{"id":5358,"date":"2023-06-02T16:21:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T20:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.demarque.com\/?p=5358"},"modified":"2023-06-06T10:49:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T14:49:14","slug":"accessibility-a-decisive-challenge-for-the-book-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.demarque.com\/en\/accessibility\/accessibility-a-decisive-challenge-for-the-book-industry","title":{"rendered":"Accessibility: a decisive challenge for the book industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Accessibility is becoming a major component in digital publishing, as it facilitates reading for perceptually impaired individuals and thus prevents their social marginalization.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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The lack of accessible books and magazines affects more often people with perceptual impairments such as dyslexia. According to the World Health Organization<\/a>, 1.3 billion people worldwide suffer from some form of visual impairment. 188.5 million of these individuals are mildly visually impaired, 217 million are moderately or severely visually impaired, while 36 million are blind.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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A book is defined as accessible when it can be read by anyone wishing to access the content of a work, whatever their perceptual difficulties.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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In order to speed up the adoption of accessibility standards by book publishers, the European Union adopted in 2019 a directive making it mandatory for all books sold on its territory to be accessible by 2025. Specifically, publishers whose books do not meet these standards will no longer be able to sell them on European territory under penalty of severe fines.  All EU member states must implement this law at national level, to decide on the penalties they will apply in the event of non-compliance with accessibility standards. In France, for example, the sale of a book not complying with WCAG 2.0 AA standards could result in a fine of several thousand euros.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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It is thus crucial for the book industry to start integrating accessibility standards now. For publishers, book accessibility can be broken down into two key principles:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

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