Benetech Global Certified Accessible (GCA) Standards

GCA is the program developed by Benetech to certify publishers and vendors seeking independent validation of their work.
As a certified conversion vendor, DPS conversions are guaranteed to meet Benetech standards.
After an ePub3 has passed through the DPS process, it can be described as "Certified Accessible."
This description is also used in the Onix file, which is effectively the "advertisement" for the quality of the file. More here.

As noted here, there is a significant difference between "ACE compliance" and "Certified compliance."

APLN Reference Link

Best Practices for Writing Image Descriptions

This Powerpoint presentation is a good factual description of the GCA process.

As described on slide 6, these are the steps required to certify a publication:

Validate EPUB with EPUBCheck Utility
Review EPUB using a reading system for potential accessibility issues
Validate accessibility with Ace by DAISY
Check conformance with SMART by DAISY
Explore EPUB internal code with Sigil / Calibre
Check images with text for proper contrast
Produce various reports for publisher

As GCA evolves and best practices improve, standards change, and questions are asked that form the basis for new ways to produce content. Each quarter the program circulates a Bulletin to its certified publishers to announce and document changes that are made in Accessible ePUB3 specifications.

DPS keeps abreast of these changes; so all ePUB3 produced after the a Bulletin implementation date will contain the changes. However, since this may set up a conflict between the ACE tool and the file, recent changes may be withheld at publisher request. See below for an example of the application of standards.

By GCA policy, any preexisting certified EPUBs and any EPUBs currently going through the GCA process will not need to change. Only new EPUBs submitted for evaluation after the Bulletin date will need to conform to the guidelines outlined in the bulletin.

Here is an example of the overview section of a Benetech report:

When content is received which deviates from standards, we make the necessary changes as a default, although clients may ask for overrides with inhouse standards. Examples:

For alt-text in covers, we follow Benetech guidelines, which recommend keeping short alt-text below 200 characters. When alt-text received exceeds this size it must be treated as a "long description" and incorporated in the appropriate elements.

These guidelines are specified for covers:

Accessible PDF?

Through its Born Accessible initiative, Benetech advocates for the creation of digital content that is accessible from the outset, ensuring inclusivity for all readers, including those with disabilities. While Benetech emphasizes the adoption of the ePub3 format due to its inherent accessibility features, the organization acknowledges the importance of accessible PDFs. Benetech provides resources and guidelines to assist content creators in producing accessible PDFs, such as advising the use of structured Word documents as a foundation for creating accessible PDFs. This approach aligns with Benetech's broader mission to eliminate barriers to reading and learning by promoting the development of content that is accessible to everyone.