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Accessibility metadata and sufficient access modes, part 1

You should definitely add accessible metadata to your website or ebook!

Luckily you can use schema.org's accessibility metadata to easily do just that.

Last time I wrote about access modes, and now I have things about sufficient access modes.

In this context a sufficient access mode means that you can access all of the content in the described ways (for code snippets go to Daisy's definition of accessModeSufficient).

Just a heads up: This might a bit more complicated to understand (and even I am just making sense of this), so don't be afraid to ask and discuss!

So, let's go over different possibilities with 3 access modes: Textual, auditory and visual.

1. Textual

If the sufficient access mode is only text, then it means that all of the content in your publication has to be accessible by text.

Notice the difference compared to a mere access mode: Including "textual" as an access mode meant that the page has some text. Being sufficient access mode means that all of the information has to be in text in some way.

This is easy if your publication is all text. Then it indeed is the sufficient access mode to get all the information in your publication.

If you publication has images, but you have added alternative text or long descriptions to them then "textual" is also a sufficient access mode to your content.

2. Auditory

If all of the content is in audio format then this is for you. Publications that could fit this definition are audiobooks or podcasts.

Remember that if you have a possibility to listen the contents of your publication, it should be for all of the content. If the audio version skips images or doesn't describe them, then "auditory" isn't a sufficient access mode to your content.

3. Visual

I imagine a children's image book or an infographic with this one. If all of the content requires sight and it's not in any other format then "visual" fits the bill.

If the publication has images and text in-between explaining them, then all of the content isn't accessible by visuals only.

4. Textual, visual

This is your basic printed book, ebook or website. You get information from the text as well as the images.

You can also provide all of the information through text with alternative text or long descriptions, but it is not necessary for using these values.

This is it for this time! I will continue this list next time.

With 3 elements you can generate 7 different combinations when not counting the empty set, so there's still 3 more combinations to get to!