APMA has been funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage Canada Book Fund’s Accessible Digital Books initiative for a unique project encompassing marketing and technology to develop a new sales channel for accessible digital books within the health care sector. The Books by Heart project will be a partnership first with University of King’s College in Halifax and then with The QEII Hospital’s Heart Health Program with Nova Scotia Health Authority, and will pilot a collection of 50 accessible digital books available with free, unlimited access for program participants.
Accessibility is a key concern and requirement for this project, and improved access to local accessible books for patients will both improve health outcomes for patients and expand the market opportunity for born-accessible digital books from publishers in Atlantic Canada.
The Canada Book Fund’s Accessible Digital Books initiative encourages the production of born-accessible digital books, which is why we are limiting the submission to books which have or will incorporate key accessibility features at the outset, rather than books which will specifically add accessibility features for this project. However, we understand that accessible digital publishing is a journey, and if you have a well-suited book to submit and can make the commitment to use our training to remediate the files (whether in-house or through your conversion house) if the book is selected and learn steps to incorporate into your workflow, please reach out to APMA for assistance with addressing the initial steps for the areas below, or follow the directions provided by our project partner NNELS (National Network for Equitable Library Service) at the end of this document.
To fill in the submission spreadsheet, you will need to indicate compliance with 5 key accessibility areas for eBooks:
| Feature | Description |
| Structured heading list | Well formatted headings (that use the HTML elements <h1> to <h6>) will ensure that the book is navigable |
| Sufficient colour contrast | Some readers face challenges when there is insufficient contrast between background and foreground colours. Ensure the contrast between foreground and background colours meets WCAG 2 AA contrast ratio thresholds. |
| Image descriptions and alt-text | All non-decorative images require useful alt-text.Alt-text should be a written description of the image – watch out for alt text like alt=”img_653334.jpg” or alt=”image”. Note that context breaks are not decorative, and should have alt text like “context break” or “section break” if they are an image. (Note: the preferred method for context breaks, whether it is an image, a character, or extra space, is to use an <hr /> tag). |
| Required accessibility metadata | All required accessibility metadata must be present, including: schema:accessMode schema:accessibilityFeature schema:accessibilityHazard schema:accessibilitySummary |
| All documents have correct language declarations | Every HTML/XHTML file needs to have a language declaration, so that computers will always read the text correctly. |
Using Ace EPUB Checker
If you aren’t sure whether your eBook file meets the standard for those 5 key areas, NNELS has created a video series to help you use the Ace by DAISY EPUB accessibility checker to check and fix any errors, which you can find in the right sidebar menu or at the following links:
Using Ace EPUB Checker – Videos with Transcripts
Using Ace EPUB Checker – Videos only
If you have any questions, please let us know!
Once your books are selected, NNELS will use the following evaluation tool to assess your books and provide you with a report on any errors. They will hold office hours to provide assistance in your remediation and will re-evaluate the remediated files.