Proposed changes for EPUB 3 WG Charter

Scope

• Verify that the EPUB accessibility Specification meets the EU directive for accessibility requirements for eBooks: Conceptually, EPUB accessibility Specification already meets most of the requirements of the EU accessibility directive. The WG will conduct a review of EPUB Accessibility Specification for meeting the EU requirements, provide clarifications, and add the missing pieces as required.
• Consider new and incremental features in the EPUB Accessibility Specification, provided that the EU accessibility requirements and the underlying WCAG 2.X requirements are not compromised. The features under consideration include accessibility requirements for fixed layout documents (FXL), possibility of referring to different versions of WCAG 2.x etc. The working group will liaison with the publishing community group for the new features.
• Improve EPUB accessibility Specification by providing clarifications and reducing ambiguities.

Deliverables

EPUB Accessibility Specification 1.X EPUB Accessibility defines discovery and content accessibility requirements for EPUB Publications. The specifications is built on WCAG 2.x and adds accessibility requirements specific to publishing.

Timeline

• May 2021: FPWD for EPUB accessibility Specification 1.x. FPWD will be in-sync with the EU directive for accessibility requirements.
• November 2021: Candidate Recommendation for EPUB accessibility Specification 1.x
• February 2023: Recommendation for EPUB accessibility Specification 1.X