accessible_book_formatting v1.0.0

name: accessible_book_formatting description: Format a book so print-disabled readers can actually use it: accessible EPUB with schema.org accessibility metadata and a real conformance evaluation, large print built to ACB and distributor specs, and Braille-ready BRF files checked against BANA geometry, plus information-carrying alt text and extended descriptions for illustrations. Use when someone asks to make a book accessible, produce a large print or braille edition, add EPUB accessibility metadata, write alt text for book illustrations, prepare for the European Accessibility Act, or run a pre-release accessibility pass on a book. For general EPUB packaging and distributor upload mechanics use epub_ebook_craft; for web page accessibility use accessibility_basics; this skill covers book formats only.

Accessible Book Formatting

Purpose

Take one manuscript and produce the access formats that let print-disabled readers read the same book, not a stripped summary: an accessible EPUB, a large print edition, and a Braille-ready file, each checked against its own standard and tested with real assistive tools before release. Covers source cleanup, alt text and extended descriptions, EPUB accessibility metadata and conformance, large print specs, BRF geometry and embosser checks, and the sign-off pass.

Workflow

1. Inventory the barriers first. List every element that carries information in a form only one kind of reader can use: images with no text equivalent, tables pasted as images, scanned pages, colour-only cues, shaded boxes that break reading order, maths as pictures, maps and charts. The inventory drives the work. A book with no inventory gets no honest conformance claim.
2. Fix the source once. Real heading levels in order, real lists and tables, language set, reading order matching logical order. Every later format inherits this structure, so fix it here instead of patching three exports.
3. Write image text that carries the information. Decide per image using this order:

• Purely decorative: empty alt plus a presentation role. Nothing else.
• Simple and informative: short alt stating what the image shows and why it is in the book. No "image of", no filename, no repeating the caption.
• Complex (map, chart, diagram, data figure): short alt that identifies it and states its main point, plus an extended description nearby or on a linked page that walks the content in reading order, plus the underlying data as a real table or list where data exists.
• Text inside an image: transcribe that text word for word in the alt or in the body, or rebuild the element as real text. Never invent facts the image does not show to fill out a description. If the point of the image is not clear from context, ask the author what a reader is meant to learn from it.

1. Build the EPUB for conformance. Reflowable layout, semantic markup, page break markers and a page-list nav when a print twin exists, dc:source naming the print ISBN. Add the discovery metadata from references/epub-metadata.md. Run the checks in order: EPUBCheck for validity, Ace by DAISY for automated accessibility issues, then the Ace SMART manual pass, then a listened chapter in an accessible reader. Run the local audit:

   python3 scripts/a11y_audit.py epub book.epub
   

Add the conformance block (dcterms:conformsTo, a11y:certifiedBy) only after that sequence passes, and mirror the same features in the ONIX record.

1. Build the large print edition to spec. Arial 18 point body, headings 22 point bold flush left, ragged right, 1 inch margins, single column, black on off-white or cream, non-glossy paper. Full numbers and reasoning in references/format-specs.md. Fill in assets/large-print-spec.json for the edition and check it:

   python3 scripts/a11y_audit.py largeprint assets/large-print-spec.json
   

Then read a printed proof. Screen preview hides gutter loss and contrast problems that a proof shows at once.

1. Produce the Braille-ready file. Translate in Unified English Braille, with a specialist transcriber for maths, music, or foreign language material. Set BANA geometry: maximum 40 cells per line, 25 lines per page on standard 11.5 by 11 inch paper, form feeds as page breaks, print page indicators, transcriber notes before the material they explain, illustrations replaced by the descriptions written in step 3. Check the file, then emboss a test signature:

   python3 scripts/a11y_audit.py brf book.brf
   

A braille proofreader reads at least one full chapter against the source before the run. Software translation alone is not finished braille.

1. Run the pre-release pass. Work references/conformance-checklist.md end to end for every format shipping. Update the accessibility summary to state any gap that remains, in plain words a reader can act on. The worked conversion in references/worked-chapter.md shows one chapter carried through all three formats.

Output Contract

A release is done only when all of these hold:

• An inventory of barriers exists and every item on it is fixed, converted, or named as a known gap in the accessibility summary.
• EPUB passes EPUBCheck with zero errors, Ace with no unexplained critical or serious violations, and the audit script with no FAIL items.
• OPF carries accessMode, accessibilityFeature, and accessibilityHazard, plus accessModeSufficient and accessibilitySummary, and any conformance claim names its WCAG level and its evaluator.
• Every informative image has alt text that carries its information, every complex image has an extended description and, where it presents data, a text table or list of that data, and no image uses a filename as alt text.
• Large print meets the 18 point ACB standard or the deviation is recorded with its reason, and a printed proof was read.
• BRF passes the geometry audit, a test embossing was checked, and a braille reader proofed a sample against the source.
• The store description, the ONIX record, and the file metadata describe the same accessibility features.

Operating Rules

• Never claim conformance from automated tools alone. DAISY is explicit on this: a checker finds what a machine can test, and alt quality, reading order, and description accuracy need a person.
• Never shrink large print type to save pages. Raise the trim size or split the table instead. A 14 point book sold as large print fails the readers it claims to serve, even where a distributor floor allows it.
• Never let DRM or a fixed layout choice quietly remove access. If a format limit is real, record it in the accessibility summary instead of hiding it.
• Alt text serves the reader of this book, in this context. The same photo can need three different descriptions in a memoir, a history, and a manual. Write for the use, not for the image in the abstract.
• Legal duties vary by market. The European Accessibility Act has covered ebooks sold to EU consumers since 28 June 2025, wherever the publisher sits. Check the transposed law in each market where the book is sold and never present one country rule as the global rule.
• Test with the tools readers use: a screen reader or read-aloud pass for the EPUB, a printed proof for large print, a hand on the embossed page for braille. A format nobody tested in its real medium is a guess.
• Style law for everything this skill generates: no em dashes, plain direct prose, no filler.