Accessibility Continues to Evolve in Education Publishing
/by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
In an article we published on this blog back in 2017, we highlighted some of the challenges, complexities and benefits associated with making digital educational content (K-12 and Higher Ed) more accessible for visually and cognitively impaired readers.
Fast forward several years and the sector’s commitment to digital equality has really been put to the test. As millions of students all over the world switched to remote learning, educational publishers and learning providers had to act quickly to ensure that all the right resources and content were available digitally in order to support students’ rapidly evolving needs.
As ebook libraries were opened up and elearning courses became the norm, the pressure was on to guarantee that no student would be left behind. With an estimated 1.3 billion people around the globe classified as having some form of visual impairment, it was critical for publishers to adhere to mandates, such as NIMAS and Section 508, and to produce “born accessible” content, to support each and every student’s learning during the pandemic.
There were a few hiccups along the way. An article in the Indian newspaper The Hindu, claimed that over 60% of chapters and over 95% of ebooks on the government’s virtual learning platform were either totally or partially inaccessible to the visually impaired. Meanwhile, in the UK, an e-exam portal came under scrutiny for being inaccessible for blind and partially sighted students. But overall, the general consensus is that, while there is always more work to be done, we are heading in the right direction, particularly where books are concerned, and working towards providing more equitable digital educational content for all.
Education publishers specifically have become incredibly savvy at following at least some of the tried-and-tested processes to make their digital book content more accessible. For the most part, books are now produced in HTML or EPUB so that type size can be adjusted by the user, accessibility metadata has become more widespread, as has the practice of adding alt-text image descriptions, and in many cases text-to-speech is also being applied.
But there are also many new innovations, which have come to the fore during the pandemic, taking us even further down this road. In Ireland, the pandemic saw users flock to the NCBI’s largest accessible digital library Bookshare.ie. Using the service’s EasyReader app, dyslexic students can read with dyslexia friendly fonts, visually impaired readers can expand text, adjust color and contrast, and blind readers can access Braille ready files, audio and DAISY books. A winner of the 2021 Apple Design Awards, a text-to-speech app called Voice Dream Reader reads text aloud from all kinds of digital sources, including PDFs, websites and ebooks. It has adaptive features allowing users to choose voices of different tones, accents and timbres, and a range of speeds for reading at different paces. Meanwhile, many of the major technology players such as Google, Apple and Microsoft have also been busy investing in and working on new features that cater to people with disabilities and impairments to ensure that from a technology and device perspective there is an even playing field.
For education publishers, accessibility is becoming increasingly important, not just because of the mandates and legal requirements, but also due to the commercial opportunities associated with broadening the reach of content, not to mention the social and ethical imperative. The pandemic has only enhanced this progression and our urgent need for accessible content. And with additional mandates like the European Accessibility Act coming down the track, and further investment in assistive technology expected, we can anticipate great improvements in this field in the future.
KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) is a champion of digital equality. For further resources and guidance on accessibility standards and compliance for journals, books, digital media, websites, eLearning, and more, visit kwglobal.com/accessibility or email us at info@kwglobal.com.
