‘Born Accessible’ - The Way Forward For Creating Accessible ebooks
With books being published online in the form of ebooks, it has benefited many readers by providing the convenience to read anytime and anywhere. Ebooks can be accessed on electronic devices such as their phone, laptop and more. The ability to access information at your fingertips provides easy access and convenience by eliminating the need to carry physical copies.
This ease of access should be provided to everyone including visually impaired readers. With the majority of the urban population owning an electronic device it only makes sense to provide them with the equal opportunity of accessing ebooks.
‘Born accessible’ is the term coined to explain the technique when publishers create accessible ebooks at the time of publishing. Publishers who do not follow the ‘born accessible’ technique end up utilizing more of their time and effort in converting ebooks after they are published into accessible formats.
‘Born accessible’ is a smart solution for publishing houses to simultaneously publish ebooks and make sure that they are accessible from the get-go. at the time of production.
Challenges Faced By Publishers And Authors When Publishing Accessible ebooks
When publishing houses convert ebooks after they have been published to accessible formats, a great amount of time and effort is required to manually remediate and tag each element present. Here are a few of the challenges faced by publishers who do not apply the “born accessible” technique.
Manually Tagging Elements
Ebooks consist of various elements apart from text including images, illustrations and more. The time needed to accurately tag each element in the ebook will greatly increase in order to convert it into an accessible format thereby increasing the possibility of delaying the publishing date.Increased Costs
When ebooks are tagged post-production the effort required to manually tag each element and ensure that it is accurate would require an expert team of remediators, leading to an increase in costs.
The Need To Apply The ‘Born Accessible’ Technique
‘Born accessible’ is a great way for publishers to improve their processes to create accessible content and therefore reach a larger audience. By publishing ebooks that can be accessed by the visually impaired, publishers are able to achieve the following benefits:
Creates An Inclusive Experience
By publishing accessible ebooks, publishers are able to reach a much larger audience and provide an equal reading experience where the content is accurately interpreted with the help of the assistive technology utilized by visually impaired users.Saves time
"Born accessible" eliminates the need to tag elements present in the ebooks post-production as they are parallely converted into an accessible format at the time of production. Time is always of the essence in the publishing industry and visually impaired users will not have to wait for the accessible version of an ebook to come out because the "born accessible" technique is applied.Improves SEO
When each element present in the ebook is tagged, the SEO of the ebook will increase leading to an increase in the discoverability of the publication.Meets Compliance
By publishing accessible ebooks, publishing houses will be able to meet Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
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How Invicta Automates The Process Of Generating Alt-Text For Publishers
Our AI-powered solution Invicta automates the process of generating alt-text for images of varying complexities while saving on time and costs. This enables publishers to make ebooks accessible for visually impaired readers and therefore enhance their reading experience.
Generating alt-text for images and illustrations present in ebooks manually is a time-consuming process. It requires a dedicated resource to scour through hundreds, if not thousands, of images and assign meaningful phrases or sentences to describe the image. In order to make this process easier, more efficient, and scalable, publishers can integrate Invicta’s sophisticated AI-driven image accessibility solution.
Invicta automates the task of generating high-quality, accurate alt-text for images of varying complexities within a significantly shorter turnaround time and at a reduced cost.
The key benefits of integrating our AI-powered image remediation solution Invicta are
- Instantly generates detailed long descriptions for images
- Effective for images across all major disciplines
- Meets and exceeds Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA standards
- Promises exponentially faster turnaround times
- Makes images accessible at a fraction of the cost
- Highly scalable for a large volume of images
- Exceptional quality with greater consistency
- Hassle-free process for accessibility experts
Our AI-powered solution Invicta instantly generates alt-text for large volumes of images of varying complexities, this enables publishers to make ebooks accessible for visually impaired readers while significantly saving on time and costs.
Invicta can serve as your one-stop solution that uses real-time AI technology to generate high-quality and compliant accessible alt-text. Invicta is disrupting the tedious, and often expensive approach to content accessibility, allowing your publishing house to cater to a larger audience.
Seamlessly integrate Invicta into your system and automate your process of generating accessible visual content, you can learn more about us here.
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