a11y-nimas mastera division of Digital Media Initiatives
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Accessibility production for publishers

Print books in.
Certified NIMAS out.

A11Y-NIMAS Master is the accessibility division of Digital Media Initiatives. We produce validated NIMAS filesets and carry them to NIMAC certification — and we cover everything around them: PDF/UA, WCAG audits, assistive-technology testing, conformance reports, programme strategy, training and ongoing monitoring.

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Inside a NIMAS fileset dtbook 2005-3
  • <dtbook>
    • <head> dc:Title, dc:Identifier
    • <frontmatter>
    • <bodymatter>
      • <level1 class="chapter">
        • <h1> Cells and Heredity
        • <p> Every living thing is…
        • <imggroup>
          • <img alt="Diagram of a plant…">
          • <caption> Figure 3.1
        • <table> headers + scope
    • <rearmatter> glossary, index

Validated against the NIMAS DTD · package.opf and images bundled · uploaded on NIMAC and followed through to certified.

What we do

Nine services, one standard of evidence

Accessibility work is unforgiving: a fileset either validates or it does not, a report either holds up in procurement or it does not. Everything below is measured against a published standard.

NIMAS

NIMAS XML production from print books

Validated NIMAS filesets built from your print PDFs, with alt text authored and the title carried through to NIMAC certification.

 PDF/UA

Accessible PDF remediation to PDF/UA

Tag trees, reading order, table headers and metadata remediated to PDF/UA (ISO 14289), delivered with a conformance report.

 Documents

Remediation of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and EPUB

The other formats your organisation publishes — brought up to standard so the same content works for every reader.

 WCAG 2.x AA

Web application audit and remediation

Manual and assistive-technology testing against WCAG 2.x Level AA, with prioritised findings, code-level fixes and a re-test.

 ACR / VPAT

Accessibility Conformance Reports in VPAT format

Defensible ACRs your buyers, state adoption teams and legal reviewers can actually evaluate.

 EAA / EU

European Accessibility Act readiness

Born-accessible EPUB, backlist remediation and the accessibility metadata the EU supply chain now requires — evidenced against EN 301 549.

 Strategy

Accessibility programme strategy and consulting

Turning one-off remediation into a repeatable programme, so the same barriers stop coming back.

 AT testing

User-flow and assistive-technology testing

Testing whether someone can complete the task, not just whether the page passes a rule.

 Training

Accessibility training for client teams

Role-specific sessions so your designers, developers, QA and authors stop reintroducing the same barriers.

 Monitoring

Ongoing monitoring and re-testing

Accessibility regresses with every release. Scheduled re-testing catches it before a user or a regulator does.

What we work to

The specifications behind the work

Every deliverable is measured against a published standard, not an opinion.

  • NIMAS 1.1
  • DTBook / dtbook-2005-3
  • NIMAC
  • DAISY & DTB
  • PDF/UA — ISO 14289
  • WCAG 2.1 & 2.2 Level AA
  • Section 508
  • EN 301 549
  • European Accessibility Act
  • VPAT 2.5
  • EPUB 3 & EPUB Accessibility 1.1
  • ONIX 3 accessibility metadata

European Accessibility Act

The EU deadline has already passed

The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. If you sell digital publications into the EU, this is no longer something to prepare for.

Scope

Where you sell, not where you are

A publisher in India, the US or Australia selling e-books into EU retail is inside the Act's scope. The obligation runs down the whole supply chain — distributors, retailers, reading software and metadata aggregators included.

Standard

EN 301 549, and WCAG within it

Conformance is demonstrated through EN 301 549, which incorporates the WCAG Level AA criteria. For publications, EPUB 3 with EPUB Accessibility 1.1 defines how those criteria apply inside a book.

Metadata

Accessible is not enough — it must be described

Accessibility has to be recorded in the EPUB package document and carried through ONIX to retailers. Publishers still sending ONIX 2.1 cannot express it, which makes the ONIX 3 migration a compliance question.

