Ebook Accessibility + Certification
eBOUND Canada has a new certification scheme for ebook accessibility. It is an exciting new program that both looks deeply into the accessibility of ebook but also looks at all flavours of metadata for a kind of whole-file-health check. So far as I know it is the first program of it’s kind. The idea is that this is both a file check and a discoverability evaluation. The program was launched in late April 2025.
Many publishers are doing a lot of background work to make sure that their ebooks meet or exceed accessibility standards like the EPUB 1.1 accessibility specification, tweaking their workflows from editorial to print production to ebook development to make sure that accessibility is folded in at every step practicing what I call 360° Accessible Publishing. And checking that work is important.
Digital content must be accessible, discoverable, and robust.
What I like about this eBound certification is that it goes a step further, evaluating a publisher’s presence in the marketplace through their metadata, the face-first positioning a title in the publishing supply chain. According to Deborah Nelson from eBOUND, “With eBOUND Digital Certification, publishers, libraries, and readers can be confident that our certified ebooks offer an inclusive experience and are extremely discoverable so readers who need them can access them.” For print-disabled consumers, being able to trust a title’s accessibility metadata is critical. For libraries and vendors, purchasing decisions are all that much easier when they encounter eBOUND Digital Certification conformance metadata.
There are other excellent certification schemes in the world. Benetech’s Global Certified Accessible (US) program is one, and Fondazione LIA’s (Italy) is another very useful initiative. The Lithuanian Audiosensory Library (Lithuania) has a certification project as well. (Am I missing a certification program? Please let me know!)
The dream of an inclusive publishing ecosystem is alive!
I am a big fan of the work of all these accessibility certification programs as they underscore the very important work of shifting digital publishing work left to more accessible ecosystems that serve all readers. The dream of an inclusive publishing ecosystem is alive! The eBOUND Digital Certification is a standout in this field because it is affordable and available to all publishers, but also because of it’s nature as a whole file health certifcation.
