publication Accessibility Details
http://www.editeur.org/files/ONIX%20for%20books%20-%20code%20lists/ONIX_BookProduct_CodeLists_Issue_19.html

39. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
Things to remember
• Everything digital is not accessible
• There is no need to sacrifice look & feel of the
book to make it accessible
• Accessibility is the result of semantic markup,
good coding practices and adherence to
standards
• All EPUB 3 files are not accessible unless
accessibility guidelines are followed

40. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
User story
A new customer
• An avid reader
• Waited for Braille or
audio editions of best
sellers for most of his life
• Now purchases eBooks
on Apple & Google the
day it is published
• Reads books on iPhone or
Braille displayBlind, age 40
Lives in Mumbai, India

41. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
TO KNOW MORE (I)
• EPUB Forums: http://idpf.org/forums
• EPUB Accessibility Forum: http://idpf.org/forums/epub-accessibility
• EPUB Accessibility Guidelines: http://idpf.org/accessibility/guidelines/
O‘Reilly publications
http://shop.oreilly.com/
“Best Practices” (February 2013)

42. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
TO KNOW MORE (II)
DAISY, EPUB 3 and Publishers
http://daisy.org/daisy-epub-3-developments/
EPUB 3 Samples
http://code.google.com/p/epub-samples/
EPUB 3 Validator
http://validator.idpf.org/

43. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
TO KNOW MORE (III)
Reading Systems
• READIUM (reference implementation, developed by IDPF
[http://readium.org/]
• READIUM (now on Chrome Web Store)
[http://readium.org/news/readium-now-on-chrome-web-store]
• Book Industry Study Group (BISG) maintains the EPUB 3 Support
Grid [http://www.bisg.org/what-we-do-16-152-epub-3-support-grid.php]

44. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
It is a “BOOK FAMINE” for people
with print disabilities.
Let us do our bit in ending the
BOOK FAMINE

45. Creating the Best Way to Read and Publish
THANK YOU
Prashant Ranjan Verma
Email: pverma@daisy.org
Web: www.daisy.org
Questions?