From Compliance to Access: Implementing Accessibility Metadata Across the Library–Publishing Ecosystem

Drawing on OCLC’s real-world implementation experience, CLAIRE HOLLOWAY, Manager of Publisher Relations for OCLC, and EMILY GILREATH, Senior Product Manager for Metadata and Digital Services, examine how publishers and libraries can translate complex regulatory expectations into practical workflows that ensure digital content is discoverable and usable for people with disabilities.

Attendees will learn how information about accessibility features moves through the library supply chain, from embedded data in EPUB files to ONIX records produced by publishers and ultimately to MARC records used by libraries. The presentation highlights key challenges, including reliance on external metadata sources, translation across formats, and the balance between controlled vocabularies and descriptive flexibility.

The webinar will also outline the current standards landscape (including W3C guidance and WCAG requirements) and demonstrate how coordinated efforts among publishers, vendors, and libraries are necessary to achieve meaningful compliance and, more importantly, equitable access.

CLAIRE HOLLOWAY is Manager of Publisher Relations for OCLC and the chairperson of the Book Industry Study Group’s Metadata Committee. Before making a mid-life decision to turn her focus to the library space, Claire had worked in editorial and production roles throughout the publishing industry. Claire loves books of all genres (except thrillers), metadata of all flavors, and sharing information about both to anyone who wants to learn.

As a Senior Product Manager at OCLC, EMILY GILREATH believes that metadata is more than just data—it is the key to meaningful digital discovery. With a 15-year career spanning publisher distribution and library services, Emily offers a unique "dual-perspective" on how information moves through the ecosystem. Emily loves metadata of all kinds, the puzzle of a complex data crosswalk, and helping the library and publishing worlds better understand each other.

BISG's Accessibility Working Group brings together stakeholders across the book publishing supply chain to advance accessibility standards, best practices, and compliance readiness. Established to support implementation of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and the ADA Title II update, the group educates the industry, amplifies trusted guidance from organizations such as W3C and DAISY, and provides practical direction on creating, communicating, and displaying accessibility information so readers with disabilities can reliably discover and use digital content.