Hurry! If You Don’t Know About the EAA, You Need To!

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3 hourglasses with different coloured sand signifying time running out

The clock is ticking, and if you’re new to accessibility, the first thing you should be aware of is that time is running out to meet the European Accessibility Act’s requirements. With the deadline fast approaching, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the last-minute scramble to ensure your content is compliant.

Don’t panic—this article will walk you through some of the essential steps you need to take right now and where you need to focus to make sure your content is accessible for everyone. Whether you’re racing to meet accessibility standards or wondering where to start, now is the time to take action. It’s not too late to get started but you will need to prioritise and you will need help. But there’s lots of help available, so let’s get started!

What is the EAA and How Does it Affect You

The European Accessibility Act is a directive that aims to improve the functioning of accessible products and services and it comes into force on June 28 2025. If your organization sells into the European market then your products and services will need to comply with the directive and you need to ensure that your content is accessible by this date.

If you are new to accessible publishing then now is the time to start learning. This is a process and there is no on and off compliance switch. It requires dedication but if you can integrate accessibility into the beginning of your workflow then it will become part of the building blocks of content creation.

Our Getting Started with Accessible Publishing page is a good place to acquaint yourself with some of the basics and there are lots of resoruces listed that will help you to familiarise yourself with the accessibility ecosystem. You might also want to to familiarise yourself of what is expected of you in your jurisdiction and look at the guidance available to you in your region.

A Checklist of Where to Start: What Do You Still Have Time To Do?

  1. Understand your current approach by conducting an accessibility audit. You may be much better at accessible publishing than you actually realise! If your ebooks are being produced in reflowable EPUB 3 then that is a big win already.
  2. Start to prioritise areas that you can work on in time for the deadline. You may have a list of titles that are popular in the EU and which are straightforward, technically, to amend in which case these could be where you make a start.
  3. Assign responsibilities but at this late stage it’s best for everyone to be onboard. With so little time this is too much for one person to handle. Roles and responsibilities need to be understood to get this work done!
  4. Update your website to publish your commitment to accessibility as an accessibility statement or policy.
  5. For new titles you need to instruct your developers, whether they are in house or a 3rd party vendor, that your content files need to comply with the EPUB 1.1 Accessibility Specification. All images should have image descriptions as alt text, all content should be structured for ease of navigation, accessibility metadata should be attached to the files etc.
  6. Your content files should pass EPUBCheck and you should take advantage of the free tools and solutions that we offer that will help you to check these files for accessibility –Ace by DAISY, Ace SMART and the Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base .
  7. You have time to make sure that your content is user tested by persons with lived experience of a print disability.

What Should You Be Doing Next?

After you’ve got to grips with some of the above, you should consider how to continue on your accessibility journey. We can’t say if there will be penalties for non-compliance but we encourage everyone to work on all content, both backlist and frontlist. In the first instance you should follow developments in accessible publishing by signing up to the Inclusive Publishing Newsletter. If you want a closer relationship with the DAISY Consortium and can support the DAISY tools and resources we would encourage you to become an Inclusive Publishing Partner or Sponsor.

Keep an eye out for further articles designed to focus on specific elements that you need to be working on and, remember that there is still time to get started and there’s lots of help available!