Explanation

A visual access mode indicates that a publication contains content that must be seen to be understood, such as images, graphics and video, or that it requires visual perception to fully access information (e.g., the ability to perceive background or border colors, or to read text that is encoded in images). It is expressed in metadata using the visual value.

Do not set the visual value if the visual content does not contain any information necessary to understand the content (e.g., logos, cover artwork, and visual flair at the start of chapters).

A visual access mode is common in publications produced using the EPUB format but is less common for audiobooks. It is only potentially relevant when an audiobook also contains supplementary material beyond the audio.

You should always set the visual value when using any of the visual content indicators — chartOnVisual, chemOnVisual, diagramOnVisual, mathOnVisual, musicOnVisual, and textOnVisual. You should also set it with colorDependent when the color requirement is in the visual content (as opposed to, say, colored textual content).

Examples

Example 1 — EPUB 3
<meta property="schema:accessMode">visual</meta>
Example 2 — EPUB 2
<meta name="schema:accessMode" content="visual"/>
Example 3 — Audiobooks
"accessMode": ["auditory", "visual"]

ONIX Mapping

The visual value maps to multiple codes in list 81. Some common examples include code 07 for still images and graphics, code 28 for video, and code 44 for comics and manga.

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