As Enforcement of the EAA Draws Closer, Publishers Should be Working on these Areas.

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Photograph of the top half of a stop watch with the arrows almost reaching the top "deadline" marker

Digital publishing consultant and accessibility specialist, Simon Mellins, considers a number of areas that publishers should be focusing on in advance of the European Accessibility Act.

Amazingly, we are now under 200 days from enforcement of the European Accessibility Act (EAA). Whilst most publishers have now got the message that this affects them, here are the top 5 areas I’m noticing many are not paying quite enough attention to:

  • Accessibility Metadata: Even the publications you’re not immediately able to remediate for accessibility require accessibility metadata – there are fields for that very scenario, including a space to explain your gradual remediation process to users. Accessibility metadata is absolutely key for the discovery of your publications, but also for preventing users acquiring unsuitable titles and leaving bad reviews, and for showing your good intentions and plans for remediation when you can.
  • Request Systems: Most publishers won’t have their entire catalogue/backlists available on day 1 – largely a function of the very long tail of digital publications that have no warehousing fees and can live forever – but that doesn’t mean you have nothing to do. Alongside taking care to prioritise remediation of key publications from your backlist, it’s also vital to work on a thorough, responsive and recorded request response system to allow print disabled users to get in touch and get what they need.
  • Ancillary Materials: The EAA and other similar global legislation give us few clues about the extent to which linked or referenced context must mirror the accessibility of the publications we create. But think about this carefully, especially whether the intended informational/pedagogical payload of your publication is being effectively communicated to readers/learners if it relies upon linking to materials which are not accessible.
  • Procurement: Remember that the legislation is only setting a baseline – institutions (as well as individuals) may have their own, higher bar for accessibility that determines which content they will purchase. Trying to skirt the bare minimum for the EAA does not mean your content will automatically be on the radar for institutional buyers – especially those in the education/public sectors who may be subject to stricter laws on procurement of accessible materials. This is closely linked to the metadata piece, which will be used by those buyers to screen out content that doesn’t meet their institutional standards.
  • Image Description Style Guides: Developing your approach to image description, like anything in accessibility, will involve making decisions on approach that are, in totality, unique to your organisation. These must be codified into a Style Guide that can be used to ensure whomever is creating your image descriptions – including using AI tools – is working to a common standard.

Our thanks to Simon for this reminder! Our EAA resource pages will help our readers to get started with some of the detail surrounding this new legislation.