Digital accessibility

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is a directive of the European Union which covers accessibility requirements for a wide range of products and services, including ecommerce, ebooks and surrounding dedicated software. It is a legal requirement that by 28 June 2025, all ebooks in the EU must be ‘born accessible’. As Bloomsbury is involved with the sale of publications into EU member states, we must comply with this legislation.

In the context of the EAA (2019), an ‘Accessible’ ebook, web-ready PDF, digital content chunk, or website is one accessible to all, regardless of reading barriers such as blindness, visual impairment (e.g. colour blindness), dyslexia or other physical disabilities.

Bloomsbury is also preparing for the implementation in the US of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (‘ADA’), which has similar mandates around accessibility. In response to the EAA and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, we are working to ensure we are compliant, meeting the EAA deadline of June 2025 and ADA by April 2026.

How we're responding

Bloomsbury publishes ebooks in EPUB3, ePDF and xml formats, with varying levels of accessibility depending on the age of the product.

From 28 June 2025, Bloomsbury’s new EPUB editions will comply with EPUB Accessibility 1.1 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA Standard to ensure we follow EAA legislation. All of our EPUBS are validated through the ACE by DAISY Accessibility Checker and EPUBCheck. For our Bloomsbury Digital Resources products, customers can find up-to-date information on accessibility and our VPAT on individual product pages.

We are in the process of remediating our extensive backlist catalogue where files do not currently meet accessibility standards.

On-demand requests

Where a title isn’t available in a suitable format, we will endeavour to provide one. If you require an accessible version of one of our backlist ebooks that is not currently available, institutions can request this via our form or else email us at accessibility@bloomsbury.com.