The EAA and Accessibility in Stison

This is not intended as legal advice, nor is it an exhaustive list of the ways in which accessibility metadata may be shared.

To view our more detailed article on the EAA and what metadata you may want to include, see here.

The European Accessibility Act makes the display of accessibility information in your metadata essential if you wish to sell your products within the EU.

Whilst detailing the accessibility features that your products contain plays a vital role in enabling customers with disabilities to identify which stock will be suitable for them, it is worth noting that whilst Micro-enterprises (with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet of less than €2 million) will be encouraged to comply with the EAA, they will not be required to (https://www.taylorwessing.com/en/interface/2022/the-european-accessibility-act/the-european-accessibility-act---a-slow-start-to-a-long-journey)

What does the Legislation say?

The legislation refers specifically to Ebooks in the following text:

Section IV: Additional Accessibility requirements related to specific services

f) E-Books:

     i) ensuring that, when an e-book contains audio in addition to text, it then provides synchronised text and audio;

     (ii) ensuring that e-book digital files do not prevent assistive technology from operating properly;

     (iii) ensuring access to the content, the navigation of the file content and layout including dynamic layout,  the

provision of the structure, flexibility and choice in the presentation of the content;

     (iv) allowing alternative renditions of the content and its interoperability with a variety of assistive technologies, in such a way that it is perceivable, understandable, operable and robust;

     (v) making them discoverable by providing information through metadata about their accessibility features;

     (vi) ensuring that digital rights management measures do not block accessibility features

 

What information do Publishers need to include in their Metadata?

Publishers will need to specify what accessibility features their Ebooks contain, as well any exemptions that they qualify for.

There are a large number of 'E-publication Accessibility details' that can be included in an Ebook, and Onix Codelist 196 lays these out: https://ns.editeur.org/onix/en/196.

For more guidance on what you can include in your accessibility metadata, see Editeur's Appnote: https://www.editeur.org/files/ONIX%203/APPNOTE%20Accessibility%20metadata%20in%20ONIX%20(advanced).pdf

This latest update also allows you to include information relating to:

• E-publication Accessibility Detail
• E-publication Authentication and Access Control
• E-publication Format Validator Version
• E-publication Format Version
• E-publication Format Version Code

Please note that you also have the ability to note that a product has 'Unknown Accessibility' or is 'Inaccessible or known limited accessibility' for those titles that you have not yet made accessible. 

Specifying Exemptions

You can use the values from Onix Codelist 196 to specify exceptions to accessibility requirements, using the following values:

EAA exception 1 – Micro-enterprises

EAA exception 2 – Disproportionate burden

EAA exception 3 – Fundamental modification

Click here for further detail on the accessibility information that can be included in a books metadata. 

Storing this data in Stison

We have updated the fields available to you in Stison to ensure that you can detail any and all of the accessibility details that you need to. In particular, on the Forms tab in Title Manager, under the Further Product Details sub-tab, you can now list as many 'E-publication Accessibility Detail' features as you require:

Uploading EAA data to Product Form Features

Information regarding EAA compliance can be uploaded via spreadsheet to Stison. To do this, you will need to map the EAA information you would like included in your spreadsheet columns under the following headings: ISBN, Form Feature Type, Form Feature Value, and Form Feature Description.

Here is an example of how your spreadsheet may look when uploading across those fields:

If there is more than one EAA feature you should wish to apply to a specific title, you will need to include the additional feature types on a separate line, reusing the ISBN in subsequent rows. All EAA data defined in ONIX code list 196 can be imported in bulk into the system.

Note that if Form Feature Type is not included, the code will not be added correctly to your title record.

We have some ability to set product form features across your titles, using product format and publication date. If you would like us to find out more, please email [e-mail]. However, it is important to remember that much of the guidance on this topic recommends against creating an 'accessibility stamp' and copying that across all of your titles, as this is unlikely to be an accurate reflection of each of your titles accessibility features.