Frequently Asked Questions, Known Complexities and Example Solutions
Accessibility Statements in Metadata - should this be at the individual book or whole publisher content level?
Metadata formats, for example ONIX, often include a field for a human readable summary that describes the accessibility of the product. The purpose of this is for end users to make a decision on whether they are able to perceive, operate and understand the content based on their individual accessibility needs. In order to do this, it needs to describe the individual book, as each book will be very different. However, doing this could be considered an unreasonable burden for a small publisher, and in that case the publisher level description would be better than nothing. Remember, unreasonable burden exceptions generally do not apply until a full costing and benefit analysis has been completed and can be produced on request.
If books are available online, do they have to comply with every country's accessibility legislation in the world?
For general download - we would recommend complying with the legislation in the country or countries where the publisher is based. If seeking investment from an institutional library - we would recommend complying with the legislation in the country where the institution is based.
Should I use short or extended ALT text descriptions in PDFs, or both?
Best practice = short descriptions with links to extended descriptions within a specific section at the back of the book (not a supplementary file). Alternative solution = offer EPUB as a more accessible version to those that require extended descriptions, state this in the metadata.