Accessibility in Publishing

Background: legislations and digital innovation

Starting from June 28, 2025 the European Accessibility Act, (EAA) - Directive (EU) 2019/882, will enter into force with a strong impact on the publishing sector. The EAA sets new EU-wide minimum accessibility standard requirements for a range of products and services, including ebooks and their ecosystem, with the goal of making available in customary online distribution channels Born Accessible digital publications (i.e. publications that, from the moment of first publication, are accessible for print impaired people).

The EAA is a challenge that involves publishers and all the other actors of the digital publishing value chain, including distributors, online stores, libraries, subscription services, and providers of e-reading solutions. The current level of awareness and the specific skills required for the EAA to be effectively implemented are not sufficient today. There are experts in the field of web accessibility, but the accessibility of publications is often neglected. It is frequent for a print impaired person to properly access a website and to download a file that is impossible to read for him/her. In parallel, the Directive implementing the Marrakesh Treaty (Directive (EU) 2017/1564) has introduced an exception to copyright to permit specialist organisations, if recognised as Authorised Entities, to make all necessary transformation of existing works, to create, distribute and make available to print impaired persons published works in a different format than that of the original publication.

Specific skills and competences in understanding the needs in relation to the different print impairment and to the different abilities of these persons, and on the formats that better fit their needs are present in specialist organisations. However, there is lack of know-how about the customary production and distribution process, since adapting an existing book requires different methodologies than those needed for designing, producing, and distributing a Born Accessible ebook.

A third background element is the technological evolution and the availability of international open standards including accessibility requirements, such as the EPUB format. These elements call the specialist organisations to change their production processes to fully seize the opportunity created by digital innovation and offer publishers the possibility to produce Born Accessible ebooks; they are highquality digital books that can be read by everyone, as they are adaptable to the preferences and different reading needs of each reader. They can be read in different ways by people with visual impairments:

• audio reading, using the speech synthesis function (text-to-speech) available in the operating system of the device (computer, tablet, smartphone) or in the reading software;
• reading in digital Braille, by connecting the device (computer, tablet, smartphone) to a Braille display;
• reading in enlarged characters for those with low vision, by customising the graphic settings of the reading application (enlarging the font, increasing the line spacing, choosing the colour for the text and the page);
• reading with compensative software that address the needs of persons with dyslexia: letter spacing, tailored fonts, synchronised text and audio.

A paradigm shift

In this completely new scenario, innovation starts with a spring in the mindset of the stakeholders touched by this evolution: actors in the publishing chain, specialist organisations and print impaired end users. As for any disrupting situation, collaboration and exchange of perspectives is key to design and implement innovative solutions able to allow the required changes. The complementarity of the know-how between the stakeholders is evident in this new landscape designed by technologies and – to some extent as a consequence – by the new European legislations. The traditional separation between the two production processes (that of the first edition and that of the special accessible versions) made this collaboration much lower than that desirable in the new circumstances. And this happened also when publishers and specialist organisations had good relations and collaborated at high level, to guarantee – for example – that a master copy of the book file is provided to the specialist organisations to facilitate their job. Also in this case, in fact, the two production processes remained separated and there was not an exchange of know-how between the professionals engaged in the production.

Fostering innovation through capacity building

Our project aims at fostering innovation in the publishing ecosystem as far as the production process of accessible publications is concerned. This requires higher deployment of international standard format, so as to allow reaching more efficiency in terms of cost and quality, reducing duplication of efforts, speeding up ebook production and saving time to focus on the most complex tasks that need to be done. The achievement of the general project objective will be pursued through the followings which rely to the project specific objectives:

1. enhancing the awareness of the revolutionary change along the whole value chain: content producers, specialist organisations, readers with print impairment: a set of 4 guidelines are meant to be distributed in 12 languages;
2. increasing the collaboration and fostering the transfer of knowledge within the consortium and dissemination of best practices within the APACE partners’ wider network: it is expected to reach 20 organisations in 18 countries by the end of the project;
3. building competences and skills to increase the number of experts in the publishing accessibility field through a wide array of training and networking activities - 58 training courses and awareness raising initiatives to be organised and 2600 participants to be reached.

The European dimension of the project will also foster the implementation of the accessibility requirements in a harmonised way, in line with the goal of the EAA so as to create a digital single market for accessible products and services ensuring that all EU citizens can enjoy its benefits. Additionally, as the EAA is one of the most innovative and advanced legislation on accessibility at international level and it is considered a model of reference in other countries, the demand for skills in the field of accessibility in the coming years will certainly grow and this will increase the competitiveness of the partners of the network, allowing the EU organisations with expertise in the accessibility in publishing to become a point of reference in the field also at international level.

Priorities: Social inclusion and digitisation

Social inclusion of all print impaired persons into cultural and social life is THE ultimate priority of the project. Accessibility in publishing is about giving equal access to digital publications to everyone. It is also a prerequisite to participate in cultural life and to education, better working opportunities and social life. This is possible thanks to digital technologies, which is the second priority of the call addressed by the project. Born Accessible publishing, before being a legal requirement, is a new way to conceive the production process enabled by technology, which requires innovation in the work routines and in company organisation. To some extent, it is the social responsibility of the industry that is incorporated in the production process. To make it possible, it is necessary that publishers and professionals of the book value chain share the objectives and understand how digital makes it possible today. Furthermore, due the probable rise and growth of new technologies, the collaboration with research centres and technological companies partners already working with, will allow to identify and test the most advanced solutions for the production of accessible publications in some pilot projects and then on disseminating the achieved results to its wider network.