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DATE: May 16, 2017
REVISED:
NAME: Defining New Fields to Record Accessibility Content in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
SOURCE: Canadian Committee on Metadata Exchange (CCM), Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC)
SUMMARY: This proposal presents options for recording the RDA data element Accessibility Content (7.14) in the MARC 21 Bibliographic format.
KEYWORDS: Accessibility content (BD); Assistive technology (BD); Accessibility (BD); Discovery-enabled (BD); EPUB (BD); Inclusive publishing (BD); Born-accessible (BD)
RELATED: 2017-DP03
STATUS/COMMENTS:
05/16/17 – Made available to the MARC community for discussion.
06/25/17 – Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion: The committee was not satisfied that the proposal gave sufficient conceptual guidance on the values that could potentially be used in proposed field 341. The submitting group was asked to rework the proposal for a future meeting taking into consideration the logical relations among the proposed subfields.
08/07/17 - Results of MARC Steering Group review - Agreed with the MAC decision.
As assistive technologies have evolved, providing alternative access to content in a variety of formats, the ability to accommodate accessibility metadata in MARC 21 has not kept pace. Existing content designation for recording information on accessibility features is currently dispersed throughout the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format in the following fields: 008 (Fixed-Length Data Elements), Form of item values ‘d’( Large print) and ‘f’ (Braille); 300 (Physical Description); 500 (General Note); 538 (System Details Note); 546 (Language Note); 650 (Subject Added Entry - Topical Term); and 655 (Index Term-Genre/Form).
Other metadata encoding schemes such as schema.org are developing vocabularies to describe accessible content on the web. W3C has developed standards for providing accessible content and describing that content. The new EPUB3 standard currently under development includes metadata rating conformance to accessibility standards (http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/accessibility.html). It is expected that EPUB3 will replace the DAISY format. This paper has modeled its approach on these standards in an effort to align the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format with these other encoding schemes.
Following from MARC Discussion Paper No. 2017-DP03, and reflecting feedback by the MARC Advisory Committee (MAC) on that paper, this proposal defines two new fields: the 341 (Accessibility Content) to indicate accessibility features and/or assistive technology provided for a resource, or parts of a resource, for example, embedded video, audio, text, in an electronic resource; and the 532 (Accessibility Note) which would be used to provide a human-readable summary of the accessibility features or deficiencies of a resource.
Resource Description and Access (RDA) 7.14.1.3 Recording Accessibility Content instructs us to “[r]ecord information about the accessibility content if the information is evident from the resource or is readily available from another source.” Accessibility content is defined at 7.14.1.1 as “An indication of content that provides alternative sensory modes to perceive the primary content of a resource. Accessibility content includes accessible labels, audio description, captioning, image description, sign language, and subtitles. Accessibility content does not include subtitles in a language different from the spoken content.”
Human interaction with the content of information resources, whether physical or electronic, is limited to four ‘modes’ – textual, visual, auditory, and tactile. These modes are utilized by schema.org in their pending accessMode property (https://pending.schema.org/accessMode), and are included in the new EPUB3 specifications (http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/techniques/techniques.html#sec-meta-001) which are based on practices developed by W3C for authoring accessible web content. It might be advisable to align some of our vocabulary with schema.org and W3C and these modes do tie-in with Field 336 (Content Type) values, except for those values relating to computers, which should not be an issue as we are focusing on direct human interaction. For resource users who to varying degrees cannot access content via these modes, assistive technologies and other accessibility features have been developed using one or more of the modes to provide alternative access. Alternatives to the textual mode can be provided using the tactile mode (Braille), auditory mode (Described Video or audiobooks), visual mode (pictograms) or even the original textual mode (large print, or black and white).
Due to the variety of accessibility issues, accessibility features, and the degree to which features have been implemented in a given resource, we determined that there was no place in the fixed fields to record sufficient data for users to make decisions about the suitability of a resource.
As a resource may contain content accessed using more than one mode as defined above, we deemed it necessary to add a new repeatable field, 341 (Accessibility Content), that would identify the required mode(s) and record the accessibility feature(s) and the alternative mode(s) used by the feature. Subfield $a would provide a place to record the primary mode required to access content. Subfields ($b-$e) specific to the alternative mode(s) used to provide access would provide a place to record the accessibility feature or assistive technology provided by the resource. Subfield $p would provide a place to record any devices, equipment, or software required to implement an accessibility feature. Subfield $3 would permit one to specify which part of the described materials to which the field applied, and subfield $0 would allow one to record an Authority record control number or standard number. We suggest a thesaurus such as the W3C WebSchemas/Accessibility vocabulary be used to provide a controlled vocabulary for subfields $b-$e. The 34X range was chosen as it contains other formatted fields containing technical details.
Some information relating to sign language content can already be coded in the 041 (Language code) field or detailed in the 546 (Language note) field, however this is not restricted to sign language as an accessibility feature. Should it be desired, enhancing the coding of 041 so as to permit the recording of this information could be the object of an additional discussion paper and proposal to permit full consideration of all relevant issues.
Finally, we thought it necessary to provide the note field 532 (Accessibility Note) for a human-readable summary of the accessibility features or deficiencies of the resource as well as to record data not available in the prescribed vocabulary for 341 $b-$e. We are aware that the introduction of this note may impact legacy data if similar accessibility information has been stored in fields 500/538/546. This issue will need to be investigated further to determine its scope and possible mapping strategies.
Specifications for the above changes and additions can be found in section 3. Also included are a few examples illustrating the application of these changes and additions.
