Accessibility of Mainstream E-Book Readers - CSUN 2014

Accessibility of Mainstream E-Book Readers

Ken Petri, The Ohio State UniversityHadi Rangin, University of Illinois, Urbana-

Champaign

CSUN 2014 Conference

CSUN 2014 E-Book-Related Presentations

• Today– 9:20: “Testing Mainstream eBook Systems: Which is Most

Accessible” (Kindle, Kobo, Nook)– 1:50, presentation by Amazon on cross-platform a11y with Kindle

products– 3:10, George Kerscher’s “Reading System Showdown”

• Tomorrow– Two 8 AM sessions, one on challenges publishers face in producing

accessible books, one about consumer acceptance of them– 10:40, looking at EPUB3 cross platform accessibility (VitalSource)– (And three sessions on accessible math in e-books)

Formats Considered: PDF/UA

• Technical standard for PDF software developers, defining how to render PDF so that they are accessible

• “Matterhorn Protocol” lists the ways PDF/UA can be failed- Reverse engineered, it suggests implementation

guidelines

Formats: iBooks and KF8

• iBooks– Proprietary implementation of EPUB 3– Not (currently) transformable to EPUB 3

• But iBooks reader renders a lot of EPUB 3 (and on iOS makes that pretty accessible)

• Amazon KF8 (Kindle Format 8)– Proprietary. Similar to EPUB 3: implements HTML5 and

CSS3 subsets– Missing: Video, audio, SVG (though has full-page graphics),

media overlays (?, Audible synchronized reading), MathML– Book ecosystem lock-in

Formats: EPUB 3• Overhaul of EPUB 2• Incorporates all major DAISY features (replacing DAISY?)

– Accessibility pedigree: Key DAISY Consortium and other a11y personnel

• Video, audio, SVG, MathML, Media Overlays, JavaScript (interactivity), print-faithful pagination, HTML5 and CSS3 (large subset, including ARIA and forms), Fixed layout or reflowable, footnotes

• Canonical Fragment Identifiers (CFI)– Precise indexing of location and ranges intra-ebook and from

external references. Could also be for things like notes, highlights, bookmarks?: Cross-platform notes, highlights, and bookmarks a possibility.

• “Dictionaries” (glossaries) and “Indexes” are new proposed extensions

Current EPUB3 Implementation Issues

• No viable TTS/Braille+math across platforms (though lots of good work coming from MathPlayer Alpha and Google ChromeVox)

• No cross-platform/reader solution for bookmarks, progress, notes, highlights (CFI a possible candidate?)

• Video and audio may require custom solution until wide support for HTML5 video captions– And what about audio description (AD) support?

Existing E-Book A11y Criteria• NISO DTB prioritized features list (1999)

– Informed NLS player features• W3C UAAG 2.0 (last call, Nov. 2013)

– Browsers, media players, other internet apps that render web content• EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines (IDPF, updated 2014)

– Checklist and Best Practices for EPUB 3 authoring• BISG, DAISY Consortium and IDPF EPUBTest.org (2014)

– Comparative EPUB 3 support grid, reader by reader• Accessibility Screening Methodology Guidelines and Checklist (May

2013)– DAISY Consortium with Tech for All– Functional criteria and tests for file management, reading, reading visual

adjustment, navigation, annotation, and media playback for eReaders and digital reading systems

EPUB 3 Best Practices

Goals of Our Functional Criteria

• Derived from existing criteria, esp. Screening Methodology Checklist

• End-user oriented criteria (like EPUBTest.org)– Comparative grid– Want novice to be able to read (and contribute?)

