Document - An enriched ePub eBook for screen reader users

2015

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An enriched ePub eBook for screen reader users

Bartalesi Lenzi V., Leporini B.

ePub format eBook usability User Interfaces Blind users eBook accessibility

Our study aims at obtaining ePub accessibility for all, including screen reader users. Since an ePub document is made up of several (X)HTML files, we analysed and worked with those (X)HTML tags that affect the blind user's experience in the reading. As a case study we developed an "enriched" ePub book which applies technical solutions (i.e. tags and attributes) with the purpose to overcome the accessibility and usability issues observed when interacting via screen reader. In this work we present the results collected through an online survey conducted with 25 users to evaluate the "enriched" ePub compared with the original PDF format in terms of accessibility and usability. Positive responses about the proposed solutions emerged from the survey: the easy access to the table of content, to the images, to the text and also the ease of navigation. In short, 88 % of the users preferred the ePub format instead of the PDF. This confirms that quite simple technical solutions can really improve the reading experience for not only visually impaired people. The results from the survey also showed accessibility issues and limitations of the screen readers and eBook reader software which still exist.

Source: UAHCI 2015 - Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Access to Today's Technologies. 9th International Conference, pp. 375–386, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2-7 August 2015

Publisher: Springer International Publishing, CH-6330 Cham (ZG), CHE

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@inproceedings{oai:it.cnr:prodotti:334865,
	title = {An enriched ePub eBook for screen reader users},
	author = {Bartalesi Lenzi V. and Leporini B.},
	publisher = {Springer International Publishing, CH-6330 Cham (ZG), CHE},
	doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-20678-3_36},
	booktitle = {UAHCI 2015 - Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Access to Today's Technologies. 9th International Conference, pp. 375–386, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2-7 August 2015},
	year = {2015}
}