UC Press Blog

By Stephanie Summerhays, Senior Production Editor at UC Press

Ask a publisher what’s top of mind these days, and you’re likely to hear some words you’d expect: AI, BookTok, censorship, romantasy. You’re also likely to hear a word that might surprise you: accessibility. Accessibility is vital to your publication—it influences how your publisher produces it, where they can sell it, and who can read it.

What does accessibility mean in publishing?

Readers come in many forms, but the printed word…doesn’t, really. Which means readers with certain disabilities are shut out of books and journals, unless their content can be accessed and navigated via the assistive tech that these readers use. 

For publications, this usually means a digital format of a book or article that features clear structure (for easy navigation) and a description in words of each image, table, video, or other non-text element (which a screen reader wouldn’t know how to interpret).

Most publishers’ approach to accessibility is guided by legal requirements and industry standards that are constantly evolving. Producing accessible digital formats is just one route to accessibility, and a single accessible format can’t attend to every reader’s needs. But the goal is to make the reading experience of a print-disabled reader as similar as possible to the reading experience of other readers.

Why does accessibility matter for your publication?

For lots of reasons! Here are a few of the most important.

1. Inclusivity and equity

Accessibility is the right thing to do. It’s a big tent that invites all readers in to engage with your work and contribute to the dialogue you’re fostering.

2. Eligible sales/distribution territories

Across Europe and North America, publications cannot be sold in many places unless they comply with accessibility laws. Accessibility extends the reach of your book or article to many readers by expanding the territories in which it can be distributed.

3. Publication formats and content

Digital formats can be made accessible more easily than print formats, and certain types of content are inherently more or less accessible. Publishers consider these things together when deciding what kind of content your book or article can include and what format to publish it in.

What’s accessible and what’s not?

Accessibility is a spectrum, and less accessible content can usually be remediated to become more accessible. But content that’s inherently less accessible is harder to remediate and more likely to create a clunky experience for a reader with a print disability.

In books and articles, straightforward text is always the most accessible type of content. Images, hyperlinks, and frequent instances of other languages are less accessible; these require some planning and work to be made accessible. Tables and audio-visual content are least accessible; whether they can be made accessible depends on your publisher’s procedures and available resources.

What role do you play as an author in making your work accessible?

Accessibility in your publication is the curb-cut effect in action: an accommodation made for one reader can become a benefit for many (and for your book!). Here are a few things you can do to cultivate accessibility in your work.

1. Think ahead to accessibility while you’re writing

Building accessible content from the start is always more effective than retrofitting inaccessible content later on. Thinking about accessibility can prompt you to interrogate the value of less-accessible material like images and tables. Is a reader using assistive tech likely to get the same information out of those elements as another reader? If not, how essential are those elements to your work? Are you leaning too heavily on an inaccessible element to do the talking? A change might actually improve clarity and usefulness for all readers.

2. Build your material with a clear, navigable structure

Clear and effective chapter divisions and internal headings offer a path for readers to follow as they move through your work. For readers who use assistive tech to access your book or article, every division or heading is a not merely another collection of words but rather a concrete location from which to navigate. Clear structure offers greater reading autonomy to device-assisted readers—and promotes better understanding for all readers.

3. Give accessibility-related tasks their due

As an author, you’ll likely be asked to do work to support the accessibility of your own publication. Most publishers now expect authors to supply alt text (descriptions in words) for images, tables, and other inaccessible elements. Other tasks like language tagging and drafting transcripts might also be necessary. These assignments are essential to publishing your work; take the time to review and follow the guidelines your publisher provides. The readers who rely on the accessible format of your work will see and value your efforts.