Hi Chris, Anne is correct that for DRM protected ePub books that use Adobe's ADE scheme, which is the most common commercially used DRM scheme, you have to use Adobe Digital Editions Preview to read the books. This is the DRM scheme used by Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Google, along with many online bookstores that sell ePub books with DRM. In the case of hardware devices from Kobo and Sony, and the Barnes and Noble Nook, all of which I believe lack accessibility for visually impaired readers, these DRM-protected ePub files will also be natively supported on the readers. This format is also used by libraries for downloadable eBooks that can also be downloaded in the free OverDrive Media Console app for iOS.
Apple's iBooks uses a different DRM scheme called FairPlay2, and there is currently no program that supports reading those files on a Mac. Adobe Digital Editions Preview is quite comfortable to use for reading if you don't need to use features for closer examination of the text, such as reading by character, or reviewing by line, etc. If you're trying to learn computer coding, where variables can be oddly spelled, and you need to check for special characters, delimiters, and spacing, there's currently no good reader that supports those features and also handles DRM that you can use on your computer. You have to use work arounds like using the VO-Shift-C to copy the page that VoiceOver read to the clipboard, and then paste that section into TextEdit where you can use all the regular VoiceOver navigation and reading options to review the material. I prefer reading library downloads with Adobe Digital Editions Preview on my Mac to reading the same downloads in OverDrive Media Console on my iPhone, though it's neat that I can browse and borrow through the OverDrive app on my iPhone or iPad once I've linked it to my library user account number. OverDrive on iOS is much better for audio book downloads from my library than it is for reading downloaded eBooks. Similarly, I can open ePub books with ADE DRM in the OverDrive app on my iPhone, but the reading experience isn't as good as with the Kobo app or Adobe Digital Editions Preview on my Mac. Basically, I'm only covering these details for completeness. Stanza desktop (to distinguish it from the iOS Stanza app that it was developed to support) works for multiple eReader formats, including ePub, provided these do not have DRM. However, it was originally developed mainly as a tool to unify the diverse set of mobile reading file formats, so that a supported standard, ePub, could be used with the iOS Stanza app. As such, it was primarily a desktop conversion tool that was adapted to also use as a reader and to support various upload options for the Stanza app. However, since Stanza is accessible with VoiceOver, and the other main eReader conversion tool, Calibre, is not (at least, not in its GUI interface -- you can run it with AppleScripts from Terminal), many blind readers are using it also as a reader. (In case you are interested, the iOS app can be used with VoiceOver and even with Braille devices, but is basically no longer supported, since Amazon bought out the competition. At one time Stanza on iOS devices was deemed the biggest challenger to Amazon's Kindle, and was backed by publishers, lead by MacMillan, to be the standard distribution tool for eBooks.) Stanza on the Mac is free and usable, but it has some focus quirks with VoiceOver for its advanced functions, such as bookmark navigation. Just use the navigation controls you would use for HTML content, and you can use all the heading shortcuts, etc. It does let you read by word, character, etc. Other accessible apps for DRM-free ePub reading on the Mac are iText Express or Pro (from the App store -- the Express version is free), and Bookle ($10 in the App Store), which is an app that the editors of the Take Control eBook series recently developed. They're still adding features, so I'd like to see support for more navigation options, but this is coming along, and uses a library organization to keep track of your books, as does Adobe Digital Editions Preview. Here are links to the Mac applications that were mentioned. The original Lexcycle Stanza site got shut down last November, and Mac versions of the program can be hard to find. I give two working links for the Stanza software below. • Adobe Digital Editions 1.8 Preview http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions1-8/ • Stanza desktop version for the Mac -- CNET download page: http://download.cnet.com/Stanza/3000-2056_4-198177.html • Stanza desktop version for the Mac -- Softonic download page: http://stanza.en.softonic.com/mac • iText Express (free) by Lightway at the Mac App store http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itext-express/id416550249?mt=12 • Bookle ($9.99) by Stairways Software at the Mac App store http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bookle/id496158508?mt=12 Also, I think you can download a trial version of iText Pro from the Lightway web site at: http://www.jp-lightway.com/appstore/english/iTextPro/ This is the URL of the site that they used before their Mac App Store offering, and it also has links to its web page versions in French, Italian, and German. iText is really a text editor with some extra features. HTH. 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