I’m working on a short guide for our Pressbooks authors to help them ensure/check the accessibility of books they create, before they go live.
I’m writing a section on how to make your book cover more accessible by using good color contrast, but beyond this, I’m not sure how readers with visual disabilities would interact with a book cover, especially if there’s not a place to add alt text for the cover itself. Do others have tips for making ebook covers more accessible? I know that unfortunately Canva doesn’t allow you to include alt text, if using that for book cover creation..
Thanks!
-Lauren
We found this resource on LibA11y that might assist you with your section on book cover accessibility. LibA11y’s mission is to make library content accessible, and they have fantastic resources on best practices for creating better headings, images, videos, and other types of information on the web.
According to this resource, alt-text is not needed when the alt-text would offer repeated information. In the case of book covers, it is common to see decorative images along with the book title and authors, however, this information is stated elsewhere in the book’s metadata. The resource on LibA11y explains that the alt-text for a book cover might just be the title, which is already stated.
I have scrolled through the directory and the alt-text for many of the book covers are limited to “cover of book” or “cover image for book title”. It seems like the best practice for keeping book covers accessible is to not offer any information that cannot be found elsewhere in the metadata.
I’d love to hear from someone that might be able to provide some insight to how readers with visual disabilities interact with book covers on the web to assist with Lauren’s guide.
Thank you so much, Joceyln! This is all super helpful and I’ll make sure to incorporate this into my guide. Many thanks and yes, interested in hearing if anyone else has experience with this topic. Best,
Lauren
