How to Use this Guide

This guide is intended to help UW Libraries Pressbooks authors ensure that their published works are accessible to all learners.  This guide can be utilized at any stage of a Pressbooks project, but we recommend thinking about accessibility in your project early on.  In their journal article^[1],  Conversations With Open Textbook Authors: The Factors That Help and Hinder Accessibility, Azadbakht and Schultz note that planning is an important part of ensuring accessibility at the start of a project. They recommended:

• Consider what content types will be included in the OER. Some content will require more work than others. For instance, text and images are fairly easy to make accessible, but videos will not only need closed captions but may also include iframes that can create other accessibility issues.
• Create a list of goals for the project and categorize them into “must have” and “would like to have.
• Consider the timeline for the project. You might not be able to accomplish all of your goals in this time frame. Therefore, it is important to prioritize.

Finally using checklists can be an efficient way of reviewing your work before you make it public:

Utilize the checklist on this guide or the Accessibility Review section of this chapter to assess the accessibility of your Pressbooks project before you publish.

View the Make Your Book Accessible and Inclusive chapter of the Pressbooks User Guide for additional guidance.

Disciplinary and Accessibility Considerations for Publishing with Pressbooks Video

Learn more about Pressbooks accessibility features in this Open Education Network community session, in which Amy Song, PressbookEDU’s customer success manager demonstrates creating content on the Pressbooks authoring platform, including key accessibility features, subject-specific approaches and best practices.