E-book accessibility

Abstract

Accessibility play a vital role in every human being life to access any type of digital information. Every person has a right to access digital information properly without any problems. Unfortunately, people with some disability is sometime unable to access the e-books due to inaccessibility of e-books. An accessible reading is very important, and in this research of “E-book accessibility” different e-book was tested to find out the accessibility problems for the blind people and people with low vision. The aim of the research is to find out the possible e-book accessibility issues and provide recommendations and suggestions to the developers and publishers against these accessibility´s issues. Three main e-book accessibility issues were found after testing the different e-books and that was “inaccessible e-book document”, “lack of assistive technology in e-reader” and “lack of accessible tools in e-readers”. Research follow the visually impaired user (blind people and people with low vision) as a target group of the research, because background study showed that number of blind people and people with low vision ratio is more than the other people with disability. Since, there is no specific accessibility guidelines are designed for e-book document, so WCAG 2.0 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and techniques were used in the research to check the accessibility in different e-books. Moreover, UAAG 2.0 User Agent Accessibility Guidelines were used in research to check, whether accessible tools and assistive technology was helpful for the blind people and low vision people while reading e-books. Research followed two parts. In the first part, possible e-book accessibility problems and e-book accessibility benefits was discussed. In the second part, different e-books were tested to find out the accessibility problems for the blind people and people with low vision. Findings of the research was accessibility issues (e- book document is inaccessible lack of assistive technology and lack of accessible tools). To achieve the goal of the research, research methods automated testing and manual testing were used. User testing plan was discussed to find out more accessibility’s problems. Finding of the research method was again the possible accessibility problems in e-books. After testing, results (accessibility problems) comparison was conducted with the WCAG 2.0 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and UAAG 2.0 User Agent Accessibility Guidelines. How accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.0 and UAAG 2.0) improve the accessibility in e-books. These guidelines also help the publisher to make it sure whether the e-book is accessible before making it available on e-shop and every e-book content is readable by assistive technology and accessible tools for the blind people and people with low vision. After, recommendation and suggestion of an accessible e-book is provided my me with the help of WCAG 2.0 web content accessibility guidelines and technique to the publisher and programmer for the e-book document and accessible tools, assistive technology for the e-readers.