The National Library adds equality to access to E-books: E-book Accessibility Certification System for disabled people and older people

Abstract

There is need for a legal and social system that ensures equal access to e-books for disabled people and non-disabled people. To enable disabled people and older people to use e-books conveniently, the National Library for the Disabled established the e-book accessibility certification system that certifies quality and issues marks for e-books that conform to e-book accessibility standards. The system is classified into the quality certification stage and certification evaluation stage.

The quality certification stage is a process for checking if a published e-book meets a certain level of quality in accordance with Korean E-book Accessibility Guidelines. The certification evaluation stage is to review if certification evaluation standards (4 principles and 35 standards) are followed through paper evaluation, technicians’ evaluation and users’ evaluation.

E-book accessibility quality certification system is the first step in guaranteeing disabled people and older people‘s easy access to e-books. With increased number of e-books that follow publication guidelines and certification standards, the system will contribute to improving culture welfare of disabled people.

The poster session includes detailed technical specification to improve e-book accessibility, self evaluation toolkit for quality certification, certification evaluation process information, demonstration of e-books with quality certification marks using epub viewer application ect.