“The importance of providing equal access to information and learning experiences is nothing new, yet we consistently find that digital resources and technologies fall short” of accessibility for patrons and students with print and other disabilities, Trisha Prevett, eLearning librarian for Southern New Hampshire University said to open the "Born Accessible: Creating Equal Digital Learning Experiences for All" panel at the American Library Association (ALA) 2021 Annual Conference and Exhibition, held virtually from June 23–29. “We must ensure that libraries are providing resources that are truly accessible for all.”

Prevett moderated, and was joined on the panel by Michael Johnson, director of content partnerships for the nonprofit software company Benetech; Anaya Jones, eLearning librarian, Southern New Hampshire University; George Kerscher, chief innovation officer for the DAISY Consortium; and David Mitchell, business director, Guilford Publications.

Following introductions, Kerscher began by defining the “born accessible” model. “Coming directly from the publisher or author, [content] should be fully accessible to all disability groups” without requiring enhancements or alterations by librarians or other third parties. “So with EPUBs, for example, you’ve got the ability to reflow the content, pick different fonts, colors, backgrounds, things like this. The content enables that to be done, and the reading system implements…those functions,” he explained.

Unfortunately, many publishers don’t meet this standard. Ebooks “may not be in a format that allows for reflow like EPUB does. There may be missing pieces, like images [that] do not have alt text, or—if they’re really carrying a lot of information in a graphic—an extended description which provides more information, so that a person with a disability would be able to understand that whole document,” Kerscher said.

Jones said that another barrier is the lack of awareness that “different disabilities have different needs for different content, and more importantly…that we all have [a role] when it comes to ensuring that accessible content exists. I should not be able to think off the top of my head as many stories as I have of working with vendors and then having to explain ‘the document you just gave me is a picture. There’s no…non-visual content, or there’s no…machine-readable content here,’” making it difficult or impossible for print-disabled users  to access.

Publishers working to make content accessible face challenges as well, Mitchell explained. At Guilford Publications, “I would like to have all of our books [made accessible] right now, [but] it does take time to go through a backlist,” he said. “We have some older titles [that] really don’t have files that are easy to turn into accessible [formats]…. I think we’re also fighting a little bit of the notion that, in many segments of the industry, ebooks are still a little bit of a stepchild—that print is still king. But that is really bad for people who are unable to use print.”

Mitchell added that there is a broader problem within the publishing field, noting that the industry’s “ebook infrastructure is not ready for this. We came up with our [accessible] EPUBs, and we thought we were late to the party,” before realizing that many other publishers were even further behind. “I’ve been hearing George [Kerscher] speak and people from Benetech speak at [BookExpo America conferences] going back, it feels like decades. And we were surprised that the infrastructure was so unprepared,” he said. “And then, we had the problems of EPUB, a standard that’s not really a standard. You can sort of say that your device can read an EPUB, but it doesn’t have to render things like MathML, or other things that would be hugely important” to make the content truly accessible. Mitchell added that developing a more accessible PDF format would also help publishers convert heavily formatted titles.

CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

Johnson noted that the complexity of the publishing process poses a challenge, since all parties involved—including authors, editors, art and production departments, distributors, cataloguers, librarians, and booksellers—have varied roles to play in creating born accessible content and making it discoverable by print-disabled patrons, students, and consumers. “There’s all of these steps along the way, and then once the user selects it, they’re going to load it onto I don’t know what. Onto their phone, using [one] kind of e-reader, or a laptop using JAWS [Job Access With Speech screen reading software]?” he said. “The ecosystem has many, many parts…. The challenge is to talk to all of the people in that ecosystem—beginning with the authors and all the way through to the reading system people—to get them to understand the critical nature of this effort around accessibility.”

Libraries can help raise awareness of these needs when working with vendors. Southern New Hampshire University, for example, has begun integrating electronic information technology agreements into its contracting processes for vendors, Jones said. “When we sign on with a new vendor, or when we increase or continue a contract that we’ve done in the past, we ask our vendors to sign this addendum…that says [paraphrasing], ‘We need to provide accessible content for our students, and we need you to help us do that. This isn’t something that we can do on our own, and if we notice that something is inaccessible, we’re going to talk to you about it, and we’re going to try to find a solution together,’” she explained. This may necessitate a review and update of some of an institution’s vendor workflows, in order to ensure that vendors follow through on accessibility commitments, she added.

Schools and libraries have a responsibility to ensure that all students start each course on equal footing, Johnson said. To Jones’s point he added, “you have the right—I’m not a lawyer, I don’t mean legal right—but…the business right to demand that the people that supply you content, supply you accessible content.”

In addition, librarians could initiate broader awareness of accessibility needs on campus by proactively reaching out to professors and asking, “Is all of your classroom content for your upcoming section fully accessible?” Johnson said. “Just get them thinking about it. I would hope for two immediate answers: The first would be ‘yes,’ or the second…is ‘can you explain what you mean by fully accessible?’” which would initiate a dialogue about accessibility.

Librarians can also help with projects such as epubtest.org, which tests the accessibility functionality of e-reader systems, Kercher said. “Some systems are really good, excellent, and others are horrible,” he said, noting commonly used platforms such as Adobe Digital Editions had, unfortunately, earned poor marks.

In encouraging news, Johnson said that Benetech’s Global Certified Accessible initiative had been growing “by leaps and bounds,” indicating awareness of accessibility needs, and action being taken in response to those needs. “More and more publishers, more and more universities, more and more libraries around the world are getting involved,” he said.