EPUB Accessibility Techniques

Technical level: Intermediate (knowledge of HTML recommended)

Duration: 4 hours 55 minutes (online self-paced class, estimate)

IAAP Education Credits: 5.00 (This course counts toward renewal of IAAP certification)

Course Synopsis:

EPUB has a built-in accessibility advantage that no other document format can match: it is made of the same stuff as the web. Because every EPUB 3 publication is built from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, the techniques that make websites accessible make ebooks accessible too. This course covers the full accessible EPUB production lifecycle — building accessibility in from the start, auditing an existing EPUB for conformance, and fixing what you find — and shows how EPUB Accessibility 1.1 and WCAG 2.2 Level AA work together.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

Describe the EPUB 3 file structure, including the OCF ZIP container, the package document, the navigation document, and XHTML content documents.
Declare correct accessibility metadata: access modes, accessibility features, hazard declarations, and conformance claims.
Apply semantic markup and the DPUB-ARIA role vocabulary to headings, lists, tables, figures, and footnotes.
Write effective alt text and extended descriptions, including for complex images such as charts and diagrams.
Build accessible navigation structures: table of contents, landmarks, and page list.
Handle multimedia, scripted content, Media Overlays, and mathematical equations accessibly.
Validate files with EPUBCheck and Ace by DAISY, and test manually with screen readers across reading systems.
Convert documents from Word and HTML to accessible EPUB, and know what to check and repair afterward.
Understand the European Accessibility Act and other legal requirements relevant to accessible ebook publishing.