With the European Accessibility Act (EAA) in force since June 2025, ensuring the availability and visibility of accessibility metadata has become more important than ever.

In today’s digital publishing landscape, accessibility metadata is delivered alongside core bibliographic information — such as title, author, and description — enabling retailers, libraries, and readers to identify whether a digital book meets their specific accessibility needs. However, the complexity and technical nature of this metadata can pose challenges, which the recent W3C User Experience Guides for Displaying Accessibility Metadata 2.0 address by offering practical guidance for user-friendly display.

The seminar

The seminar “European Accessibility Act – Mainstreaming accessible ebook distribution: accessibility metadata ingestion and display” will feature a roundtable discussion with representatives from Fondazione LIA, EDItEUR, Kobo, Bookwire, De Marque and Edigita, six key players leading the charge in accessible content distribution. Together, they will share how they are working to enhance availability and visibility of accessibility metadata, how they collaborate with publishers, and what lies ahead for the industry.

This session is designed for publishing professionals involved in editorial work, digital distribution, content management, and accessibility. It will offer practical insights into how the publishing industry is evolving to meet both legal requirements and the real-world needs of readers with disabilities.

The seminar is moderated by Gregorio Pellegrino, Chief Accessibility Officer at Fondazione LIA, and features contributions from Virginie Bouilhac, Director of Content Management at Rakuten Kobo; Nina Rubach, Senior Platform Product Manager and ONIX expert at Bookwire; and Christopher Saynor, Standards Editor at EDItEUR.

Key topics

• Why accessibility metadata are so important?
• Standards for accessibility metadata (ONIX for Books and EPUB Accessibility metadata)
• How to display accessibility metadata? The Accessibility Metadata Display Guide for Digital Publications 2.0
• Experiences, strategies, and challenges in implementing accessibility metadata across the digital publishing supply chain.

Information

• September 22nd, 2025
• 4:30-6:00 pm CET
• Zoom Meetings
• More information about the fee and how to register ca be found at the course page: https://www.aie.it/Cosafacciamo/Corsieformazione/EnglishCourses/EAA-Mainstreamingaccessibleebookdistribution.aspx

For more information write an email to segreteria@ediser.it

The seminar is organized by Fondazione LIA in collaboration with Associazione Italiana Editori, in the framework of APACE, co-funded by the European Union.