The first 12 months of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) have been oddly quiet in the book industry. There have been no high-profile cases of publishers being fined and little sign of meaningful regulatory action. Without clear examples of how the legislation is being applied in practice, there is a risk that publishers underestimate the scale of the work ahead. If that happens, the industry could find itself scrambling towards compliance later, placing a great deal of pressure on already stretched production teams.
That said, the lack of visible enforcement may not reflect what is happening behind the scenes. It might simply demonstrate a period of adjustment as publishers and regulators get to grips with the new requirements. At the same time, several developments over the past 12 months suggest that mindsets are beginning to shift across the industry. This blog examines where these early signs of change are emerging, from growing expectations around ‘born accessible’ content to the growing challenges posed by AI.
Following the introduction of the EAA, ‘born accessible’ became shorthand for building accessibility into the production process from the outset.
Many publishers initially committed to this approach, rather than addressing accessibility issues retrospectively. But the past 365 days suggest a more uneven reality.
Although there are cases of publishers introducing accessibility protocols early in production, the majority appear to be adopting changes in a phased approach across workflows. Overall, the impact of the EAA on day-to-day publishing operations still appears limited.
Despite inconsistent progress, some organisations are already leading the way. In April 2026, ABC International Excellence Awards recognised the work of initiatives such as Zanichelli Editore, which is ensuring that educational materials are ‘born accessible’ and available to all learners. Their work means that students with print disabilities can obtain the same high-quality educational digital content as their peers, creating a more inclusive learning environment.
As fines for non-compliance with the EAA continue to loom over publishers, indirect pressures are also pushing the industry towards compliance. Distribution requirements, platform acceptance and reputational concerns are all contributing to this shift.
Alongside this, platform-led change remains uneven. Although Amazon has recently added accessible metadata as an option on KDP, it is still unclear how far such measures will go in driving wider industry practice.
More broadly, since the EAA came into force, there has been increasing speculation that platforms may introduce pre-sale accessibility checks, although how this would work in practice is uncertain.
Taken together, these developments highlight a tension. Restricting the content accepted for sale may risk encouraging box-ticking rather than meaningful transformation. For long-lasting change to occur, both direct and indirect pressures need to operate across the sector.
The EAA exemption applies to microenterprises with fewer than 10 employees or an annual revenue below €2 million, encompassing most independent authors and numerous smaller publishers.
However, over the last year, many exempt organisations are still aiming to produce compliant content to ensure:
Since the legislation was introduced, there has been a rise in the popularity of tools such as PubCoder, which validate files with EPUBCheck at the same time as running Ace by DAISY – helping reduce confusion for authors and publishers about what is required.
Online bookstores have also shifted over the last year, meaning authors and publishers selling directly through popular e-commerce plaforms such as Shopify may now be subject to EAA requirements.
Under the EAA, titles published before 28 June 2025 benefit from a transitional period and do not need to meet full accessibility requirements until 2030. This reflects the practical challenges of updating large backlists, many of which were created using older production systems and file formats.
The adoption of accessibility tools such as Ace by DAISY and EPUBCheck suggests that publishers are beginning to update their existing catalogues, although it is not yet clear how widespread this is.
Market pressure may also be influencing how organisations approach their backlists, with accessibility beginning to affect visibility and distribution. Leading publishers are likely to prioritise key titles for updates, particularly those that remain commercially active.
That said, there is a risk that some publishers may use the transitional period to delay action. Several organisations have been given time to plan and phase in changes, but the task remains significant. For many, this involves reviewing hundreds, if not thousands, of titles, making the project both costly and time-consuming.
In 2026 the hype around AI has dominated headlines, budgets and development roadmaps across the publishing industry. From AI-generated alt text to automated production workflows, the situation is evolving quickly. The EAA, on the other hand, is slow-moving and compliance driven, so it easy to assume that accessibility has slipped down the priority list.
Yet the rapid growth of AI makes accessibility more important than ever. AI can accelerate content creation at an unprecedented scale, but this increases the risk of inaccessible outputs. Small-scale studies and audits of AI-generated or AI-assisted web interfaces have identified accessibility issues, including structural and semantic errors that can fail to meet WCAG standards.
At the same time, AI can only detect a proportion of issues. (In one study, automated testing identified around 57% of accessibility issues.) As organisations have begun to experiment with AI-assisted workflows over the last year, it is increasingly clear that accessibility cannot be fully automated. Even initiatives like ‘Dorina AI’, discussed earlier, rely on a combination of automation and human expertise.
This also raises important legal and ethical implications. If AI-generated content is non-compliant, responsibility may ultimately sit with the publisher or platform deploying it. Yet as AI tools become more embedded within workflows, questions around accountability and liability are growing more complex.
A year on, the European Accessibility Act has not yet produced the kind of visible revolution that might have been expected. There have been no major penalties and little indication of how strictly the legislation will ultimately be enforced.
Instead, the last 12 months are best understood through changing workflows, increased use of validation tools, shifting platform expectations, and the growing role of AI in publishing.
Taken together, these developments suggest that accessibility is becoming part of the conversation, and in some cases, is being embedded in publishing workflows. However, progress remains slow and uneven.
The coming years will prove whether the EAA is serious about implementation, and whether the industry can withstand the pressure if it is.
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