• Focus on functional accessibility, arranged by disability categories

• Goal of an organization/individual being able to use this in adoption/selection of a platform

• Presupposes that EPUB 3 is long term solution

Organization of Our Criteria

• Platform and Application category– Web-based mainstream, PC/Mac installed

mainstream, Android mainstream, iOS mainstream, Academic web-based, Academic installed, PC/MAC installed disability/specialized, Mainstream dedicated device

• Disability Category– Blind/severe vision impairment, “Low Vision,”

Deaf and HoH, Color deficit, Motor, Cognitive/non-vision reading disability

Readers Surveyed

• Initial survey: More than 40 readers/systems– First cut: down to 14– Matrix very “sparse” (that is, we did a lot of

testing, but it’s not filled out <frown>)• However…. We will discuss: Kindle, iBooks,

Azardi, VitalSource (PC), Blio, Google Play, Adobe Digital Editions, Nook Study, Readium project

Criteria: Global• Independent setup and activation by PwD• Import/load/purchase e-book accessible• List and search titles and authors• Discover e-book metadata (author, publisher, reading progress, etc.)• Simple and minimal controls• Rich navigation by bookmark, highlight, note, chapter, sub-section• Make/remove bookmarks, highlights, notes• Remembered reading progress and indication of progress in book

easily discoverable• For TTS, book reading resumable from previous paused position

Select Criteria: Blind/Severe Visual Impairment

• All functionality available through reader built-in TTS or 3rd-party screen reader

• Direct access to book text (to select, copy)• Set highlights, make notes• Adjustable speech rate, mute, pause• Controls identifiable/discoverable by touch• Accessible MathML• Image alternatives voiced• Fine-grained navigation: headings, tables, markup, lists, words,

characters• Navigation by book structure: Table of Contents• Media players with accessible controls and audio description capability

Criteria: “Low Vision”

• Distinguishable controls (by touch or voiced)• Font face choices• Enlargeable book text• Full typographic control of book text • User-interface type/icons enlargeable• Set high contrast or adopts native OS high-

contrast settings

Criteria: Color Deficit

• No differentiation of controls by color alone

Criteria: Motor Disability

• Devices light, durable, mountable• Touch screen allows for non-human (pointer

stick, etc.) interactivity and emulation of multiple touch via single point

• Navigable by voice (3rd-party or built-in)• Touch screen allows for loose precision, controls

cycleable• Controls actuated by alternative pointing

devices

Criteria: Cognitive/Non-Vision Reading

• Synchronized highlighting of TTS, including media overlays

• Page indication aligns/can align with paper book• Text manipulation or other settings can create low

visual “noise”/non-distracting page views• Notes, highlights, progress, bookmarks sync across

platform/instance• Reference lookup in 3rd-party sources• If quizzing or other interactivity, no imposed time

limits or time can be extended

Criteria: Deaf and Hard of Hearing

• Essential audio-only cues/alerts have visual equivalents (book syncs with server, bookmark set/removed, etc., should get visual notification)

• Synchronized captions for embedded video/multimedia presentations

• Mono audio output configurable

Subset for Discussion

• Screen reader access (to interface and contents)• Text control: Contrast, font face, text size, margins,

kerning, line height, work spacing• Highlighted synchronized reading• Notes and highlights• Cross-platform sync• Captioned video (and AD?)• Math rendering and accessibility• Accessible interactivity

Not (Currently) Considered• Blio PC/Mac: Crashes, poor SR suppoort, XPS (very little support in

readers)• Adobe Reader: Good for PDF, but a document reader, not a reading

system• Specialized: Poor or no support for EPUB 3

– Dolphin EasyReader and gh ReadHear– Darwin Reader and GoRead on Android– Read2Go on iOS

• Academic: Proprietary formats– CourseSmart:– Inkling– Illinois E-Text– Courseload (appears to be moving toward EPUB 3)

Adobe Digital Editions

• EPUB 2, only (no math, video, interactivity)• Screen reader accessibility to reading, but text

selection buggy• Only size control of text, but does adopt OS high-

contrast mode• Notes and highlights (but not for screen readers• Isolated, no syncing since is stand-alone• Adobe appears to have no plans to move forward

with ADE

Blio

• Installed version showed initial promise, but unclear if platform is progressing

