Explanation

An auditory access mode indicates that there is content that must be heard to be understood (e.g., audio tracks on their own or as part of a video, or an audiobook). It is expressed in metadata using the auditory value.

You do not have to set the auditory value if the audio does not include information necessary to understand the content (e.g., background noises in an interactive game or mood music).

Auditory content added using EPUB 3's media overlays feature is not considered an auditory access mode unless the auditory content is the only way to read the entire publication.

For example, a mainstream publisher will typically add a media overlay to the full text of a novel. In this case, the work would only have a textual access mode. An accessible content republisher, on the other hand, might publish the same work with only the chapter headings as text and all the content of the book synchronized to those headings as audio (to allow users who are blind to move through the audio by heading). In this case, the work would only have an auditory access mode.

Note that it is not possible for EPUB 2 publications to have an auditory access mode as the format does not support embedding audio or have an equivalent to EPUB 3's media overlays.

Examples

Example 1 — EPUB 3
<meta property="schema:accessMode">auditory</meta>
Example 3 — Audiobooks
"accessMode": ["auditory"]

ONIX Mapping

The auditory value maps to multiple codes in list 81. Some common examples include code 01 for audiobooks, code 28 for video, and code 44 for comics and manga.

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