Ace a Free EPUB Accessibility Checking Tool by The DAISY Consortium
Author: DAISY Consortium
Published: 2018/01/29 - Updated: 2018/03/15
Contents: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Related Publications
Synopsis: Open source tool Ace by DAISY lets publishing industry test their ebooks against internationally recognized standards for accessibility ensuring people with disabilities have equal access to publications.
Introduction
Ace by DAISY, equips the publishing industry with a tool which can test their ebooks against internationally recognized standards for accessibility. This open source tool is designed to be flexible, and customized into publication development workflows, helping to achieve the shared goal of ensuring that people with disabilities have equal access to publications.
Main Content
The DAISY Consortium is delighted to announce the launch of Ace by DAISY, the ground-breaking free and open source accessibility checking tool for ebooks created in the widely adopted EPUB format.
People with sensory, physical and cognitive disabilities have, historically, struggled to gain access to publications in a timely and cost-effective manner. The mainstream ebook format, EPUB, provides the opportunity to greatly increase the accessibility of digital content, but this can be challenging to implement with confidence. Ace has been developed to assess EPUB content and highlight issues within publications where accessibility can be improved.
"Ace by DAISY is a significant step forwards, developed in partnership with the industry. It will help publishers achieve the shared goal of publications which can be enjoyed by everyone, irrespective of disability." Richard Orme, CEO, The DAISY Consortium
Designed to assist content providers at any stage in their workflow, Ace by DAISY will make it easier to produce higher quality, more accessible EPUB content files that meet internationally recognized standards.
The Ace tool performs a variety of automated checks to assist in the evaluation of conformance to the EPUB Accessibility Specification and against the rules defined in WCAG and ARIA, producing a list of violations that need fixing. It also extracts data visualizations to aid the manual inspection process. Ace can be used as a standalone tool, or can be integrated as a component in broader publishing workflows or authoring processes.
"This is the tool which the industry needed to fully embrace the accessibility functionality which we've embedded into the EPUB 3 specification. We can now collectively move forward in producing content that enables the very best of reading experiences for all readers, reaching a bigger audience as well as meeting our legal and moral obligations." George Kerscher, Chief Innovations Officer, The DAISY Consortium and Steering Committee W3C Publishing Business Group
Many publishers have been actively involved in the Ace development process, and are already working to integrate Ace within their workflows.
For further information on Ace, including quotes from publishers who are using it, and details on getting started, guidance and how to download Ace please visit the website.
Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by DAISY Consortium and published on 2018/01/29, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.