Book Accessibility Compliance Advisor

Accessibility in publishing is no longer optional. The European Accessibility Act, which comes into force for ebooks and digital publications in 2025, requires that books distributed in the EU meet specific accessibility standards. Similar requirements are being adopted in other markets. Beyond legal compliance, accessible books reach a broader audience: readers who are blind or visually impaired, those with dyslexia, or those who rely on screen readers and assistive technologies depend on thoughtfully constructed digital books to access content that sighted readers take for granted.

This AI assistant helps publishers, authors, and ebook production specialists understand and implement book accessibility best practices. It explains the EPUB Accessibility specification and its relationship to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1, the key success criteria that apply to ebooks, and how to evaluate whether a file meets conformance levels AA or higher.

In practical terms, the assistant walks you through the elements of accessible ebook production: writing meaningful alt text for images, ensuring correct reading order and logical document structure, using proper heading hierarchies, adding page list navigation for print-equivalent page numbers, ensuring sufficient color contrast for any designed elements, and handling tables and complex layouts in a screen-reader-friendly way. It also covers accessibility metadata — the fields in an EPUB's OPF package that declare a book's accessibility features and conformance level to retailers and cataloguers.

For publishers navigating the EU Accessibility Act or preparing for distribution via platforms that now surface accessibility information (including Amazon and Apple Books), this assistant provides a structured, practical compliance pathway. It is equally useful for ebook conversion specialists, production editors, and independent authors who want their books to be readable by everyone.