02 Accessibility Legislation

This chapter includes information on accessibility legislation in the UK, the EU and the US. The description of each region's legislation follows a similar structure and begins with a list of relevant acts, both general disability and equality acts, and specific acts relating to digital accessibility, with links to the full legislation and guidance on them.

In practice it can be difficult to pinpoint whether these acts specifically apply to ebooks, as they more often describe websites and mobile applications, but, in general, web accessibility also applies to static digital files that can be downloaded from them. It can also be difficult to determine whether the legislation applies to small diamond open access publishers, for example, which can be considered to be public bodies in many cases. For this reason, we also include some commentary on assessment of applicability to ebook files and diamond publishers.

We also highlight the accessibility standards required by the legislation, which in most cases is some version of WCAG at level AA, and link to the full standards and guidance on them. We also summarise and highlight legislative requirements about accessibility statements, again including guidance and some instructive examples. Exemptions to legal requirements are also summarised, which in most cases include some form of disproportionate or undue burden, and so information on how to evidence that is also incorporated.