Have You Heard? The EAA is Coming!
With less than a year to go before the European Accessibility Act goes into effect in June 2025, the publishing industry has been all aflutter trying to understand the depth and breadth of this EU law which, among other things, requires that all eBooks sold within the EU be accessible to the W3C WCAG 2.1 and EPUB Accessibility 1.1 guidelines, and are accompanied by metadata which accurately and thoroughly represents the accessible features found in each eBook product. Failure to meet these requirements will result in penalties to be determined and enforced by each EU Member State.
Sound straightforward? Still have questions? Me too!
As chair of the BISG Metadata Committee, I’m paying special attention to how this will affect the metadata processes, but this is greater than metadata, blending into the creation of the eBook files and the focus of my colleagues in BISG's Workflow Committee. So just as nothing in life is as straightforward as you would hope, here we see how a mix of perspectives across our industry need to come together to take a look at different aspects of this issue, which BISG has supported through the formation of the Accessibility Working Group (more info here).
As we all move forward together trying to understand these new requirements and their effect on our processes, it’s hard to know where to turn for guidance. Can’t someone just give me a checklist to follow! But the complexity of the issue and the sheer number of knowledgeable and important voices speaking on this topic right now mean that it’s hard to know where to look. Since I’m a librarian at heart, I’ve done what librarians do and assembled a reading list to provide key information in one place for you, the researcher, and you can decide what route to follow.
List of resources
Start here:
- The actual EAA Legislation
- What this means, from the International Publishers Association
Requirements for how the eBook is created:
- W3C WCAG 2.1 guidelines
- W3C ePUB Accessibility 1.1
- Laura Brady offers a QA checklist for Accessible eBooks
How do I put this in my ONIX feed?
- BREAKING NEWS!! EDItEUR has just released (August 2024) an advanced Application Note on “Providing accessibility metadata in ONIX”. The document is currently open for comment.
- EDItEUR’s advice from 2021 remains valid and is a good intro to the topic
Tell me more about Metadata, but not so ONIX heavy:
- eBound Canada’s report on Accessibility Metadata Best Practices that reads like a narrative. A great entry to the topic for anyone who is not super techie.
- Fondazione LIA and Livres Canada Books on how to assemble and distribute accessible metadata
Help me form a plan!
- Tyler Carey offers up some good advice on how to form a plan
Give me more information!
- The DAISY Consortium has tons of tools and information. They are also counting down to the EAA with a webinar series.
- BIC (Book Industry Communication, UK) is offering a BIC Brunch webinar series in the months leading up to the EAA. The next session (September 5th) will focus on Metadata and BISG members can attend for free!
This is only a snapshot of what is out there, and many more great contributions are being added all the time. I wish I could list them all! To that end, BISG has created a living Accessibility Metadata Resources document to house the resource links I’ve offered above, as well as the inevitable new information that will be written in months to come.
Get involved now. June 2025 will be here before you know it and ADA updates in the US will be here in 2026!