A conference session at the 2024 Liber, seated in Barcelona. Image: Liber 24
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Questions From Spain About Europe’s Accessibility Act
As we ran our story Wednesday (October 2) about Fondazione LIA‘s new research and data-gathering project APACE, news was coming in from the 2024 Liber Barcelona about a call being issued by that industry-facing three-day conference for “clarity and information to cope with legislative changes.”
This, of course, is about the European Accessibility Act, which goes into force in June. And, as our readers know, the APACE project, led by Cristina Mussinelli and Elisa Molinari, has begun releasing results of its analysis of the readiness of publishers to comply with the requirements of the Accessibility Act and the first good look we’ve had at exactly where the pressure points are, where publishers are clear on their responsibilities and confused or, worse, completely unaware of what’s required and how to achieve it.
APACE, for example, is revealing that only 37.4 percent of Europe’s publishing houses have made the investments required to move into compliance—and a similar percentage say they expect to take that step by the end of 2024. Some 93.1 percent reported to APACE that they don’t have access to—or aren’t aware of available public funding—to support the necessary investments or initiate training projects in this area.
Certainly, the strong plea for guidance coming out of Barcelona’s Liber last week indicates that Fondazione LIA and APACE are on the right track.
At Barcelona, in fact, publishers at that professional gathering also mentioned “open science’ in the University and Science Acts, which are also generating uncertainty in the business.
Discussing the new European Accessibility Act, editors have pointed out to members of the news media that, “This law directly affects ebooks and publishers’ Web sites.”
‘Not To Mention the Costs …’
Publishing industry players at the October 1-to-3 Liber 2024 in networking conversations in Barcelona. Image: Liber24
According to Dolores Sancha, director of the Legal Department at Penguin Random House, the taking force of this regulation “affects practically the entire book chain and will lead to changes in production methods.”
Sancha illustrates the complexity of this new scenario, saying, “For example, it establishes that when images exist, they must be described. This creates some uncertainties regarding how this may affect the intellectual property rights of authors and illustrators of these images. Not to mention the costs that this will entail.”
As communicated by theFederación de Gremios de Editores de España, , the Federation of Spanish Publishers’ Guilds (FGEE), the law establishes that publishers must facilitate access to the content they publish for all people. While previously the ONCE Fundacion was responsible for adapting these books to formats for use by people with disabilities, now publishers must take this into account in the editing process.
The law establishes some exceptions such as books published by micro-enterprises; those companies with a turnover of less than €2 million (US$2.2 million); or publishers with fewer than 10 employees; or situations in which the necessary adaptation would entail an “excessive burden.”
“This is a concept that raises doubts and makes publishers ask for greater clarity.”
María José Gálvez, Spain’s director-general of books, comics, and reading, has offered assurances that her department is collecting some requests from the sector such as the preparation of a “regulation that gives greater clarity and certainty to publishing companies.
What’s more, the memo from Barcelona asserts, it would be necessary to establish subsidies that contribute to reducing this “excessive burden.” And, finally, there was a defense of the need to promote “training processes that contribute to facilitating the knowledge of the employees in charge of their development.”
Further, another issue was raised, the question of “how the accessibility act may affect the development of audiobooks, in which many companies have invested” and which, of course, can be a leading tool for accessibility in helping those who have visual impairments that limit reading.
The establishment of text-to-speech systems poses the risk that the market will be affected, as has been pointed out, while María José Gálvez has said that EU regulation “could be the framework in which a model is established that makes it compatible.”
Clearly, more is needed to bring up the needed level of understanding of the EU Accessibility Act, so that all players can respond and work within the scope of the act to implement its requirements. There may be some helpful interaction available, it seems, between Spain’s publishing professionals and Frankfurt’s Guest of Honor Italy, so that the leadership shown in the bloc by Fondazione Lia can support the elements that this market (and certainly others) are finding it hard to discern in the approach of the June deadline.
At Liber 2024 in Barcelona. Image: Liber24
A Programming Note
On October 16, at 1 p.m. at Frankfurter Buchmesse, Publishing Perspectives will moderate The Accessibility Era: Are You Ready For It?, a special session on the issue, which now is becoming time-critical. The program will feature:
- Elisa Molinari of Fondazione LIA and APACE
- Simon Holt of Elsevier UK
- Alessandra Porcelli of Mondadori Education
Attendees will be presented with both the revelations of the new APACE data and an understanding of what’s necessary to meet the European Accessibility Act’s deadline in June. This is a session delivered in English, and we’d be very glad to see some of the Spanish delegation to Frankfurt come alone, in case an introduction to the Fondazione LIA team would be helpful.
The Apace Consortium includes Fondazione LIA; the Italian Publishers Association; the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels; the Bulgarian Book Association; CELIA, the Accessibility Library; Dedicon; and the Lithuanian Audiosensory Library
More from Publishing Perspectives on trends and issues involving accessibility in world book publishing is here, more on the Italian market is here, more on the work of Fondazione LIA is here, and more on issues and publishing in Europe is here. More on the Spanish market is here, and more on Spain’s industry-oriented Liber series of trade shows in Barcelona and Madrid is here.
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