W3C

– DRAFT –
(MEETING TITLE)

26 June 2025

Attendees

Present
AvneeshSingh, CharlesL, George, Hadrien, Madeleine, mgarrish
Regrets
-
Chair
AvneeshSingh
Scribe
CharlesL

Meeting minutes

Recommend a format for the evaluation date: Issue #2725 in EPUB specs repo.

<AvneeshSingh> w3c/epub-specs#2725 (comment)

mgarrish: required date format for the evaluation date certifiedby etc. right now any date formate is currently supported but we need to standardize we thought we would use ISO date standard

<mgarrish> w3c/epub-specs#2731

mgarrish: require YMD, YM, or Y this was brought up in the WG call

We will allow any ISO DATE, DATE/TIME display can be customized
… proposed dropping it to a SHOULD because a MUST would need to require a version # bump to 1.2. If we leave it as a SHOULD this would cause more processing to ensure its a localizable DATE field or some other non ISO date which couldn't be localized. ISO8601 format. Not sure in terms of Normative priorities.

AvneeshSingh: EvaluatedDate is not Manditory, but we need to know if you do include a date will it be a MUST or SHOULD .
… ACE currently doesn't check but we can adjust ACE to make it more elevated.

Hadrien: i am in favor of making it a MUST if we bump the version number.

AvneeshSingh: AccessModeSufficient is also in the same boat, currently a MUST but if we get pushback we can make it a SHOULD.

Charles: I also agree this should be a MUST as we will more than likely be a 1.2

mgarrish: Put in an Editors Note stating this we will make this a MUST but will require a version bump to signify folks to take a closer look

mgarrish: I don't think this is a problem, the PR is currently a MUST
… ISO8601 don't care if its just a DATE or DATETIME it won't affect display.

mgarrish: I will add the time option and keep it as a MUST and add an Editors Note about this requiring a version # bump

RESOLUTION: keep the requirement a must with the addition of allowing time values and add a note explaining the potential impact on the version number

Using the UX display guide with Daisy files: Issue #401

<AvneeshSingh> w3c/publ-a11y#401

AvneeshSingh: using the guide can provide same display for EPUB or DAISY files.

Hadrien: increased number of both DAISY and EPUB files intermixed.
… an interest in provide a11y metadata regardless of format. consistency for UX

George: important need to do. most people with disabilities were getting their books from one place or another and traditionally NLS, Learning Ally - DAISY audio books but those books were always the same. some navigation, no page nav, audio recordings.
… organizations could display metadata based on date produced, but if new stuff could get this metadata, and could retrofit old data to add this metadata.
… not sure if you can go put it back into that old book

Hadrien: if you are using ONX, or OPDS there is a solution, but not sure we have a uniform solution which is why I have the PR.

AvneeshSingh: we have metadata about pagenumbers, audio only etc. but no concept of certification for DAISY. how can we make this work.

George: Internet Archive only has 1 entry for TOC but not really useful.

AvneeshSingh: what is the way forward?

Hadrien: recomment sharing the metadata in another format

AvneeshSingh: DAISY is by default accessible which is why it didn't really need a11y metadata inside DAISY files.
… DAISY pipeline does have a way to inject a11y metadata but the OPF will need to be updated.

Hadrien: I know there are DAISY pipelines with TTS engines, if it is automated. some may prefer Human Narrated or presence of audio is important.

George: another issue Recording for the Blind uses volunteers, 2 hour stints, so you don't get the same narrator for the entire book. No for Human Narrated books you have different characters have different voice actors which is a great experience

Morris: recording of gender of narrators has come up. some people prefer a particular gender, may want a female or male voice. we wanted to de-emphasis gender but this is at odds what is being requested.

AvneeshSingh: DAISY" metadata some kind of crosswalk with completely solve this? what are the next steps?

George: we could list the features in the DAISY file a checklist.
… ABC that checklist could be helpful in determining if you will get this book or not.

AvneeshSingh: we can take this on by DAISY.

Hadrien: I agree this is DAISY specific thing and can help with OPDS.

George: would this apply to audio books.
… BISG is working on an Audio book specification. traditionally mainstream would not have page numbers, image descriptions etc. the checklist idea seems interesting.

AvneeshSingh: things can be inferred by the structure from the NCC or OPF file. there is no programmatic way into the files this has to be in the metadata

Hadrien: if there is an audio book spec. it would warrant covering them in a display guide.

AvneeshSingh: Plan: to have a discussion with DAISY members, I can make a checklist which details we can record from the DAISY publication.
… especially want feedback from Scandinavian members.

Madeleine: define a set base on date
… give them a name then that profile can be applied for a batch.

George: class of books for dyslexics where images were not described. i think called Trade books

Shall we add a note on audio only about type of narration to help users identify AI voices? (Issue #559

<AvneeshSingh> w3c/publ-a11y#458

AvneeshSingh: need for AI, vs. human vs synthetic

George: human or not

Charles: knowing if it is the famous person or an AI representation

George: yes we did this at CSUN John Wayne speaking a book.

Hadrien: how do I identify a synthetic voice. can i identify the gender, and 3rd might be a cloned voice knowing who it is a clone of is also important to know.
… identify audio book narrated by a human being will be very important as well

AvneeshSingh: Schema.org metadata group need to look into this, APA and BISG to come up with some new metadata.

Hadrien: there is already a w3c audio spec so what is BISG doing?

George: lot of work going on right now. should be standardized. I don't know where that is happening. BISG is not a standards group only applying standards.

AvneeshSingh: MARC, ONIX will also need to be harmonized

Madeleine: we need to coordinate what are the categories are and then we can define the vocabulary

George: I can introduce Madeleine with the BISG folks
… they wanted me to join that audio book group.

AvneeshSingh: is there a subset of folks with metadata folks at BISG.

George: Clair with OCLC had a colleages Morris join call

Morris: I need to clear it with Clair

George: OCLC is also working with MARC records.

Hadrien: pointing out this is also important for EPUB, who is narrating, voice gender, etc.
… with media overlays. synthetic, cloned, human, gender etc.

AvneeshSingh: MTM is using synthetic voice for media overlays.

George: all of these need to consult with.

AvneeshSingh: I will connect with Nordic people.

Morris: noticing with audio books AI voices that are speaking as they are not real. would like to see this in MARC eventually.
… we can identify the voices are artificial.

charles: Schema.org may have already have these values we may need.

<LauraC> I would be careful about indicating voices as “male” or “female.” What is the reason for that? What are people looking for when they make a decision to choose one of those to listen to? What is the quality of voice that is the actual decision point?

Hadrien: 11 Labs has iconic voices. Narrators can provide audio to be cloned. and they get revenue license.
… its not fraud because it could be real and legal.

AvneeshSingh: July 10 next call

<LauraC> I just finished listening to an audiobook that really sounded like AI because the emphasis was odd. But it wasn’t AI because the book was old.

Summary of resolutions

  1. keep the requirement a must with the addition of allowing time values and add a note explaining the potential impact on the version number
Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 244 (Thu Feb 27 01:23:09 2025 UTC).

Diagnostics

Maybe present: Charles, Morris

All speakers: AvneeshSingh, Charles, George, Hadrien, Madeleine, mgarrish, Morris

Active on IRC: AvneeshSingh, CharlesL, George, Hadrien, LauraC, Madeleine, mgarrish