AW: Manifest on convergence of e-book accessibility standards

Citing https://www.w3.org/TR/2023/REC-epub-a11y-11-20230525/, section 3.3.1 WCAG conformance requirements:



To conform to this specification, an EPUB publication:

  *   MUST, at the minimum, meet the requirements of WCAG 2.0 [wcag20], but it is strongly recommended that it meet the requirements of the latest recommended version of WCAG 2.
  *   MUST, for whichever version of WCAG 2 selected, meet the requirements of Level A, but it is strongly recommended that it meet the requirements of Level AA.



For legal conformance, the MUST statement above is the only legal requirement; any recommendation is not legally relevant, even if it is strong. The publishers in Europe will resort to a minimum conformance, which is conformance to WCAG 2.0 single-A.



Best regards,

Gottfried



-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Avneesh Singh <avneesh.sg@gmail.com>
Gesendet: Sonntag, 5. Mai 2024 13:48
An: 'Janina Sajka' <janina@rednote.net>; Gottfried Zimmermann <gzimmermann@zi7n.de>
Cc: 'W3C WAI Accessible Platform Architectures' <public-apa@w3.org>
Betreff: RE: Manifest on convergence of e-book accessibility standards



">   *   EPUB Accessibility is based on WCAG 2.0 A (as requirement), whereas

EN 301 549 v4.1.1 will be based on WCAG 2.2 AA"



I should correct this misperception.

EPUB Accessibility 1.1 refers to the latest version of WCAG, which is currently 2.2. In case there is WCAG 2.3 or 2.4 in future, EPUB accessibility will refer to it.

We do allow EPUB Accessibility 1.1 to refer to WCAG 2.0, in case some publisher needs it, but it is not a recommended practice.

We fixed this in EPUB Accessibility 1.1, released in May 2023.



Thanks

Avneesh

-----Original Message-----

From: Janina Sajka <janina@rednote.net<mailto:janina@rednote.net>>

Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2024 5:01 PM

To: Gottfried Zimmermann <gzimmermann@zi7n.de<mailto:gzimmermann@zi7n.de>>

Cc: W3C WAI Accessible Platform Architectures <public-apa@w3.org<mailto:public-apa@w3.org>>

Subject: Re: Manifest on convergence of e-book accessibility standards



Dear Gottfried:



We can and should discuss this topic in APA. Let's look for a suitable date a bit later in May? Perhaps 15 May? Later in the month also works.



For context please note that APA is also requested to review a fixed layout Epub draft specification here:



https://w3c.github.io/epub-specs/epub33/fxl-a11y/



A preliminary discussion of this Epub spec occured in APA on 17 April and is logged here:



https://www.w3.org/2024/04/17-apa-minutes.html#t05



Note we were considering whether the json graph data visualization approach developed in a W3C Community Group might provide a solution.



Best,

Janina



Gottfried Zimmermann writes:

> Hi APA,

>

> i want to bring to your attention a problem with regards to ebook

accessibility that we are facing in Europe next year, when the European Accessibility Act kicks in.  The point is that the EAA makes a difference between ebooks in EPUB3 vs. ebooks in PDF. Therefore, the two following standards are relevant, when it comes to compliance of ebooks to EAA:

>

>   *   For ebooks in EPUB3: W3C EPUB Accessibility

1.1<EPUB%20Accessibility%201.1>

>   *   For ebooks in PDF: EN 301 549 v4.1.1 (coming)

>

> Here is a summary of the main differences between the two standards:

>

>   *   EPUB Accessibility is based on WCAG 2.0 A (as requirement), whereas

EN 301 549 v4.1.1 will be based on WCAG 2.2 AA

>   *   EPUB Accessibility includes metadata for discoverability, but EN 301

549 not currently.

>

> A group of accessibility experts (including me) has met a couple of

> times

to discuss this problem. The result of our discussions is attached as "Manifest on convergence of e-book accessibility standards".  We want a consolidation of standards for ebook accessibility, so that publishers do not need to make a difference between ebooks in EPUB3 and ebooks in PDF format.

>

> Can we discuss this in one of our upcoming meetings?

>

> Best regards,

> Gottfried

>

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>















--



Janina Sajka (she/her/hers)

Accessibility Consultant https://linkedin.com/in/jsajka



The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

Co-Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures             http://www.w3.org/wai/apa



Linux Foundation Fellow

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/board-of-directors-2/