In essence, for a product to be directly accessible, the needed capabilities would have to be built into the product rather than relying on add-ons. Compatibility With Assistive Technologies. The ability of an electronic textbook to be used in conjunction with standard assistive technologies used by people who have disabilities. In fact, each approach has advantages. Advantages of Direct or Built-In Accessibility Cost.
Direct accessibility has advantages in cost, availability, and inclusiveness.
When products are directly accessible to a student, schools do not need to deal with the added expense of acquiring special assistive devices to access and use the electronic textbook. Given the rapid changes in technologies, this also means that schools would not need to continuously buy new assistive devices as electronic textbooks evolved. When accessibility is built in, students do not need to worry about whether their assistive technology will work with a particular computer. Today, electronic textbooks are available in a limited number of formats. However, in the future, it is likely that electronic textbooks will be produced in a wide variety of hardware and software formats, making it difficult for a user to have all of the right assistive devices or adapters.