Meeting minutes
<tzviya> Date: 2023-05-31
<tzviya> present_ jamesY, duga, gautier, PaulB_, SueNeu, wolfgang
Gautier: in previous meetings we have talked about what is possible with epub...
and we wanted to get an idea of what is possible so we have invited Ludovik
… I will translate for him
• Demo/Discussion with Ludovic, EPUB developer for Canopé
Ludovic: I am a developer for Canopé
Ludovic: I also do training books and video and the work I will be presenting is from another publishing house that last year started doing epub files
Ludovic: The first problem I see for teachers using an Epub resource is wanting a print version, they can't print it…
the teaching community isn't sufficiently familiar with the possibilities of epub…
with the spine, I have all the tools I need, I don't feel limited in my options
… a small limit is what is supported by reading systems…
I must test on all systems
We try to demonstrate what I have done but it doesn't always look good in video because of lag
Lucovic: demonstration starts
Ludovic: there is a page where you can set your preferences like font and background, and the images…
this is not part of the reading system. The idea is that the epub can accomodate different reading need…
Paul: ARe those adjustments to the illustrations for people whose vision is limited?
Gautier: it is so there are fewer distractions and people can focus
Gautier: there is a pre-recorded voice, human narration, that doesn't work through zoom
Ludovic: I was not able to use a media overlay because this is a reflowable book
On each page you can zoom, eliminate or soften each individual element, or change your color/black and white setting
Ludovic: there is also a sound for bat wings flapping
Ludovic: SVG animation and interaction are through javascript
Ludovic: the SVG is outputed from Adobe Illustrator, worked by hand, animation is inside the SVG activated by javascript
Ludovic: for some years I have built some javascript and epub tools
demonstration ends
<Zakim> tzviya, you wanted to ask about input formats
Tzviya: Are each of these built by hand? Is there anyway to do this at scale?
Ludovic: For this one, it was made image by image, so it takes a lot of time and may not scale…
some of the other books or functionalities would be easier to industrialize
Brandy: Are the images and text all html?
Lucovic: the text is html and svg for images
Brady: do the controls in the ebook conflict with reading system controls?
Lucovic: It works pretty well with all the reading systems we tested. That is why we limit changing the fonts and the font size
Brady: I'm excited to take some of these ideas back to the fixed layout accessibility group
Ludovic: Paul: this is a really engaging demonstration. Could Ludovic post a direct link to the book so we can get the full experience?
<duga> +1 to Paul's request
Ludovic: the book is on sale, so access must be through the publisher, I will ask if we can share it or parts of it…
Charles: If you wanted to use a screen reader, how does it behave on the images and text portions?
Ludovic: [demos screen reader that reads text and describes image]
Charles: If you don't use the read now/human narrator, what will be the experience?
Ludovic: I have not tested with a screen reader but I'm using best practices so it should be fine…
previously had someone testing for me with screen readers and usually it was fine, except some difficulties with voice over on IOS
Gautier: for a while Ludovic worked with braille files, and has knowledge of blind reading
Paul: thank you very much for joining us today
Paul: the other agenda item, the Boston Edtech community meetup group will focus on this edu task force…
Preview of Edu-TF meeting with Boston EdTech Community
this is a good opportunity to expose these people, who are working in startups, to the W3C group…
<PaulB_> https://
<gautier> link to the french version of the book presented by Ludovic: https://
the Boston Edtech group may be a souce of ideas for this group
Paul: shared a link, join us if you can, and I will summarize this at the next meeting