Key outcomes Meet-up Frankfurt Book Fair: customer experiences

Key topics that are addressed

• What are you most curious about when it comes to an accessible user experience?  

• Do you know how persons with different print disabilities read? Which are the assistive technologies for the different needs? 

• Do you know which reading apps are recommended for different user groups? 

• Do you know which EPUB specifications make it the most accessible format for print-impaired?  

Key findings, struggles

Intro

The main point of the APACE project is to meet publishers and specialists serving print-impaired readers. Address all the value chain – all the links within value chain.

Participants’ motivation

• Concerns about how [especially small] publishers know about end-users’ experience, how can the industry make a better job engaging with end-users? 

• Attempts to bridge the gap between born accessible and adopted content. 

• Concerns on how to raise public awareness on accessibility needs and its benefits, how to get governmental support and develop targeted programs on accessibility. 

• Curious about how the accessibility features affect the reader and reader’s experience. Do readers know the possibilities of accessible publications and do the industry know what kind of readers are their customers.  

• High interest in readers’ authentic experiences, what apps are they using. 

Print-impaired users and technologies they use

People with (1) vision impairments, (2) physical mobility impairment, (3) reading disorders, (4) other complex impairments. They use different technologies. Each app has advantages and disadvantages – important is the gadget one is using. 

Reading apps mentioned by the participants:  

• EasyReader app (or in combination with screen reader), mostly for Daisy format 

• Kindle (Kindle in the U. S. is also used in libraries) 

• Google books 

• Kobo 

• Thorium Reader 

• VitalSource 

• iOS’s suggests commercial tools 

• Colibrio (Vanilla Reader) for Android 

• Book Fusion – for Apple tablet (similar to Thorium Reader).

What EPUB3 features are most important to reader

• Image Description and Alt text – this can become a part of certification approach.  

• Table of contents

Conclusions

1. Every customer’s experience is unique, that is why publishers face difficulties categorizing and coming up with the suggestion what would be best for the reader. 

2. Testing the product with end user is an important future project. 

3. There are no formats targeting concretely Dyslexic readers. Dyslexic readers use mix media to find an individualized reading solution.  

4. There is still a huge need to spread the message how to read – both for publishers and readers. 

Suggestions

1. As knowledge is still a big issue, development and dissemination of compendiums of best practices, would be very helpful. 

2. Bad practices examples (fails and mistakes) are also important for the learning process. 

3. Best practices should be developed in cooperation with the end-users’ organizations. 

4. Publishers should put an access statement on their site – it would be good for the readers.  

5. Readers’ surveys could answer many of the questions seeking for accessibility solutions. It is important to experience the product via the reader’s eyes to fill in the gap between the producer and the reader.  

6. Producers should move from talking about format (e. g. EPUB) to talking about accessible e-book. Explain to the reader different modalities possible to choose, e. g. subscription modality.  

7. Given that there is no feature-completed e-book and that text is the modality with most options – additional features for text could be developed.