Accessibility with traditional e-books
The accessibility features that are integrated into the e-book platforms such as Kortext vary in their efficacy and can fall short when compared to other assistive technologies. The issue with e-books is that they typically can’t be pulled out of their domain and into the assistive software or device of your choice. Users cannot just copy and paste it, modify it, or upload it to an e-reader or screen reader, for instance. This restricts personal choice and preferences and keeps disabled users from utilising the entire range of assistive technologies. The built-in accessibility features of proprietary platforms are controlled by a monopolistic system that restricts flexibility in the choice of assistive technologies.
Open book accessibility – compatible with a range of devices & assistive technologies
Unlike commercial e-books, open books have no restrictions. You are free to print as much as you like and use any assistive technology of your choice. Online books, including those in Pressbooks, are built using HTML, making them accessible for keyboard navigation, screen readers, e-readers such as a Kindle and other assistive technologies. What makes a book accessible is the process of embedding accessibility through its creation. You can also check your book’s accessibility by using open-source accessibility checkers such as WAVE, ACE by Daisy and NVDA.
Multiple file formats
Users are better equipped to adapt and adopt books across assistive technologies because Pressbooks allows books to be downloaded into multiple file formats. You can also download and print as many copies as you like. Because they are web-based books, users can also use browser add-ons to make them more accessible.
✅ OER are universally accessible.
✅ No Digital Rights Management Restrictions
✅ No vendor lock in
✅ Works across multiple devices and technologies.
Open source assistive technologies
NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access)
A free, open source screen reader for Windows that supports web navigation, document reading, and more.
Orca
An open source screen reader for Linux, designed for the GNOME desktop environment.
eSpeak NG
A compact, open source text-to-speech engine that supports many languages.
ChromeVox
A screen reader for Chrome browsers available as an open source extension.
Dasher
An alternative text-entry interface that uses a predictive, zooming user interface, which can be useful for people with motor impairments.
Browser Extensions for High Contrast
- Inverts colours, increases contrast, or applies grayscale to web pages.
- Customisable settings for different websites.
Dark Reader (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari)
- Converts pages to dark mode with customizable contrast levels.
- Reduces glare and eye strain while maintaining readability.
- Colour Enhancer (Chrome)
- Adjusts contrast and colour filtering.
- Helps improve text readability.
Text Annotation
Pressbooks supports Hypothesis, an open-source annotation tool for highlighting and commenting on texts. You can install the free Hypothesis browser extension and start annotating open textbooks.
Text summaries using AI
You can use AI to summarise open books, ask questions and translate. You can simply copy and paste the book’s URL into Google Notebook LLM or Chat GPT-4. If the book is openly licensed this is fine to do so and keep personal notes. If you wanted to release the AI generated summaries or notes publicly you can do so by sharing the notes under an open license, providing attribution to the original work and author/s. It is important to evaluate the limitations and accuracy of the Gen AI model used.
Accessibility futures
This is just the beginning – there’s ongoing work to do, from refining publishing technical workflows and formatting to exploring and developing additional tools. But going forward, I personally very much hope open source assistive technologies will thrive. I am excited for better accessibility tools. And the possibilities for community-owned, open source reading platforms for open books . Most importantly, we must collaborate with our disabled users to ensure their needs are met. The work is never finished.