[Plugin] Access-Aide - help improve epub accessibility

[noteon]

Thanks for the help. The article is live.

[KevinH]

testing if thread has been closed, nope, posting works just fine. Use the New Reply button below.

[Zai24]

Hi, I have a question which I would appreciate some help with. The plugin adds epub:type tags to each xhtml file, and using the Add Semantics tool in Sigil I've added the epub:type to the body tag successfully. However is there support for adding epub:type tags to heading tags, section tags, list tags, etc? Thanks!

[KevinH]

Simply use search and replace in Sigil in CodeView (or saved searches or clips) to do what you want. Sigil supports both normal and regular expression searches.

[KevinH]

Access-Aide version 0.4.2 has now been released. See the first post in this thread for the link to Access-Aide_v042.zip

This version updates the rules for mapping epub:type attributes to aria roles given the epub 3.0.2 spec and changes in which tads aria role attributes may be added.

Thank Doitsu for the head's up and for testing with the latest rc versions of epubcheck.

KevinH

[KevinH]

Access-Aide version 0.4.3 has now been released. See the first post in this thread for the link to Access-Aide_v043.zip

This version updates the accessgui.py code to match master as a previous bug fix was inadvertently dropped.

In addition, given that epub:type attributes on the body tag have been "strongly discouraged", Access-Aide will no longer add epub:type information to any body tag.

KevinH

[Zai24]

Using the latest version I've been trying to match aria roles to epub:types. I use the Add Semantics tool on my xhtml files and then run the plugin, but no changes have been happening to the code. I was hoping the matched role would appear on a <section> tag?

Thanks for your help!

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Zai24

Using the latest version I've been trying to match aria roles to epub:types. I use the Add Semantics tool on my xhtml files and then run the plugin, but no changes have been happening to the code.

What kind of epub:type attribute did you add to the section tag and what role attribute did you expect to be added?

[Zai24]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

What kind of epub:type attribute did you add to the section tag and what role attribute did you expect to be added?

Using Add Semantics I selected 'Chapter' for one of my chapters and ran the plugin, which had no effect on the code of that chapter.

I also added section tags wrapping around the content of the chapter, thinking the doc-role attribute might be added onto this, but nothing happened.

Currently I don't know how to add epub:types or role attributes to my ebook using the plugin and would appreciate any help.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Zai24

Using Add Semantics I selected 'Chapter' for one of my chapters and ran the plugin, which had no effect on the code of that chapter.

AFAIK, selecting Add Semantics..., will update nav.xhtml and/or content.opf.

You'll need to manually add epub:type attributes in Code View mode to tags in .xhtml files. For example, if you add the following code to an epub3 book:

  <section epub:type="chapter">
    <p>This is a chapter</p>
  </section>

and run the plugin it'll add a role="doc-chapter" attribute:

  <section epub:type="chapter" role="doc-chapter">
    <p>This is a chapter</p>
  </section>

[Zai24]

Hi again, I've been using this plugin for a long time and love it. I was wondering if there is a certain way of coding the ebook, or a certain technique, that guarantees success when using the add semantics tool. Lately when I've been using the plugin on epub3s, some roles aren't added or in fact none at all after I've followed the steps. However when I double-check the nav, the landmarks list has grown with the semantics added from using the plugin, which makes me wonder why it's not working as I assume everything is in place.

I understand ebooks are coded differently and I would greatly appreciate any help in making mine more compatible with using this plugin.

[KevinH]

AcessAide does not "add roles" on its own. It translates epub:type semantics into aria-roles and tries its best to add them where allowed.

Current versions of epubcheck has made this difficult by complaining that aria-roles should never be added to the body tag. This makes no sense at all but Access-Aide tries hard to not cause epubcheck to complain.

One way around these new rules is to manually add section tags to wrap the body contents and then apply epub:type semantics to the section tag. AccessAide will happily convert those to aria-roles equivalent and add them.

So this is really just epubcheck stupidity banning epub:type/aria roles on the body tag where they belong.

[Zai24]

Thanks for your quick reply. I've already tried manually adding section tags with epub:type semantics on it, but the roles aren't adding when I run the plugin on some ebooks. However it works on others so I don't know what's the problem is with the ebooks where it's unsuccessful.

[KevinH]

Hmm. section tags allow almost all epub:type and aria-roles. So if you have a single xhtml file that has section tags with epub:type attributes that does not get a corresponding role via AccessAide, I would like to see it. Feel free to scramble the text. If you could zip it up and post it here, I will incorporate it into an epub3 and see what is happening.

[Zai24]

Thanks for your help. It seems that updating Sigil to the latest version has cured the problem in these ebooks. Thank you.