Everyone knows how important eBooks are in the current market, offering multiple advantages to authors and publishers over printed books. While we assume you know the significance of publishing your books in digital formats, we will not cover that part in this article. This guide particularly aims to encourage you to think outside of the box and target a broader and more diverse audience. We are talking about creating accessible Epub files (or eBooks) that cater to people with disabilities or OPDs (Organizations of Persons with Disabilities) along with your current audience.

Here, we will cover all the aspects, including the meaning of the ePUB file, why it needs to be made accessible, and a step-by-step process for Creating Accessible Epub for your readers. Plus, a bonus on simplifying the process by hiring a professional to do this perfectly.

What is an ePUB?

ePUB, also referred to as Electronic Publication, is the current industry standard for publishing digital eBooks. ePUB format can be the perfect way to make your physical books flexible with e-readers. This format can provide reflowable content and images of your eBook to adjust according to the screen size and adjustments of the reader. Therefore, it can be considered an ideal format to display your books on smartphones and various screen readers.

Why is it Required to Create Accessible ePUBs?

Accessibility means making products, devices, services, and files usable and understandable by everyone, regardless of their disability. ePUB accessibility means ensuring everyone can enjoy and access the ePUB content.

• This is specifically important for people with disabilities like visual impairments, learning disabilities, and motor impairments. 
• Creating Accessible Epub Files also lets you target a broader and diversified audience, helping you increase reach and sales. 
• Moreover, putting effort into accessibility also helps improve user experience for people without disabilities. For example, proper text formatting and clear headings will make your ePUBs easier to read and navigate for everyone.
• These files can be easily used with assistive technology like screen readers and text-to-speech software.

Steps to Create Accessible ePUB Files

The process of creating accessible ePUB files depends on the type of content you choose and the features you want to include. Let’s understand the basic things that make an ePUB accessible.

1. Choosing the eBook Layout

The first and one of the most important steps for creating accessible ePUBs is understanding the suitable layout of your eBook, whether your content is more suitable with a fixed-layout or reflowable layout. We have created a separate article to help you choose the best layout for your eBook; you can read it here: Fixed Layout vs. Reflowable. 

To provide you with a quick brief, here is the primary difference between these layouts.

• The reflowable layout adjusts the content according to the screen size and lets the reader change the text and media size. This is highly suitable for text-based content with nominal visuals.
• In the fixed layout, the content remains fixed no matter the screen size. It is mainly suitable for image and media-dominating books like children’s books and cookbooks.

In most cases, a reflowable layout can be preferred for audiences with visual disabilities.

2. Understanding Content Usage

Then, we need to understand how a wide range of audiences will use the content. To make the best use of accessibility, considering people with different types of disabilities is important. Our primary aim is to reach a wide range of audiences, and therefore, while making the ePUB accessible, we should not focus on a single type of disability.

3. Making it Compatible

It is important to have an eBook compatible with various screen readers and text-to-speech devices so that people with disabilities can easily access the content. Additionally, you can add narration to your eBooks to accommodate the audience with disabilities.

4. Digitizing and Converting Your Book

Digitize and convert your book to an ePUB file. While many tools are available for this process, the quality provided by a professional conversion service is unmatched. Using automated tools for ePUB conversion can ruin the design and layout of your book, creating a negative impression for your audience.

Alpha eBook provides high-quality and affordable ePUB conversion services in both fixed layout and reflowable formats. You can trust our experts to get precision, reliability, and the assurance that your digital books will work seamlessly on all devices and platforms.

5. Adding Accessibility Features

Once the ePUB conversion is done, we can proceed with adding accessibility features. If you have chosen Alpha eBook for ePUB conversion, we will take care of this part too. Here are some required features for accessibility:

Meta Data

• dc:title – the publication title
• dc: language – the publication language
• dcterms:modified – last modified date of the publication
• dc:creator – ePUB author
• dc:publisher – publishing organization
• dc:date – ePUB creation date

Alt Text for Images

Another important accessibility feature is alt text for images so that they can be read aloud with screen readers. Some important things to know:

• The alt text should provide a detailed description of the image
• If there is any detail/text in the image, the alt should properly explain that too.
• You can add alt using the tag img-description”> for all the images in your HTML file.

Add Navigation

Add navigation from one section to another by adding IDs for individual headings, audio, video, and other media files. Another thing you need to ensure is adding systematic heading tags to maintain the continuous reading experience. Moreover, the reader must also easily navigate to a particular section using the table of contents.

Use Semantic HTML Markup

Use semantic HTML markup like

Additional Tips

• Make sure all the text and headings are in a logical reading order.
• If possible, avoid text and tables with embedded text (if it’s not possible, add a proper description using ALT)
• For young learners, use a real audio narration.
• Include a sign language video wherever possible.
• When adding designs to your eBook, make sure it is for decorative purposes. The design should not be primarily important to understand the text/content of that area.

6. Packaging the ePUB According to Guidelines

Once the ePUB file is ready, the next step is packaging it according to ePUB guidelines. An ePUB file is similar to a zip archive, which contains all the necessary files to load the book into a screen reader. After the packaging is done, your ePUB can be located in a single file (packaged document) that contains all the pieces combined to make the ePUB. This file can be opened with an ePUB reader or a book reading software supporting the format.

7. ePUB File Validation

Validate your ePUB file using an ePUB checker to find and fix the errors before distributing it to your readers. This step is crucial to maintain a great reading experience. If you hire Alpha eBook for ePUB conversion, we will package and validate the ePUB file and make it ready to publish.

Conclusion

Here, we discussed the complete process of making your ePUB file easily accessible for a wider and diverse audience. While the steps we covered here are enough, you can get a step further and get reviews from real readers about the accessibility issues to improve your ePUB file and make it perfect. Again, if you want to avoid the lengthy and technical process of making your ePUB accessible, you can hire a professional ePUB conversion service and focus on writing and marketing your books while we create a digital masterpiece for you.