TOC Bologna 2012: The Lia Project: Providing Accessible Books in EPUB for People with Reading Disabilities (Cristina Mussinelli)

THE LIA PROJECT:PROVIDING ACCESSIBLE BOOKS IN EPUB FOR PEOPLE (KIDS)WITH READING DISABILITIES

TOC BOLOGNA, 18TH MARCH 2012

RNIB - I'd miss - A World Without Books - YouTube

RNIB - I'd miss - A World Without Books

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In 2008, the Spanish National Organization of the Blind (ONCE), in co-operation with the Children’s Committee of the World Blind Union (WBU) hosted an international congress in one of its educational resource centers. Its aim was to facilitate a gathering of blind and partially sighted teenagers from the different regions of the world and enable them to reflect on their lives and put forward their demands and needs.

The concerns of the children from industrialized countries focus on social affairs:not wanting to feel or look different from their peers; accessing information; feeling happy with themselves as people with a visual impairment; and feeling integrated.

Internationally the issues of accessibility and inclusion have gained momentum and there are several initiatives and projects going on at institutional level.

Publishing is involved at every level of accessibility initiative, from work with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on a worldwide standard of best practice for accessibility to individual company action.

Alliances are consolidating between groups representing those with print disabilities and those supporting the publishing industry: Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), Publishers Licensing Society (PLS), JISC TechDis support work on large print sales models, accessible e-book platforms and guidance on obtaining textbooks in alternative formats to name just a few examples.

At European level, projects such as ETIN and eAccess+ are also focusing on accessibility of contents.

Print disabilities, including blindness and low vision, affect a consistent part of population all over Europe, the more so if we consider overall ageing population.

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The LIA Project – Libri Italiani Accessibili aims at providing a service able to increase the availability on the market of digital publications accessible for blind and visual impaired.

The Project is coordinated by Associazione Italiana Editori, (Italian Publishers Association) and managed by its service company Ediser working in collaboration with the Italian Blind Union.

It is funded by the Italian Ministry for Culture in compliance with the “Fund in favour of publishing for blind and visual impaired”.

The Project aims at creating an online catalogue of 3,000 accessible titles including fiction and essays from Italian and foreign authors that will be then update in the following years.

The funding idea is to include accessibility in mainstream production and distribution flows rather than to create a dedicated stream. Such outline will advantage blind and visual impaired as they will be able to purchase and/or lend ebooks at the same conditions than sighted readers (in terms of channels and time), with tangible benefits for their inclusion in wider socio-cultural terms.

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The Project, set off in 2011, is biennial and can be divided in two stages:a pilot stage and a working stage.

During the first stage, ended by the end of 2011, preliminary studies necessary to define all the aspects of service have been carried out.

In particular:

• Survey on reading habits and use of technologies by blind and visual impaired;• Analysis of accessible production formats;• Accessibility tests;• Analysis of metadata;• Design of production, cataloguing and distribution flows of accessible versions.

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THE LIA PROJECT

THE SURVEY

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The survey was carried out in 2011 in collaboration with Unione Italiana Ciechi (Italian Blind Union) and Conferenza Nazionale Universitaria dei Delegati per la Disabilità (National Conference of University Delegates for Disability). Scientific coordination was made by the Milan University Università degli Studi Milano - Bicocca along with the main Italian survey company Doxa.

The most significant result emerging from the survey, how much and how frequently blind and visual impaired read, highlights they are keen readers: in a sample totaling 1,505 persons, the average of books read yearly is nine per capita, three times more than the national average of sighted readers.

Survey also examined:• the relation between blind and visual impaired and reading;• availability and use by blind and visual impaired of reading digital devices such as tablets, ereaders etc.

In particular:• how much and how frequently blind and visual impaired read books;• which is or would be their favourite literary genre;• what reading instruments they use: formats, software and devices.

THE SURVEY

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What about younger readers?

The survey includes a qualitative focus with interviews to some secondary school students, emerging as equally keen readers as other age groups. Adults, both teachers and parents, play a strong role in the choice of texts to convert into Braille or audio book format. Kids are only marginally involved in selection, meaning the books at their disposal exclude best sellers and “must have” for their age, considered “non educational” by adults.

LIA would aim at including in its catalogue a section of books for younger blind and visual impaired readers meant to offer them equal access to entertainment and information as their sighted peers.

The great majority of titles will be “pure text” books – more complex titles, such as illustratedbooks, will be carefully examined to understandthe difficulties in making such publications accessible.

