e-books accessible to visually impaired, courtesy EPUB

There is nothing different in the way 37-year-old Avneesh Singh uses his iPhone 5S.

Whenever he wants to read an article, he whips out the device from his shirt pocket and slides his fingers on the screen; only that, in Avneesh’s case, the phone’s voice software begins to read the content aloud.

Avneesh, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode who lost his vision due to a degenerative condition after he completed his BTech in computer science, is one of only five members of the Daisy Consortium’s technical team that constantly advances the accessible EPUB format that enables millions of visually impaired and print-disabled readers read e-books.

Accessible digital format

Daisy Consortium, the international body responsible for standards in digitally accessible information system (DAISY), has made efforts in the last six years to bring accessibility to EPUB, the most popular e-book format in the world. Daisy Forum of India is part of the Consortium that drives use of accessible digital format in India.


“EPUB 3.0, which is the accessible version has made a popular format more inclusive with the help of igitally accessible information system standards,” said Delhi-based DFI President Dipendra Manocha, who was in Bengaluru for the DFI annual board meeting on Friday.

“We have partner organisations across the country that convert textbooks into accessible format for school students who are blind. All of them provided an update on their work at the board meeting. Several e-books available to able bodied persons are now accessed by the blind, courtesy accessible EPUB, Manocha explained.
For instance,  ‘Mightier Than The Sword’, the latest Jeffrey Archer installment in the Clifton Chronicle series, is sold in Amazon Kindle with ‘Text to speech’ enabled (accessible) format.

“So far, only Braille was the most common form of accessing knowledge. Now, accessible EPUB has made access to books more instant,” Avneesh said.
E-stores apart, platforms like ‘Bookshare’ provide nearly 100,000 titles in EPUB.

Digital books

The DFI board meeting discussed the ways of taking access to digital books to the million or so visually-impaired and print-disabled persons in India.Madhu Singhal, Managing Trustee of Mitra Jyoti and Daisy Forum of India General Secretary, said the organisation is reaching out to textbook societies, universities and school boards to make sure educational materials are provided in accessible EPUB.