BIC Brunches 2024

#bicbrunch

European Accessibility Act: Exploring ePub

Overview

BIC Brunches are a series of live webinars which have been created for BIC members and non-members to attend to discuss book industry supply chain topics (including issues, successes, and challenges). Each BIC Brunch session is dedicated to one key area of the supply chain, offering attendees a unique opportunity to gather knowledge about that topic from experts in the field.

Introduction

Join us in this, the third session of our brand-new series of webinars dedicated to Accessibility, which we’ve put together with the 2025 European Accessibility Act (EAA) firmly in mind.

This event follows on from our incredibly well received launch session in July 2024 which took us back to the basics with a look at the legalities.

In the second session (September) we explored the EAA requirements in light of what they mean for digital/eBooks both in terms of the data contained within the ePub file and also the metadata created and distributed throughout the book industry supply chain via ONIX. The recordings of both sessions are available exclusively to staff at BIC member organisations only via info@bic.org.uk.

So having already looked at the legalities and the metadata, October’s session sees our expert speakers guide us through the accessibility requirements of the content of a digital book. We will look at ePubs and PDFs, and take a quick tour of W3C’s User Experience Guide as we look to understand what it means for an ebook to be truly accessible, what is required by the EAA, the common pitfalls to avoid, and what can we be doing better. We will also hear first-hand about the impact of accessible content on readers with accessibility requirements.

If you have any specific questions you would like addressed at the webinar, please send details to info@bic.org.uk.

Host

• Karina Urquhart, Executive Director, BIC

Speakers

• Simon Mellins, Independent Digital Publishing Consultant and Accessibility Specialist, plus co-founder and working group member of the Publisher’s Accessibility Action Group (PAAG)
• Paul Porter, Technology Officer, RNIB
• James Yanchak, Production Technologies Manager, Taylor & Francis

Who should attend?

This event will be of interest to those concerned with complying with the EU Accessibility Act, particularly when it comes to the creation of content for digital books/ebooks.

The EU Accessibility Act will have a far-reaching impact on the book industry supply chain and so this session will be of interest to anyone working in the book publishing world including publishers, vendors, and in particular, content creators.

Registration

Tickets are FREE for BIC, BISG and EDItEUR members – non-members are asked to pay a nominal fee.
To register, scroll to the top of this webpage and click on the ‘Get Tickets’ button.
Not sure if your organisation is a BIC member? View our members list here.

Future Accessibility BIC Brunch sessions

In addition to October’s session, there are currently 6 further BIC Brunch sessions planned that will explore specific topics with regards to the EU Accessibility Act and they include:

• Alt Text – November 2024
• Fixed Layout/PDF – December 2024
• STEM/Educational/Scholarly Requirements – January 2025
• Websites/Platforms – February 2025
• Digital Audio – March 2025
• DRM, Text-to-Speech and Accessibility – April 2025

Previous Accessibility BIC Brunch sessions

There are 2 previous BIC Brunch sessions:

• Back to Basics – the Legalities (held in July 2024 recording available on request via info@bic.org.uk – exclusively for BIC members only)
• Metadata (held in Sept 2024 recording available on request via info@bic.org.uk – exclusively for BIC members only)

Can’t make it?

If you would like to attend this event but cannot for any reason, you can watch our BIC Brunch and Green BIC Brunch sessions via the BIC YouTube channel. One month after the live event, the footage will be uploaded to the channel.

Attendees will have access to the recording more quickly: Within a few days of the live event.

Also, if you’re unable to attend this event but have a question for one of our speakers then do get in touch. Either tweet at @BIC1UK using hashtag: #bicbrunch (before or during the event) or contact us at info@bic.org.uk (prior to the event) to have your question put to our speakers.

If you would like to remain informed about all of BIC’s forthcoming events, including our BIC Brunch sessions, join BIC’s mailing list.

We look forward to seeing you!