Accessibility

The EPUB 3 format represents a significant leap forward in the production of accessible ebooks, incorporating all of the following advances:

  • new semantic markup features in HTML5 for structuring content, including native MathML support
  • the inclusion of ARIA attributes for making dynamic content accessible
  • the addition of the epub:type attribute for semantic inflection
  • media overlays for text and audio synchronization
  • SSML, PLS pronunciation lexicons and CSS3 Speech for enhanced text-to-speech playback
  • a new XHTML-based navigation document

But enhancements alone don't make ebooks accessible. The creation of accessible content requires due diligence both in production and quality assurance processes. To aid in the understanding and creation of accessible content, the IDPF is both producing guidelines to help publishers and consolidating on this page links to useful external production resources.

Accessibility Specifications

General Production Guidelines

Accessible Image Production Guidelines

Discovery Metadata

W3C Accessibility Standards

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