Last updated on 25 March 2020.
Our Accessibility Commitment
At BibliU, it’s our mission to make learning accessible. We use the latest automated testing technologies along with regular internal and external accessibility audits to ensure that at a minimum our platform always meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level AA standard and the Section 508 standard of the Rehabilitation Act. Our regularly updated Voluntary Product Assessment Template (VPAT) is available upon request through accessibility@bibliu.com.
If you have any questions or accessibility issues while using our product, please get in touch through our in-app chat or through our dedicated accessibility inbox accessibility@bibliu.com. We endeavour to respond to any questions within 24 hours.
Digital rights management (DRM)
Content on BibliU will by default employ DRM restrictions. These restrictions are set by publishers for their content and will dictate the amount of content a user can copy/paste and print from each title. DRM further protects content by allowing access solely through the BibliU website and desktop/mobile apps. If a publisher makes their content available DRM-free, it will be signposted in the print function, where the user will be able to download the entire book as a PDF file viewable on any platform without DRM restrictions.
Copying and printing
Copying and printing are allowed on the BibliU platform within the limits specified by the publisher. These restrictions are clearly explained to the user when accessing our copy or print function, and while they vary on a publisher by publisher basis copy and print limits tend to be set at around 10% of the digitised content.
For a title signposted as DRM free, no restrictions on this functionality will be in place.
Reading online and offline
All titles on the BibliU platform can be accessed with an internet connection through our website and native apps, and they can also be downloaded for offline reading through our native desktop and mobile apps. Titles accessed offline offer the same features and functionality to online titles.
Alternatively, if the publisher allows, a DRM-free title can be exported to a pdf format to allow reading offline outside of our app through the user’s preferred PDF reader.
Requests for DRM-free content
If you are a learning provider and require a DRM-free copy for a student whose needs aren’t met by our online platform, please contact us on accessibility@bibliu.com. We will work with the publisher to explore what options are available and will endeavour to fulfil remediated file requests in 3-5 days.
Accessibility features
BibliU is committed to providing an excellent accessibility experience. The following features are available to use across our online and downloaded content on the web and on our apps. Our Reader Help and Accessibility section for students provides additional detailed information and how-to-guides on all our features.
Responsive user interface and content
The BibliU interface is fully responsive, meaning it re-organises itself depending on the screen size and orientation of the device being used to view it. This also means that our interface can be magnified with the user’s native browser zoom function and the user interface will optimise for that zoom level without overflowing or hiding useful functionality.
Users can also choose to magnify the content of the reader without zooming into the entire user interface. For EPUB files, content zoom enlarges both text and images in a fully reflowable manner, without causing any horizontal scrolling. Fixed layout PDF files, on the other hand, do not reflow when zoomed, but BibliU will open them at full-screen width by default to make it as readable as possible.
Image descriptions
BibliU provides alt text and long descriptions for all images and icons in the user interface. Furthermore, we provide full support for alt text and long descriptions on images in all EPUB content and we actively encourage publishers to produce EPUB content that adheres to the WCAG AA standard.
Clear navigation
BibliU provides correctly tagged navigational content (heading levels, hyperlinks) to establish a clear hierarchy of content within both the user interface and within publisher content where provided. This allows easy navigation via screen-readers and intuitive navigation via keyboard.
The tab key will cycle the user through all interactive elements both within the UI and in content, while the arrow keys will allow the user to navigate through long lists of content, such as the table of contents. When in the reader, pressing ‘f6’ directs focus from the text to the table of contents of the book and vice-versa.
BibliU also provides a number of alternatives for navigating to a specific section of content. For example, a user can navigate using our search function, table of contents, or with their screen reader by jumping to the header of that specific section. For more information on keyboard navigation visit our Our Reade page.
Colours and contrast
The BibliU interface is compliant with WCAG Level AA contrast guidelines for an optimal reading experience. To give users additional control over reader colours, BibliU offers built-in options for the following modes:
Night mode: Inverts colours in the reader and switches the user interface to show light text on a dark background.
Flux mode: Softens the background of the content in the reader to a softer, yellow colour.
Custom colour mode: Allows full control of the background and text colours in the reader.
Built-in text-to-speech and speed-reader
BibliU offers built-in text-to-speech and speed-reader functions on both our web and desktop apps where users can play, pause and reset a passage of text as well as adjust the words per minute rate to focus their reading.
Users can access this function by selecting the text they want the platform to read out loud or speed read and choose the relevant function from the context menu that appears.
Support for external screen-reader and text-to-speech tools
BibliU is compatible with all major screen-reader and text-to-speech tools. The ones we use for regular testing are JAWS, NVDA, Mac VoiceOver, ChromeVox and Microsoft Edge ReadAloud. We test these on Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge.
If you use a different tool and are having issues with how it operates on our platform, please get in touch with accessibility@bibliu.com so that we can take a look at how to best support it.
Browser and device support
BibliU is optimised for the latest two versions of modern desktop browsers: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Brave, and Apple Safari. We provide further desktop device support with our native Windows, Mac and Linux apps and provide mobile device support through our mobile apps, available on the Apple App and Google Play Stores.
