The objective of the project was the digitization of content and the creation of digital layouts for the books of technical and vocational education (also known as EPAL books), followed by the creation of Digital Audiobooks for students with visual impairment.
The total number of EPAL books is approximately 700, of which 20 are general education books, and the rest are specialized subjects. Few of these books (e.g., general education books) are available in digital form. This is a large-scale project that requires a comprehensive mechanism and sufficient implementation time. Due to limited financial and human resources of the Publications Directorate, as well as the uncertainty regarding whether these specialized books will continue to be used in the coming years, the project was carried out in two phases:
Phase A:
In Phase A, the digitization and creation of digital layouts for a selected subset of books was carried out, covering key specialties in technical and vocational education or distributed across multiple specialties with a sufficient print run each year. Specifically, Phase A involved:
a) The conversion of the content of a basic subset of technical and vocational school books into digital form through digitization, OCR processes, and the modernization of visual materials (photos, diagrams, etc.).
b) The creation of digital layouts for this specific subset of books, the organization of the digital material in the pre-print material management information system, and the ongoing maintenance of the material.
Phase B:
The physical and financial scope of Phase A was expanded to include all specialty books for technical and vocational education. Additionally, the scope of Phase A was extended to include other specialty books for vocational and technical education, as well as books for special categories such as books for expatriates, refugee children, etc., which were not available in digital form. During this phase, layouts for books for students with impaired vision were also created, the content of the digital layouts was converted into .epub3 format, and DTBs were produced for a selected subset of books.
An interesting and promising extension of digital books is the creation of Digital Talking Books (DTBs), which are mainly aimed at students with reading disabilities, such as blind students or students with impaired vision (low vision). DTBs are considered autonomous content entities compatible with internationally recognized standards (epub3, daisy2, etc.), which are readable and narratable using specialized reading tools.