


She added: "One of the most important considerations in exposing children to graphic content is age appropriateness. “Not having particular books available at our schools or on display, is not denying a student.” "Having appropriate safeguards in place does not mean denying a student a resource,” parent Christina Fernandes said. You can also download some free titles through Google’s Project Gutenberg or the Standard Ebooks initiative.Several parents are questioning the filtering process of eBooks available to students at the Waterloo Regional District School Board (WRDSB) after they say their children were able to access eBooks that are not age appropriate.ĭuring the Monday night WRDSB meeting, parents claimed kids - some as who are elementary aged students - are able to access eBooks that are not age appropriate from the WRDSB online library. You can check out EBSCO’s PDF EPUB Comparison. Until the format gains wider adoption, you can share a link to a reader along with an EPUB file that you are sharing until the format becomes more universal. This is completely up to the user, but if you need a recommendation we would suggest the Thorium Reader. How can you start using EPUB?įirst, you will most likely need a compatible program to open and read. If you use proper headings, run the accessibility checker in Word and export using the plugin: congratulations! You have just made an accessible EPUB that has many more accessibility features compared to a standard PDF. It’s also just as easy to create an EPUB as it is a PDF using the DAISY (Digital audio‐based information system) Consortium’s WordtoEPUB, a plugin for Microsoft Word. These features make for a much better reading experience for those with reading disabilities and those using a small screen or mobile device. This opens up a lot of customization that is related to accessibility, such as reflowing of text on small devices, changing the size and style of font, and changing the color and contrast of the background and text based upon user settings. What makes EPUB unique and special is that it is essentially HTML on the backend of the file format. There are, however, some major differences between them. This would not be a problem with an EPUB file.ĮPUB is an open source file format that was developed as an alternative to Adobe’s proprietary PDF file format. Have you ever opened a PDF file on your phone to read an article or check out a restaurant menu and found yourself struggling to navigate it? You zoom in, you pinch out, and you can easily lose your place.