We work to EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.2 Level AA — a step above the 2.1 AA baseline the standard references — and we produce the evidence to go with it. See our EAA readiness service, or read what publishers have to do now.

Why timing matters

The later a barrier is found, the more it costs

The same defect gets more expensive at every stage it survives — because the number of things that must change to fix it grows.

  1. BacklogA requirement is written differently. Nothing has been built.
  2. DesignA component is reworked before anyone implements it.
  3. DevelopmentCode changes, and everything built on that pattern changes with it.
  4. TestingA fix, a regression cycle, and a re-test — inside a release window.
  5. After releaseRemediation under a deadline, with users already affected and procurement or legal attention attached.

This is why the highest-return work is often not another audit, but fixing the templates, components and review steps that keep producing the same findings. That is what our programme strategy work addresses.

Members of the IAAP

We are members of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals, the global professional body for the field. Membership keeps our team current with the standards, techniques and testing practice that our clients' obligations depend on.

Track record

Built on complex, deadline-bound curricula

Our team handles layered instructional material — from single chapter books to multi-thousand-page K–6 literacy programmes dense with charts, images and tables — on aggressive schedules.

Brijesh and his team are very knowledgeable about this work, and provided recommendations when needed. All work was turned in on schedule in spite of an aggressive timeline, and the team was flexible when we hit snags on our end.

Publisher — Texas K–6 literacy curriculum project

Common questions

What publishers ask us first

What is a NIMAS fileset?

A NIMAS fileset is the source package a publisher submits under the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard. It contains a valid DTBook XML file marked up to the NIMAS DTD, a package file (OPF) with the title's metadata, and the full-resolution images referenced by the text. Accessible Media Producers convert that source into braille, large print, audio or digital text for students with print disabilities.

What source files do you need to start?

A text-based print PDF with high-resolution images, including the cover page. Before production begins our team checks that the source is genuinely text-based and suitable for conversion; scanned or image-only PDFs need a different approach, and we tell you that up front rather than after invoicing.

Do you upload titles to NIMAC, or do we?

We do. We hold vendor access to the NIMAC portal, upload the fileset on your behalf, and follow up on any validation issues until each title is duly certified.

Who writes the alt text for images?

We do. Our team drafts descriptions for the images that carry instructional meaning and sends them to you for correction or approval. Production of the fileset only starts once you have signed off on the alt text.

What is the difference between NIMAS and an accessible PDF?

NIMAS is a source format, intended to be converted into student-ready formats by an Accessible Media Producer. An accessible PDF conforming to PDF/UA (ISO 14289) is an end-user format, opened directly by the reader with assistive technology. Many publishers need both, which is why we produce them from the same set of source files.

Do you provide a VPAT or an ACR?

Yes. A VPAT is the template; an Accessibility Conformance Report is the completed document. We issue an ACR per product in the requisite VPAT format, covering WCAG 2.x Level AA, Section 508 and EN 301 549 as applicable.

Does the European Accessibility Act apply to us if we are not based in the EU?

Almost certainly, if you sell into the EU. The Act is scoped by where a product or service is offered rather than where the company is registered, so a publisher based in India, the United States or Australia selling e-books into EU retail platforms falls within it. The obligation also runs down the supply chain to distributors, retailers, reading software and metadata aggregators.

What makes an e-book compliant with the EAA?

In practice: an accessible EPUB 3 conforming to EPUB Accessibility 1.1, which applies the WCAG Level AA criteria inside a publication, plus accessibility metadata that describes it. That metadata has to exist in two places — schema.org properties in the EPUB package document, and the corresponding accessibility codes in the ONIX record sent to distributors and retailers.

Do you work beyond documents?

Yes. We audit and remediate web applications against WCAG 2.x Level AA, run user-flow and assistive-technology testing, advise on accessibility programme strategy, train client teams, and re-test on an ongoing cadence.

Send us a title and a deadline

Tell us the format you have and the format you need. We will tell you plainly whether the source converts cleanly, and what it takes.

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