Define the following two new fields in the Bibliographic format:
3.1. FIELD 341
341 - Accessibility Content (R)
Field definition and scope
Information about the mode of access and accessibility features of a resource, including its primary mode of access, alternative mode(s) of access, and details about accessibility features such as navigational elements or specialized devices and software required.Multiple values from the same source vocabulary may be recorded in the same field in separate occurrences of subfields. Terms from different source vocabularies are recorded in separate occurrences of the field.
First Indicator - Application
# - No information provided
0 - Applies to primary content of resource
1 - Applies to secondary content of resourceSecond Indicator - Undefined
# - UndefinedSubfield codes
$a Content access mode (NR)
Mode required to access the content of the resource (textual, visual, auditory, or tactile).
341 0# $a auditory$b Textual assistive features and adaptations (R)
Textual assistive features and adaptations to access the content of the resource.
341 0# $a textual $b largePrint $2 w3c
341 0# $a auditory $b captions $2 w3c$c Visual assistive features and adaptations (R)
Visual assistive features and adaptations to access the content of the resource.
341 0# $a auditory $c signLanguage $2 w3c$d Auditory assistive features and adaptations (R)
Auditory assistive features and adaptations to access the content of the resource.
341 0# $a visual $d audioDescription $2 w3c$e Tactile assistive features and adaptations (R)
Tactile assistive features and adaptations to access the content of the resource.
341 0# $a textual $e braille $2 w3c$p Devices, equipment, or software (R)
Devices, equipment, or software required to implement an accessibility feature.
341 0# textual $d synchronizedAudioText $d structuralNavigation $p Standalone DAISY player, computers using DAISY playback software $2 w3c$0 Authority record control number or standard number (R)
See description of this subfield in Appendix A: Control Subfields.$2 Source (NR)
Identification of the source of terms when they are from a controlled list.$3 Materials specified (NR)
Part of the described materials to which the field applies.
3.2. FIELD 532
532 - Accessibility Note (R)
Field definition and scope
Human-readable note for providing more detail on or qualifying data in the 341 field.First indicator - Undefined
# - undefinedSecond indicator - Undefined
# - undefinedSubfield codes
$a - Summary of accessibility features, hazards, and deficiencies (NR)
532 $a Closed captioning
532 $a Described video
532 $a Picture-in-picture signing
532 $a Menu not navigable
532 $a Requires additional software, mouse
Example 1: Large print books
Current:
008/23 Form of Item: d=Large type
020 ## $a 9781683240624 (large print : hardcover : alk. paper)
250 ## $a Large print edition.
300 ## $a 499 pages (large print) ; $c 23 cm.
340 ## $n 15 point
650 #0 $a Large type books.Proposed:
008/23 Form of Item: d=Large type
020 ## $a 9781683240624 $q large print : hardcover : alk. paper)
250 ## $a Large print edition.
300 ## $a 499 pages ; $c 23 cm.
340 ## $n 15 point
341 0# $a textual $b largePrint $2 w3c
650 #0 $a Large type books.
Example 2: Ebooks
Current:
347 ## $a text file $b EPUB3 $2 rda
Proposed:
347 ## $a text file $b EPUB3 $2 rda
341 0# $a textual $c displayTransformability $d synchronizedAudioText $d structuralNavigation $2 w3c
532 ## $a This EPUB 3 resource has been optimized to conform to DAISY Consortium specifications for text to speech playback.
Example 3: Ebooks with color content
Current:
300 ## $a 1 online resource (314 pages) : $b color illustrations
347 ## $a text file $b EPUB3 $2 rdaProposed:
300 ## $a 1 online resource (314 pages) : $b color illustrations
341 0# $a textual $c displayTransformability $2 w3c
347 ## $a text file $b EPUB3 $2 rda
532 ## $a Lacking alternative b&w images for color illustrations.
Example 4: DVD recordings
Current:
546 ## $a Close-captioned.
655 #7 $a Video recordings for the hearing impaired $2 lcgftProposed:
341 0# $a auditory $b captions $2 w3c
532 ## $a Closed captioning
655 #7 $a Video recordings for the hearing impaired $2 lcgft
Example 5: DVD recordings - repeatable 341
Current:
500 ## $a Includes picture-in-picture signing.
546 ## $a Described video.
655 #7 $a Video recordings for the hearing impaired $2 lcgft
655 #7 $a Video recordings for people with visual disabilities $2 lcgftProposed:
041 ## $a sgn $a eng
341 0# $a auditory $c signLanguage $2 w3c
341 0# $a visual $d audioDescription $2 w3c
341 1# $a textual $b braille $2 w3c
532 ## $a Described video
532 ## $a Picture-in-picture signing
532 ## $a Container contains text in Braille.
655 #7 $a Video recordings for the hearing impaired $2 lcgft
655 #7 $a Video recordings for people with visual disabilities $2 lcgft
Content accessibility is a very important area and could contain information on a number of different accessibility needs – visual, audio, etc. The controlled vocabularies are not well developed in some areas and continue to be refined. BIBFRAME was therefore adjusted in the spring of 2017 to make the property “contentAccessibility” an object rather than a data property and the class “ContentAccessibility” was introduced. This way the vocabulary can contain literal notes about accessibility, controlled terms or phrases, or a uri that takes one to a “balloon” (classes and properties from another specialized name space) with more extensive and specialized information.
http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe.html#p_contentAccessibility
In the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format:
6.1. Add new field 341 (Accessibility Content) as described in Section 3.1.
6.2. Add new field 532 (Accessibility Note) as described in Section 3.2.
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