Accessibility

Our website is compatible with all currently supported browser versions from Microsoft, Google, Apple and Firefox on supported versions of Windows, OSX, iOS and Android. For older and less popular browsers functionality degrades gracefully, so whereas we may support drag and drop in the latest version of a browser this may degrade into another simpler way to achieve the same outcome in an old browser.

For users who want the best accessibility version for use with screen readers and similar technologies we target a smaller subset because this is where these features are evolving the faster:

Our website is WCAG AA+ compatible with latest and previous version of browsers from Microsoft, Google and Apple on latest versions and previous version of Windows, OSX, iOS and Android.

ebookACE has been designed to comply with:

The online reader has been tested in the following ways:

Latest version of JAWS using IE11 on a machine using Windows 7;
and the latest NVDA screen reader using the most recent latest Firefox browser on a machine using Windows 7;
Voiceover to perform screen reading using the OS/X 10.10 (Yosemite) operating system on a Mac and OS/X 10.9;
Voiceover to perform screen reading using the IOS 8 operating system using an iPhone, iPad Air and iPad Mini

ebookACE is compliant with WCAG Draft 2.0 level AA accessibility guidelines and compliance with the Web Accessibility Initiative – Accessible Rich Internet Application Suite.

We develop and test against the following criteria:

Pictures have alternative text description
Content written in plain English
Functionality without a mouse
Jump-to links allowing visitors to ‘jump to’ the main content, main menu, search facility and footer.
Colours used have sufficient contrast
The layout will not break if text size is changed
The website uses tables to represent normally tabulated content
When styling is turned off, content can be viewed in a logical order
Links can be activated by clicking on them or by using the keyboard keys.
JavaScript is not required to function
Helpful error messages
Alternative ways to navigate, for example: global menu, search facility and include breadcrumbs or other indicators to determine where they are
Read aloud functionality

As part of V5 (the new online reader) of ebookACE released in June 2015, we worked extensively on the platform’s compliance with disability standards. We continue to work with the RNIB building towards achieving their Accessibility accreditation. Some of our latest improvements include:

Link text has been underlined in the following areas: footer, My Bookshelf and search results. This ensures that the link conventions are consistent and clear.
An increased contrast ratio has been applied to the reader portal (excluding the online reader).
Help pop-ups are now displayed on keyboard focus as well as mouse hover.
When ‘Skip links’ are in focus they are now clearly displayed. When used, the user is navigated to the targeted element where the keyboard focus is set, allowing users to seamlessly navigate.
Checkboxes in the ‘refine search’ area are now more clearly visible.
Checkboxes in the ‘refine search’ area are now more clearly visible.
The order of the links in the site header, navigation and social area can now be tabbed through in a logical order at different screen sizes.

A number of the pop-up box error messages on the platform were not intuitively interacting with screen readers. These will now function correctly and will be clearly announced when used with a screen reader. We have made these improvements to the following pop-up messages:

Account settings.
Add to MUA queue.
IP passport request account.
Modify search modal.
Request rental.
Suggest for purchase.
Forgotten password reset.

Site navigation links have been improved. Previously, some of the links and navigational elements were not being announced and appearing in the correct sequential order. These have been corrected and users can now easily navigate around the following areas when using a screen reader:

Title and description for books in different languages are now recognised by screen readers.
Improved focus on Contact Us page to ensure compatibility with screen readers.
Social media links now appear in the correct order when swiping with screen readers.
Screens are now showing a more responsive layout and resizing correctly when screen readers are enabled.
After searches are completed, users will now be able to skip straight to the results via a new link that has been incorporated.
Using the back button when the sign in or contact us modal window is displayed will now close the modal window.
When a user filters a ‘search’ according to title/author, the focus is now taken to the search button to improve navigation.
The label for the ‘quick search’ text input box has been improved so that it will be clear to the user what the function of this box is.

We have improved the overall accessibility of the ‘skip links’ so that they are always displayed when using the site with an Android device. This addresses an issue on Android devices when Talkback is enabled and the ‘focus’ event is not fired when the skip links are in focus, which was preventing the links from being displayed or utilised.

As the RNIB have recently replaced their Surf Right standard with a new ‘RNIB Approved’ accessibility accreditation, we are working with them to ensure we are fully compliant with these new features both for desktop and mobile devices and anticipate that we will be in a position to be audited by them in 2018.

Content is received from publishers in both PDF and ePub format. Upon ingestion into our online reader, the OCR process extracts the text from the PDF file and indexes it, so that it can be used for full text searching within the eBook as well as ensuring that the text can be copied from the reader and pasted into an external document (MS Word). The online reader is image based, however as described above, all text has been extracted and is made available within the browser and is accessible to screen readers and native voice over applications within the major browsers.

Should there be an issue with a particular file in that it is in a legacy PDF version, we have a process in place to ensure that we can obtain a fully accessible version of the file from the publisher and would provide that directly to the user.

In regard to a downloaded copy of our eBooks, the PDF file is provided to the user and they have full control of a host of accessibility options including: