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

2. 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.

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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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

9. 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

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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?

22. 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

23. Please fill out the evaluation for this session at:

24. Thanks for your attention
Questions and discussion