[Athen] Evaluating a book's accessibility

[kerscher at montana.com]

Hello,

 

They have an accessibility page:

https://www.zybooks.com/accessibility/

 

They said on this page you could ask for an evaluation copy to determine the
accessibility of the title. Of course, it would take a lot of work to do the
eval.

 

You can also contact them from this page. I would check to see if they have
it available in EPUB 3. I did not see where they have accessibility metadata
on each title, which is what VitalSource does.

 

Good luck

 

Best

George

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf
Of Deborah Armstrong
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2020 11:03 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] Evaluating a book's accessibility

 

Got an email from an instructor who asks a simple question: "is this book
that I'm considering for use in my course accessible?".

 

First, let's applaud this instructor for even thinking before adopting a
textbook.

 

But, I feel completely unqualified to evaluate her proposed book. First of
all she sent me a link to the publisher's page. So no idea how I can
actually get this book (ebook) to evaluate. I don't have a student request
for it.

 

Second, I'm a screen reader user. I'm not qualified to determine other
things, like whether it works for users of other AT. I don't want to pretend
I am.

 

What's the best practice here? I want to give her an honest answer but don't
want to buy a book I do not need.

 

The book is here:

                https://www.zybooks.com/.

 

But the instructor has given me only the publisher's site not the exact book
title. I think she wonders if any offerings from this publisher are
accessible.

 

I am asking in a general sense, as I expect to get similar questions like
this in the future.

 

--Debee

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