Manual Checking

Checklist for manual checking

You can download this checklist, produced by us, in a spreadsheet format with additional richer information, including an indication of the complexity of each task, from here: The Open Book Futures Accessibility Tools

EPubs and PDFs

Text Features

1. Text is actual text; not images of text.
2. Colours of text has contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1
3. Headings are descriptive of the content they contain
4. Text is reflowable without problems
5. Text can be resized without problems
6. Line height and spacing, letter spacing and word spacing can all be changed without problems
7. Orientation can be changed without problems
8. Fonts are coded correctly

Non-Text Features

1. Non-text features (figures, graphics, captions, links, mathematical expressions) have meaningful ALT text
2. Colours of non-text features (figures, graphics) has contrast ratio of at least 3:1
3. Non-text features (figures, graphics, captions, links, mathematical expressions) have multiple ways of conveying meaning
4. Links are accessible and meaningful
5. Other clickable elements are 24 x 24 pixels
6. Other clickable elements have visible text that matches the text in the underlying code
7. A list's numbers, letters or bullets are displayed and tagged correctly
8. A tables's headers, rows and columns are tagged correctly

Semantic Tagging

1. Non-decorative/real and decorative/artefact content is all tagged correctly
2. Non-text features (figures, graphics, captions, links, mathematical expressions) are tagged and grouped correctly
3. Lists, tables and TOCs are tagged correctly
4. Headers, footers, notes and references are tagged correctly
5. Headings are tagged as headings
6. Headings have just 1 <H1>, at the beginning
7. Headings <H2>-<H6> don't skip levels
8. No headings <H7> or higher
9. Other non-PDF structure elements tagged correctly (Epubs)
10. PDF tags support the separate reading order (PDFs)
11. PDF role mapping is correct (PDFs)
12. Other structure elements in PDF tagged correctly (PDFs)

Reading Order and Navigation

1. Multiple ways to navigate
2. Static page breaks are present (Epubs)
3. Static page breaks are navigable (Epubs)
4. Navigation consistent throughout
5. Reading/focus order retains meaning when using tabs or a screenreader
6. Repeating blocks of content can be skipped

Metadata and Conformance reporting

1. File has metadata
2. File metadata has a title that is used instead of file name
3. File metadata has a valid language
4. Where the language changes, individual parts have a valid language
5. Source of static page breaks/pagination is identifiable (Epubs)
6. File metadata includes full accessibility conformance information

HTML and Web Pages

For HTML books and web pages, you would need to consider all of WCAG AA, rather than just the selected checklist above, which only includes aspects of standards that apply to ebook files that need to be manually checked. Below are a list of already available widely used full WCAG based checklists:

WebAIM's WCAG 2 Checklist

Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Deque Accessibility Developer's Guide

Please note that completing these checklists does not equal full certified compliance with WCAG AA.

Other checklists:

W3C Easy Checks

UK Government: Basic accessibility check

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - Quick Reference

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in Plain English