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Elsevier Statement on the European Accessibility Act

Last updated 21 August 2024

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Elsevier's Commitment to the European Accessibility Act (EAA)

Elsevier is committed to inclusion and accessible design, the deliberate practice whereby a person with a disability can access a service as fully, equally and independently as a person without a disability. Elsevier is working to meet the requirements set forth in the EU European Accessibility Act opens in new tab/window, which comes into force in June 2025. This Act will bring in a landmark EU law which will require some everyday products and services to be accessible for persons with disabilities. The European Commission has provided background information in its European Accessibility Act: Q&A. opens in new tab/window

The Act, amongst other items, applies to e-books and e-commerce sites and mobile apps.

Planned Enhancements

In advance of the EAA deadline on 28 June 2025, Elsevier has been investing time and resources in the important work of making accessibility enhancements to our products and services.

Elsevier continues to work to make e-books perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust, in line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 level AA). Further, B2C ecommerce sites such as where users can make purchases are being conformed to WCAG 2.1 level AA. Elsevier will provide VPAT/ACR documentation to attest to EAA requirements to be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust in line with WCAG 2.1.

Elsevier is working to provide high-quality accessibility features for our book content that are in line with the principles set out in the European Accessibility Act. From June 2025, we aim to provide comprehensive image descriptions for e-books in a manner that is consistent with the Act and our publishing roadmap. We are also working to provide accessible options for videos associated with e-book content that are captioned, and audio content associated with e-books that have synchronized transcriptions. We want our customers to have the information they need and require about the accessibility features of our e-books before the point of purchase. We will offer ePUB, HTML, and tagged PDF formats for all our new books, to help readers use the format most accessible to them.

Overview of Existing / Future Features of EAA Compliant eBooks

Readers may purchase an Elsevier e-book today in a variety of formats. Every e-book published since 2008 is available in an accessible ePUB format. Learn more about Elsevier ePUB3 accessibility features and browse our catalog of e-books opens in new tab/window on our Elsevier shop. Elsevier is an accredited Globally Certified Accessible (GCA) opens in new tab/window Publisher.

All our ePUB books currently support:

  • Compatibility on a wide variety of devices and reading apps

  • DRM free ePUB files which work with screen readers

  • Reflowable text

  • Adjustable presentation (dependent upon the reading app

  • Screen reader content (structure, text, tables, math)

From June 2025 newly published books will support WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

This includes the following content and product types:

  1. e-book Web site/mobile apps

  2. Purchase/book redemption user experience

  3. Interactive exercises and activities within ePUBs

  4. Figures and images

  5. Student and instructor resources (supplementary files, online courses)

Elsevier’s Commitment to Accessibility

Elsevier has a long history of developing easy to use products designed around end user needs, while following industry accessibility standards. Elsevier conducted our first end user accessibility research with the blind community in 2001 and we continue to include people in the disability community in our design and testing of products.

Elsevier has been an early adopter and sponsor of several industry leading accessibility initiatives including MathJAX, Benetech Bookshare, Benetech Globally Certified Accessible, EPUB3, Marrakesh Treaty, and the ABC Charter for Accessible Publishing (2015, 2023).

Our current company Accessibility policy outlines our overall approach to accessibility. We collaborate and educate around accessibility, utilize industry standard tools, and embed accessibility in our business operations.