1010

Every day Sometimes

a weekOnce a week Sometimes

a month

Sometimes

a year

Sighted readers of at least one book in the last 12 months 46.8%(Source: Istat 2010)

Average number of books read in preceding three months 2.71

(Source Nielsen for Cebel 2010)

Sighted readers of at least one book in the last 12 months 46.8%(Source: Istat 2010)

Average number of books read in preceding three months 2.71

(Source Nielsen for Cebel 2010)

Sighted readers of at least one book in the last 12 months 46.8%(Source: Istat 2010)

Average number of books read in preceding three months 2.71

(Source Nielsen for Cebel 2010)

Sighted readers of at least one book in the last 12 months 46.8%(Source: Istat 2010)

Average number of books read in preceding three months 2.71

(Source Nielsen for Cebel 2010)

Sighted readers of at least one book in the last 12 months 46.8%(Source: Istat 2010)

Average number of books read in preceding three months 2.71

(Source Nielsen for Cebel 2010)

Sighted readers of at least one book in the last 12 months 46.8%(Source: Istat 2010)

Average number of books read in preceding three months 2.71

(Source Nielsen for Cebel 2010)

Sighted readers of at least one book in the last 12 months 46.8%(Source: Istat 2010)

Average number of books read in preceding three months 2.71

(Source Nielsen for Cebel 2010)

Sighted readers of at least one book in the last 12 months 46.8%(Source: Istat 2010)

Average number of books read in preceding three months 2.71

(Source Nielsen for Cebel 2010)

Average number of per capita books read by visual impaired in the last 12 months: 9.2

Sighted readers of at least one book in the last 12 months 46.8%(Source: Istat 2010)

Average number of books read in preceding three months 2.71

(Source Nielsen for Cebel 2010)

THE SURVEY

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Digital formats29.7%

THE SURVEY

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THE LIA PROJECT

FORMAT ANALYSIS AND ACCESSIBILITY TESTS

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FORMAT ANALYSIS AND ACCESSIBILITY TESTS

The operating structure of LIA, in tight cooperation with the major international projects active in the field of accessibility, like ETIN at EC level, TIGAR under the aegis of WIPO, and organizations such as IDPF, identified the EPUB format as the most suitable standard for the production and distribution of the 3,000 accessible titles foreseen as final objective of the project.

This choice was made considering the following:

• EPUB is presently the standard most used internationally by publishers for producing ebooks;• EPUB 3.0 is a highly accessible format, as its specifics include those of the DAISY format, one of the most used standards for producing accessible contents.

Namely, the accessibility of an EPUB 3 file is granted by an improved navigation of contents, possible thanks to a complete and flexible representation of content and to the use of semantic tags.

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The first phase of analysis took part in cooperation with national and international accessibility experts and emphasized that digital file accessibility originates from the composite interaction of the following elements:

• the file created by the publisher; • the reading software (assistive and/or mainstream);• the specific reading device;• the DRM type applied to the file;• the kind of disability of user.

Contemporarily, tests were made on some EPUB 2 sample files provided by publishers who agreed to join the pilot stage. The results allowed to define the characteristics an EPUB 2 or 3 must include to be fully accessible. Such features were organized in a specific chart, shared with accessibility experts.

FORMAT ANALYSIS AND ACCESSIBILITY TESTS

Best practice guidelines for publishers to follow in their production process and, where appropriate, to integrate existing standards (including ONIX, ePub and DAISY) into mainstream publishing are starting to circulate. LIA has provided the translation into Italian of the Accessible Publishing, Best Practice Guidelines for Publishers recently released by EDItEUR and produced its Tagging best practice guide for accessible ebooks in Italian, available on request at LIA office.

For further reference:http://www.editeur.org/109/Enabling-Technologies-Framework/ http://search.oreilly.com/?q=accessible+epub+3

Ebook accessibili: best

practice di taggaturaEbook accessibili: best

practice di taggatura

ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES

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THE LIA PROJECT

PRODUCTION, CATALOGUING AND DISTRIBUTION: USING

MAINSTREAM FLOWS

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WOULD-BE LIA ECOSYSTEM

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THE LIA CATALOGUE

The LIA catalogue will be available on the website www.libriitalianiaccessibili.it.

By the end of the project, the idea would be to have some 3,000 titles as wide-ranging as possible, ideally including best-sellers, literary prizes, with a specific section for children and teens.

• User searches for title inside the accessible ebooks catalogue;

• User consults ebook metadata list including:- bibliographic indications; - accessibility metadata;- info on which online store/library has the accessible ebook for sale/lending.

• Every chosen title will enter in an accessible order, transferred to the selected online store/library.

• User will pay on the online store/library site.

• Should the “LIA compliant” certified file be different from the file for sighted readers, blind and visual impaired users could possibly be requested to produce a medical certificate in order to be authenticated as such.

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LIA SERVICES FOR PUBLISHERS AND USERS

• LIA will offer publishers training activities such as:- guidelines for the production of accessible ebooks;- dedicated training lessons on content accessibility;- support for the creation of accessible ebooks.

• Conversion of EPUB 2 files into EPUB 3 accessible files (EPUB2 compliant);

• “LIA compliant” certification of file accessibility;

• Filling of accessibility metadata: code list 196 integrated in ONIX for Books v. 2.1 and 3.0

• Users will find in a dedicated section of the site useful information on the use of technologies, tests on reading devices, updates on newest innovations.

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The LIA StaffThe LIA Staff

Project ManagerCristina Mussinelli [email protected]

Project Assistants

Rosa Mugavero [email protected] Mutti [email protected]

Tel. +39.02 89280808Fax +39.02 89280868