In his March 16, 2018, article in Research Information, Bill Kasdorf, a consultant in accessibility issues, notes that the Atypon eReader’s automatic XML-to-EPUB conversion functionality “will make a huge difference” in the ease with which journal articles can be made accessible.
“Accessibility,” also called “inclusive publishing,” enables people with various disabilities to read digital content using assistive devices such as screen readers and touchscreens. It is a requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA as well as an initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium, the international standards organization for the Internet.
Bill notes that delivering articles in EPUB reduces that work by 80% and can often obviate it entirely—even for complex mathematical equations.
Atypon’s in-browser eReader is already available for books. It does not require any additional software or downloads to use and is free to all Literatum publishers. The upcoming release of Literatum will include the new, journals-capable version.
Bill Kasdorf is a principal at Kasdorf & Associates and a frequent speaker at scholarly publishing industry conferences.