Standards
The DIAGRAM Center works closely with technical standards bodies such as the DAISY Consortium, IDPF, and W3C to identify, advocate and implement technical standards for accessible educational materials. Write ups of our standards work can be found below, but are also presented on pages dedicated to specific areas of interest like image description, accessible math, 3D printing tactiles and haptics, and born accessible publishing.
Diagrammar: A Framework for Making Images and Graphics Accessible
The Diagrammar, formerly known as the “Content Model,” defines a data model for image description metadata. It provides a structured, standard way for image description data to be modeled, including multiple different types of descriptions for each image, teacher annotations, and pointers to tactile graphic files. The ability of the Diagrammar to hold information about a variety of image alternatives is a critical and revolutionary acknowledgment of the breadth of alternatives that new technology has made possible.
HTML Standards and Longdesc
The Standards Working Group at the DIAGRAM Center strives to make it easier to create, use, discover, and interact with accessible images by effectively advocating for ebook standards that support image accessibility. To this end, the Working Group interacts closely with standards organizations and reports on the latest recommendations in accessible image standards.
Top Tips for Creating Accessible EPUB 3 Files
Accessible images are part of a larger context of ebook accessibility overall. These tips provide guidance to publishers and other content creators as new standards emerge that make accessibility for these materials easier and easier to achieve.
Image Guidelines for EPUB 3
These guidelines from the DIAGRAM Center’s Standards Working Group provide mark up best practices for images within EPUB 3 files as new standards emerge that make accessibility for these materials easier and easier to achieve.
Accessible Image Sample Book
The Accessible Image Sample Book provides a variety of concrete examples that show you how digital images can be made accessible, including sample code that you can use to make it easier to create accessible images in your own digital publications.
Image Description Guidelines
These guidelines were born from a partnership between the DIAGRAM center and the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH (NCAM). They are broken up in to two parts. The first part covers description guidelines that apply to any type of image. The second part covers guidelines for describing images within specific types of categories, such as maps.
