Public consultation prior to the entry into force of the obligation to make Ebooks accessible
Presentation
European Parliament and Council Directive 2019/882 of April 17, 2019 on accessibility requirements for products and services makes provision for digital books and specialized software published on or after June 28, 2025 to be natively accessible to people with disabilities. Ebooks published before this date must be made accessible by June 28, 2030. These schemes, transposed by article 16 of law no. 2023-171 of March 9, 2023, containing various provisions for adaptation to European Union law, are now included in article 48 of law no. 2005-102 of February 11, 2005, as amended, for equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship of disabled people.
Under the provisions of the aforementioned article 48, the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication (Arcom) will be responsible for ensuring that Ebooks comply with accessibility requirements from June 28, 2025.
The Authority has decided to launch this public consultation in order to gather comments from interested parties on certain issues relating to the accessibility of Ebooks. This consultation will be followed by a public summary.
How to take part in the public consultation
The consultation is open to economic operators concerned by the application of the above-mentioned article - i.e. Ebook publishers, broadcasters and distributors, retailers and specialized software publishers - as well as to any interested parties wishing to submit comments, in particular associations representing people with disabilities.
Contributions must be sent to the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication by July 5, 2024, by electronic means only.
Contributions may be published. Contributors are thus expressly invited to send the Authority two versions of their response: a confidential version and a public version, omitting elements considered confidential or business secrets.
The personal information collected as part of this public consultation will be processed for the purpose of examining contributions and inventorying contributors. To find out more about data management and the rights of the persons concerned, please refer to the appendix "Personal data processed as part of the public consultation prior to the entry into force of the obligation to make Ebooks accessible".
Public consultation prior to the entry into force of the obligation to make Ebooks accessible
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- in french
Public consultation prior to the entry into force of the obligation to make Ebooks accessible
- DOCX
- 877.82 KB
- in french
Question 1:
How do you view the accessibility requirements set out in the decree of August 14, 2023? Do you have any estimates of the impact these requirements will have on the supply made available to people with disabilities?
Question n°2:
What are your observations on the issues raised?
Question n°3:
In your opinion, what are the specific characteristics of certain structures that Arcom could take into account in the exercise of its control?
Question 4:
Do you see any tools that would enable you to comply with all the accessibility requirements set out in the Order of August 14, 2023?
Question n°5 :
Are you aware of any techniques for replacing visual elements?
Summary of the public consultation prior to the entry into force of the obligation to make Ebooks accessible
On Thursday, October 10, 2024, Arcom published a summary of the twelve contributions received from various stakeholders (publishers' union, publishers, broadcaster/distributor, associations, industry professionals).