Executive summary: More than 500 literary works and 100 textbooks produced for PNLD Digital, meeting the accessibility requirements of the Brazilian Ministry of Education and the FNDE. Publishers served: Palavras, MLetras, Rocco, Projeto, Iluminuras and MVC.
The challenge
The Programa Nacional do Livro e do Material Didático (PNLD) is the largest public programme for distributing educational material in the world, reaching millions of students across Brazil. The difficulty lies in the scale and the variety of the material: textbooks and literary works with detailed illustrations, charts, maps and interactive activities, all of which have to be delivered in an accessible digital format meeting every technical requirement of the Ministry of Education and the FNDE to the letter, with no room for the kind of slip that triggers a rejection.
Our approach
A production pipeline dedicated to the PNLD programme, combining automation and AI to speed up the repeatable steps (structure recognition, first-pass alt text, metadata checking) with human editorial review for the decisions that need context. Accessibility is designed in from the start: detailed image descriptions, semantic navigation through landmarks, reading order tested with screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) and validation with Ace by DAISY before delivery.
Result
More than 500 literary works and 100 textbooks delivered in compliance with PNLD requirements, and zero rejections in the FNDE's official validators over the period of the partnership. Booknando established itself as a reference for accessible digital educational material in Brazil, with mature processes that can be repeated for each new edition of the programme.
Technical stack
- EPUB 3 compliant with the technical requirements of PNLD Digital.
- Accessibility: EPUB Accessibility 1.1 and WCAG 2.2 AA.
- Validated with EPUBCheck 5.x and Ace by DAISY.
- Screen reader testing: NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver and TalkBack.
- Pipeline with automation and AI for image description, followed by a final human review.
Case study data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Programme | PNLD (Brazil's national textbook and teaching material programme) |
| Volume (literary works) | More than 500 books |
| Volume (textbooks) | More than 100 books |
| Publishers served | Palavras, MLetras, Rocco, Projeto, Iluminuras, MVC |
| Highlight | Automation, AI and a focus on accessibility |
Content updated in April 2026.