• On iOS, notes and highlighting very similar to Kindle (usable)

• Only EPUB 2 capable, almost no support for EPUB 3 (outside of simple import – through iTunes on iOS)

• Need to buy voice to get highlighted, synced reading. Limited control of speed, synchronization issues apparent

• Android version: Can’t find a way to set a highlight using TalkBack

Azardi

• Nearly equivalent functionality in web-based and installed versions

• Strong support of EPUB 3 rendering, including Math, video (currently no captions due to Mozilla dependency), audio, interactivity, and text styling. Support for media overlays with speed adjustments

• Good control of layout, fonts, and sizing• Multiple built-in contrast settings and accepts

Windows high-contrast

iBooks Mac

• iBooks Mac: “Feels beta”– essentially impossible to use effectively with VO,

lots of unlabeled controls and difficulty getting into text

– Good EPUB 3 rendering: Basic MathML, video, audio (but no captions, since depends on native player

– Highlights, notes, etc.– Decent text styling

iBooks iOS

• Can import EPUB 3 via iTunes and most complete rendering on iOS, including MathML (MathML is accessible with VoiceOver if rendered in Safari iOS), video, audio (not media overlays)

• Notes and highlights not available with EPUB 3 sideloaded content, only on iBooks Textbooks– Note-taking and highlighting probably not as

simple or controlable as on Kindle iOS

Google Play

• Four killer features:– Sync of highlights, notes, progress, bookmarks across all platforms– Import PDF or EPUB and share seamlessly across platforms (no

vendor lock-in or sync restrictions)– EPUB books get highlighted reading– Print faithful pagination (and can get some books with photocopy of

original pages (good for archival work))• Weak/no support for EPUB 3: no video, audio, math, overlays,

etc.• Good adjustability of control and text + font choices (browser

and player cooperate to give large range of text sizing) • Generally poor screen reader accessibility on all platforms

Kindle

• KF8 (so, no video, audio, MathML at this point) and experience vendor lock-in

• Very solid accessibility on Android with TalkBack and probably most VO accessible mainstream reader on iOS (esp. for highlights and notes)

• Kindle Fire HDX has best TalkBack support on an Android platform, and book reader works better on HDX than on, say, Nexus 7

• Limitations on PC (“Kindle for PC with accessibility plug-in”) only allows for built-in TTS navigation and note-taking on a per-page level, with minimal control of reading granularity

Nook Study

Nook Study• No EPUB 3 support• But….

– PDF and EPUB books can be sideloaded and both support word-by-word TTS-synced highlighting playback (Google Play only highlights with EPUB)

– TTS moves by sentence, with ability to skip and replay (like Kindle for PC)– Interface can be set to be fully “tabbable”– Book-faithful pagination– 6 font choices and multiple layout and contrast options– Killer feature: Dual-book view– Solid note-taking, highlighting, searching, etc.

• Screen reader will conflict with built in TTS• No SR access to book text

VitalSource (PC)

VitalSource (PC)

VitalSource (PC)

VitalSource (PC)

• Supports most of EPUB 3 and makes that contents screen reader and keyboard only accessible

• Uses IE’s video player for captioned, multi-lingual subtitled video (only rendering TTML currently (bug in IE 11?)

• Renders MathML and can use MathPlayer (if your version of IE supports MathPlayer, that is)

• Adopts Windows High-Contrast settings• Can sideload EPUB 3• TTS read-aloud and SR accessible highlighting and note-

taking (only with VS books)

Readium

• EPUB 3 reference implementation: video & audio, MathML (via MathJax), media overlays, layouts, styling, interactivity, SVG, pages, etc.

• No screen reader access, even with ChromeVox

Whither E-Book Readers?

Readium JS (for browser implementations)Readium SDK (for native app implementations)

A bright future, so long as vendors fully consider accessibility (like VitalSource is doing)