Mythbusters: The truth behind 7 rumors about ePub accessibility

Scheduled at 1:45 pm in Penrose 1 on Thursday, November 14.

Speaker(s)

• Christine Foushi, OneStep Beyond
• Laura Ciporen, Digital Content Accessibility Manager, McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Session Details

• Length of Session: 1-hr
• Format: Interactive/Discussion
• Expertise Level: Beginner
• Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Are ePubs really more accessible than PDFs? Aren’t they hard to create and read? What about all the book features that I’ll be missing? You’ve heard a lot of buzz around ePubs, but you still have concerns. We’re here to help! We’ll go over the most common misconceptions about ePubs and get you excited about this eBook and document format.

Abstract

Leave the debate at the door and we'll get down to mythbusting ePub accessibility rumors. We will focus on seven (maybe more, maybe less) areas of ePubs.

1. EPubs are not accessible.
2. An Audiobook solves my ePub accessibility obligation.
3. No Assistive Technologies are compatible.
4. Hard to find any software to read EPUBs
5. Missing too many features that my students and I need.
6. Hard to create an ePub.
7. It’s a SURPRISE!!

Bring your laundry list of experiences (we’d love to learn from each other) and let’s explore together pain points or successes to arrive at our end game: providing quality digital and accessible content to students.

Keypoints

1. Access knowledge – the more you know, the more you grow.
2. EPUBs meet the needs of users who require alternate text formats.
3. EPUBs offer advantages like the ability to utilize the text-to-speech tools.

Disability Areas

Cognitive/Learning, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Vision

Topic Areas

Alternate Format, Assistive Technology, Faculty Development & Support, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Christine Foushi

Christine Foushi returns to AHG for the third year. A self-proclaimed publishing nerd, Christine is a journalist by trade, has worked within the higher education technology and publishing industry for the last 20 years, and is an advocate in accessibility. Ensuring accessibility and inclusion for all is her passion not only in her career, but within her community and personal life. She's the Principal Consultant of OneStep Beyond, an organization intended to empower individuals and organizations to navigate the digital landscape through innovative technology solutions while maintaining a commitment to accessibility. She was also recently awarded as a recipient of the 2024 GAAD Speakers' Fund sponsored by the GAAD Foundation. For more information, visit https://gaad.foundation/what-we-do/speakers-fund#speakersFundApplication.

Laura Ciporen

Laura Ciporen, Digital Content Accessibility Manager, McGraw Hill Education IAAP CPACC. Creating inclusive content (with WCAG-based accessibility) for higher education since 2015.