Ranti Junus is the systems librarian for electronic resources at Michigan State University Libraries. She is responsible for supporting the design and access organization of library materials as well as providing support in technical and access issues related to electronic services and resources including purchased databases, online catalog, and other digital resources. She serves as systems and technical services liaison to public services, particularly in relation to the technical support of electronic resources and user interfaces. She also serves as the subject librarian for Library and Information Science and as the library liaison for the Museum Studies program. She manages the library’s ongoing human factors/Web usability and accessibility efforts and maintains an awareness of Web standards and technologies and their applications in academic libraries. Ranti is the past chair of ACRL Universal Accessibility group and the co-chair of LITA Accessibility Interest Group. She received her computer science bachelor degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1995 and her MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001.

In The Rise of E-reading, the Pew Internet Project reported, “One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read an e-book in the past year, and this number increased following a gift-giving season that saw a spike in the ownership of both tablet computers and e-book reading devices such as the original Kindles and Nooks. In mid-December 2011, 17% of American adults had reported they read an e-book in the previous year; by February 2012, the share increased to 21%.”¹ Dedicated devices make it easy for many readers to access the e-books they borrow or buy without having to lug heavy volumes around, while e-reader software or apps enable readers to access their books from anywhere on any device they choose.

E-books present great potential for users with print disabilities to gain access to information that might otherwise be inaccessible to them. If their devices are well designed and outfitted with the appropriate e-text formats, users with visual impairments can read e-books using the assistive technology of their choice, such as braille, screen magnifiers, screen readers, or any of the other tools described in chapter 2. The e-book publishing boom, however, has created many e-book formats and e-readers that are inaccessible to those with visual disabilities or, in some cases, hearing or learning disabilities.

The most recent “digital talking books” standards were developed by NISO in 1999,² but since then, there has been a lack of updated accessibility performance specifications for e-books and e-texts. The functional performance criteria in the federal Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards (which implemented Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act) and the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG),³ however, provide useful descriptions of what makes an e-book or e-reader device or app accessible. In his excellent chapter on e-book accessibility in No Shelf Required 2, Ken Petri summarizes both:

Meeting Section 508’s Functional Performance Criteria demands that a user-facing hardware or software component have at least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require vision; that accommodates low visual acuity; that does not require hearing and/or can amplify produced sound to compensate for poor hearing; that does not require fine motor control or simultaneous actions; and that is operable with limited reach and strength. WCAG 2.0 is organized around four broad principles:

1. Perceivable: that “information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.”
2. Operable: that “user interface components and navigation must be operable.”
3. Understandable: that “information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.”
4. Robust: that “content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies (W3C 2010A).”⁴

The rapid rise of e-reading makes it crucial for librarians and library staff to become familiar with the complex e-text accessibility landscape and learn to understand and recognize these features in order to support their disabled patrons with accessible collections, services, and peripherals. With the goal of facilitating accessible e-reading experiences, this chapter provides an overview of the accessibility landscape of major e-book publishing formats as well as e-reader devices, apps, and software platforms.

E-books are created in open and proprietary file formats. Open e-books formats such as DAISY and EPUB are designed to be “device-independent”—in other words, to be compatible with any e-reader that supports open formats. Proprietary format e-books such as MOBI (Mobipocket), AZW (Amazon Kindle), and PDF are usually originally based on an open format, but then configured to be read by a specific e-reader and not by other e-readers largely as a competitive marketing strategy. In general, open format e-texts are far more accessible than proprietary formats.

Proprietary format e-books present several common accessibility problems. In order to facilitate the creation of device-dependent e-text files, digital rights management (DRM) is a typical proprietary strategy that can create problems for readers with print disabilities. Some e-book publishers use Adobe Digital Signature (ADS) as a DRM method, which means that users have to download the ADS application into their computer before they can read the e-book, an extra hurdle for a user relying on a screen reader. Many DRM texts are actually images of pages rather than recognizable characters, meaning that they are invisible to screen readers and other text-to-speech platforms.

Several common open and proprietary e-book formats and their accessibility properties are described below.

The e-book marketplace features many e-reader technologies in different platforms and styles, some more accessible to users with disabilities than others. Users can either choose a dedicated e-reader device or install a piece of e-reader software or app on their computer, tablet, or cell phone. A dedicated e-reader is typically a tablet-like device designed specifically to read e-books. Besides the hardware (dedicated e-reader) and software (e-reader app), several Web-based e-readers are also available and can be accessed by using a web browser.

Many e-reading devices come equipped with standard features useful to readers with disabilities. For example, readers with visual impairments (or those who don’t want to buy audiobooks, for that matter) can use text-to-speech on many personal e-reader devices, a feature that dictates text aloud. Good text-to-speech applications should allow users to adjust the reading speed and reading accent, show the words highlighted while they are being read aloud, and have menus and tables of contents narrated. Text-to-speech, however, has some drawbacks. Because it relies on computer dictation, sound quality is typically not as natural as a human-narrated audiobook (think “robot voice”). Current text-to-speech is also not very good at pronunciation of names and languages other than English.

Other accessibility features commonly available on e-reading devices include the ability to adjust the font size on the screen. These and other features vary considerably based on the device.

The following section lists the most common e-reader tools on the marketplace and describes their accessibility features and performance (see figure 3.1).

Strategies for building accessible library e-text collections are described in chapter 5, but for starters, librarians can familiarize themselves with sites and projects that make it simple to discover free EPUB, DAISY, and other accessible e-book formats for devices and e-reader software. There are also library-supported initiatives that bring accessible e-content to patrons. A few of these resources are described below.

This chapter has shown that while there are many e-book formats and e-readers available, people with print disabilities currently have a limited number of reliably accessible options. A few rules of thumb in the current landscape:

• DAISY, EPUB, and TXT are the most accessible e-book formats, while accessibly designed PDFs and simple HTML documents provide generally accessible e-text formats.
• Apple handheld products outfitted with iBooks are the most accessible software-based e-reader devices.
• Software-based e-readers such as Blio and the Kindle app either are becoming equipped with text-to-speech capabilities or are relatively compatible with screen readers, but the accessibility features on dedicated devices and mobile apps must often be “enabled.” This creates a scenario in which users with visual impairments, especially those who are legally blind, may have to discover and work through several additional steps to configure a device because it is not accessible out of the box.
• Table 3.2 shows the general lack of accessibility features in the most popular dedicated e-reader devices.
• There are many places to discover free accessible e-books, such as Project Gutenberg and library initiatives to support print disabled users, such as the Library eBook Accessibility Program (LEAP).

• Chong, Pei, Yan Lim, and Siew Ling. “On the Design Preferences for Ebooks.” IETE Technical Review 26, no. 3 (May–June 2009).
• Churchill, Ben. “How Blind People Use the iPhone 4S,” (video). April 10, 2012. Blind Film Critic Tommy Edison. http://blindfilmcritic.com/archives/2494.
• Griffey, Jason. “Electronic Book Readers.” “Gadgets and Gizmos: Personal Electronics and the Library.” Library Technology Reports 46, no. 3 (2010).
• Petri, Ken. “Accessibility Issues in E-books and E-book Readers.” In No Shelf Required 2: Use and Management of Electronic Books, edited by Sue Polanka. Chicago: American Library Association, 2012.
• Petri, Ken. “Supplemental: Accessibility Issues in E-books and E-book Readers.” 2012. http://wac.osu.edu/ebook-access-overview.
• Pisha, Bart, and Skip Stahl. “The Promise of New Learning Environments for Students with Disabilities.” Intervention in School and Clinic 41, no. 2 (2005).