Ask the Expert: Accessible reading experiences

Accessible reading experiences

In this session host Katie Durand and accessibility experts Miia Kirsi and Kirsi Ylänne from the Accessibility Library Celia in Finland dive into what makes an accessible reading experience for readers with print disabilities. 

Watch the video registration of this session. 

The experts

Miia Kirsi has a background in publishing, particularly in nonfiction, educational publishing, and digital learning. She is a member of the W3C Publishing Community Group, the Nordic Accessibility Community Group, and she's also a member of the Finnish Advisory Committee for Easy Language. 

Kirsi Ylänne is an accessibility specialist at the Accessibility Library Celia. In the past she worked as a production manager from 2005 to 2014. She is currently a standing committee member of the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) in the Libraries serving persons with print disability section. She served on that from 2015 to 2023, and she was the section chair from 2017 to 2021. She was also a member of the Finnish Braille Authority from 2006 to 2018. 

Questions and answers

What is meant by ‘print disability’?

Any kind of a disability that hinders or negatively affects a person's ability to read printed text such as books or magazines. For instance visual impairments such as blindness or low vision. Also cognitive or developmental issues or a learning disability such as dyslexia or developmental language disorder. Or mobility or dexterity disabilities such as difficulties using hands or fingers.

What is meant by assistive technology for reading?

Examples are: 

• screen readers that convey the visible information on the screen either to a text to speech, so it converts to audio or braille on a braille display; 

• screen magnifiers that provide a larger zoom than a browser would; 

• voice control and smart assistants and tools like that will can be considered assistive technologies that people use for reading. 

What are accessibility features in an e-book?

Accessibility features are meant to make the use of technology to read an e-book less challenging for persons with a print disability. They can also be useful for everyone else. Examples are font sizing or choosing different font options, other layout options, such as turning the colours for font and background, changing the colours, navigation options, an accessible table of content. 

What are visual adjustments?

Adjustment of text size, colour and contrast. A responsive text is advised, because the text dynamically adjusts to fit within the available space. An EPUB3 e-book can do this. 

How can navigation in an e-book increase accessibility?

For someone using assistive technology such as a screen reader a good table of contents is essential to understanding what's in the title and how it's organized. The Table of contents with chapters and subheadings is like adding a superpower useful for everyone, but especially for those with print disabilities. Besides providing an orientation to the publication, the table of contents can be used to jump straight to a specific part of the book. 

What does the Read Aloud app do?

Read Aloud is a feature often included in reading apps on computers, tablets, smartphones, and websites. It is a feature that helps especially people with dyslexia, where persons with a visual impairment make use of screen readers more often. Some Read Aloud functions also convey the alt text to users, if that option is chosen. So you don't necessarily need a separate screenreader to access alt text. And people who are struggling to understand what they see in the images, or have a learning disabilities could get help from alt text via Read Aloud. So it's not just visually impaired persons who can benefit from alt text. 

What is the difference between a screen reader and Read Aloud?

Read Aloud uses text-to-speech (TTS) technology. TTS technology converts written text into spoken words. It’s typically used to provide audio feedback in apps, narrate e-books out loud, create audio versions of written content. One of the key differences between TTS and a screen reader is their customization options. Most TTS software lets users choose from a variety of voices and adjust the tone of the speech. Screen readers offer a much wider range of personalization options, including the ability to adjust the narrator’s voice and speech rate, punctuation, language, and much more. 

How can publishers ensure that accessibility features in mainstream e-books work smoothly with different assistive technologies?

Use the international standards. It would be impossible to test with all the different combinations of operating systems, different reading systems and software, together with different assistive technologies. When an e-book complies with the standard, for example, EPUB standard, the assistive technology will be able to use the semantic markup of the e-book. 

What are important standards and specifications to rely on for creating accessible e-books?

• The latest EPUB standards: EPUB 3.3 and EPUB Accessibility, 1.1 

• PDF UA/2 (UA stands for universal accessibility).  

• WCAG 2.2. 

• EPUB Fixed Layout Accessibility Document (work in progress). 

There are separate specifications for EPUB reading software: 

• EPUB reading software 3.3  

• WCAG 2.2 

It is the responsibility of the developers of the assistive technology to make sure that there is support for the latest operating systems and specifications like HTML, WCAG and WAI ARIA. 

When all the contributors in the production and distribution chain follow the same standards, the reading experience can be made accessible. 

How are fixed layout e-books experienced by print disabled readers?

First of all, if the fixed layout e-book is done really well (i.e. it has a good reading order, and it works with assistive technology) a print disabled person who is blind and uses a screen reader can access it. They may not even know that it's a fixed layout book, because they get the content in the right order, and then they can navigate in the content quite well. 

However, when it comes to the visual adjustments, and if a reader finds it easier to read with the different paragraph width, or if they want to enlarge the font, they will not be able to change this in a fixed layout e-book. 

We also recognize that there will be need for some fixed layout e-books, for example e-books about typography or art. But we hope that it is used only when there is a good reason for it. 

Are mathematical formulas interpreted the same way by MathML code and reading systems?

There is a project called MathCAT (Math, capable assistive technology). The aim is to make sure that MathML will be read aloud correctly. But also there is building support for braille displays. 

There was a presentation about MathCAT on MathCAT at the Digital Publishing Summit 2024. 

What are useful reading apps?

• Thorium Reader by EDRLab. Available for PC, Mac and Linux computers. It is open source and it's available in many languages. 

• Colibrio Reader. There is also a browser version: Vanilla Reader.  

• Native software on mobile devices, like Apple IBooks or Google Playbooks. 

If you don't want an artificial voice, can you choose among different voices, maybe a more natural voice? 

There has been amazing progress with the AI voices and voice cloning. If we wait a couple of years, there will be really good artificial voices. We have to keep up with the technology and look what kind of developments there will be in the near future. 

Is it possible to give a notice to a publisher if you come across an ebook that's not access accessible, if yes, how can you do this?

The first thing is to contact the shop where you bought the e-book. This might be the online shop. But if you know who the publisher is, you can go to the publisher’s website and look for an accessibility statement. They might even list contact details to ask them for an accessible version. And if nothing else helps and when the European Accessibility Act is enforced, there is a supervisory authority you van contact and make a complaint that a certain e-book wasn't accessible. 

What is the role of specialized libraries with complex publications?

There will remain work for specialized libraries also. There will be books that even though they are e-books, they are maybe in fixed layout and therefore not so accessible. So specialized libraries will continue to produce those very difficult books into more accessible formats. And when persons with print disabilities don't find the accessible format in the commercial market they can turn to the specialized libraries. 

Read more about the APACE Project