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Understanding Accessibility Features

Last updated: February 21, 2023

Publishers should provide information about the accessibility of their digital books. This information, or "accessibility metadata", includes the below accessibility features. When provided, NNELS will display this information to readers so that they can search for and download the books that best meet their needs. 

Books that have been certified accessible by a third party will be identified in our catalogue.

NNELS displays the below accessibilty features for files:

  • "Customizable display": "Customizable display" means the book can be visually customized or modified by the reader. Readers can adjust font size, font type, contrast, etc.
     
  • "Described images": "Described images" means the book has all of its images described using alternative text or long descriptions, where required.
     
  • "Described math": "Described math" means the book has math equations that have been described accessibly using MathML, or plain language description.
     
  • "Heading navigation": "Heading navigation" means all headings in the book are properly marked up (h1, h2, h3, etc.) so that readers can navigate by headings.
     
  • "Print page numbers": "Print page numbers" means that the book contains a page list. The page list is a navigation aid that provides a list of links to static print page break locations (i.e. that do not change based on screen size or when the display is transformed).
     
  • "Read aloud": "Read aloud" means the book contains full-text synchronized with human audio.
     
  • "Table of contents navigation": "Table of contents navigation" means the book contains a table of contents (in the EPUB navigation document, i.e. the toc nav) for navigating the major sections of the work. It should include at least all the top-level headings.
     
  • "No accessibility information available": This indicates that the publisher did not provide any accessibility metadata. It does not indicate that the book is inaccessible.