Accessibility Working Group

About the Working Group

Summary

First convened on July 11, 2023, the BISG Accessibility Working Group educates the supply chain on accessibility standards and best practices, amplifies trusted resources from organizations such as W3C, DAISY, and Benetech, and provides practical guidance on how accessibility information should be created, communicated, and displayed—particularly as the updated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) takes effect in April 2026 alongside ongoing European Accessibility Act (EAA) requirements. Through research, industry surveys, shared resources, and collaboration with related BISG initiatives, the working group aims to improve discoverability, support library and public-sector sales, reduce compliance risk, and ensure that readers with disabilities can reliably find and use the digital content they need. The working group will meet for the final time on May 5, 2026, after which ongoing accessibility efforts will continue under the appropriate BISG committee.

Accessibility Resources

How to Get Involved

If your organization is part of the book publishing ecosystem—whether you’re a publisher, printer, distributor, retailer, library, or system vendor—your contributions can help increase accessibility in the book industry. Participation is open to both BISG members and nonmembers.

1. To join, e-mail info@bisg.org to express your interest and get on the mailing list for meeting invites, agendas, and other key communications.
2. Attend working group meetings, held other month through May 2026. View the full schedule of Accessibility Working Group meetings here. 
3. Engage in discussions, resource development, and programming based on you and your organization’s expertise and capacity.

By joining, your team will have a direct impact on amplifying accessibility in the book industry.

2026 Working Group Charter

Current situation

Accessible ebooks and accessibility metadata for ebooks is crucial for ensuring that digital content is discoverable and usable by individuals with disabilities. By providing detailed information on features such as text-to-speech compatibility, alternative text for images, and navigation aids, readers with visual, auditory, or cognitive impairments can find content that meets their specific needs. This promotes inclusivity, creating a more equitable reading experience for everyone, and helps ensure compliance with legal standards like the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

In response to the increasing number of inquiries from across the book industry supply chain seeking guidance on where to look for clarification, what metadata must be communicated, how to communicate it, and what must be publicly displayed at the retailer level, BISG launched the Accessibility Working Group in July 2024 as a collaborative effort between BISG’s Metadata Committee and Workflow Committee to amplify existing resources and educate the industry in advance of the EAA and ADA compliance deadlines. With the EAA compliance deadline now passed, this working group focuses on assisting the industry in preparing for new compliance requirements under Title II of The Americans with Disabilities Act, which takes effect in April 2026.

The book industry has been actively preparing: under the updated Title II ADA requirements, public entities are responsible for ensuring that all digital content they provide or make available meets accessibility standards. This includes content published directly on their platforms and materials distributed through third-party organizations via contracts, licenses, or other agreements. Publishers are working to guarantee that digital books are accessible to individuals with disabilities, supporting formats compatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers. This is particularly important for academic publishers seeking course adoption of their books.

This ruling mandates that web content and mobile applications of state and local governments adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, Level AA. The WCAG is an internationally recognized technical standard maintained by the W3C. For further understanding, this November 2024 article from Inclusive Publishing offers a helpful overview, as does this article from Level Access.

Objectives

1. Educate the industry on standards and best practices around accessibility in accordance with the EAA and Title II of the ADA 

2. Amplify the work of organizations specializing in accessibility

3. Identify or recruit organizations that can assist in the development, implementation, and communication of accessible ebooks and accessibility metadata by US suppliers

4. In concert with the Audiobook Best Practices Working Group, publish the Accessibility Checklist that is part of the BISG Guide to Digital Audiobook Best Practices for the North American Supply Chain
   
   

Stakeholder Impact / Benefits

Effective management of accessible ebooks and accessibility metadata in compliance with the ADA Title II update (effective April 2026) will help operators in the US book industry by:

1. Ensuring uninterrupted eligibility for library procurement and public-sector sales

2. Avoiding noncompliance risks tied to publicly funded institutions

3. Increasing discoverability of titles for library patrons

4. Removing barriers to course adoption and collection development, boosting sales of academic and educational titles

5. Enhancing relationships with readers by connecting them to the content they need

6. Advancing inclusivity across formats

7. Creating a baseline that eases pain points across the metadata supply chain

8. Producing more robust product pages that attract deeper readership

9. Reducing frustration for readers and ensuring accessible content is reliably available

10. Increasing discoverability of backlist titles

Additionally, ongoing support for compliance with the EAA (effective June 2025), especially around backlist titles, will help operators in the U.S. book industry by ensuring uninterrupted sales within, and into, the European Union, as well as avoidance of noncompliance penalties enforced by EU Member States.

Deliverables

In 2026, this working group will:

1. Advance accessibility readiness across the U.S. book industry by monitoring, synthesizing, and amplifying established accessibility resources developed by organizations such as W3C, DAISY, Benetech, and Fondazione LIA ahead of the April 2026 deadline for compliance with the ADA Title II update, leveraging these resources to educate industry stakeholders on providing appropriate accessibility metadata through targeted programming, publications, and communications, with clear guidance on areas of alignment and divergence between U.S. and international regulations (such as the ADA and the EAA).

2. Field a survey to identify pain points around accessibility compliance in the US book market. 

3. Interpret the results of the industry survey and communicate them to stakeholders.

4. Solicit information from vendors, relevant trade associations like the AAP,  and the library community around what the supply chain needs to know, and steps they may take, to ensure content in a library collection is accessible. Share collected links to relevant resources.

5. Form a recommendation of how to continue accessibility support within the Metadata and Workflow Committees.

Blockers

To be successful, this working group must include publishers, retailers, accessibility specialists, international standards organizations, libraries, and others to have a wide perspective. In some cases, participants may not be currently involved with BISG, so finding the right volunteer in each organization may take time. Additionally, there is confusion on how to approach backlist titles.