Accessibility and the Blindness We Overlook

The Global Reality of Vision Impairment

Let’s start with some striking statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO):

• Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment. In at least 1 billion of these, vision impairment could have been prevented or is yet to be addressed.

• Vision loss can affect people of all ages; however, most people with vision impairment and blindness are over the age of 50 years.

(Source: WHO)

Resistance in the Publishing Industry

Now, let’s consider the publishing industry, where some feel overwhelmed by accessibility laws:

‘Why all the fuss about accessibility in digital books and documents? Only a small group of people really needs it, and now everything has to be changed just for them?’

Such an attitude reflects a kind of blindness that isn't captured by the statistics above.

A Quarter of the World Deserves Better

One-quarter of the world's population is not a ‘small group.’ It's an enormous number of people who also love to read, regardless of their condition. We are those people. I am one of them (and yes, I might not recognize you without my glasses on).

These are our aging parents who struggle with small print, our children with dyslexia who prefer listening to text over reading it, our colourblind partners, our nearsighted friends, and all of us who are tired after a long day. So many individuals face different challenges, but they still deserve to enjoy books easily.

What Accessibility Is Really About

So, what is accessibility really about? Is it just about complying with the law (like the European Directive 2019/882 on accessibility requirements, set to take effect on June 28, 2025)? Or is it about making books available to everyone, no matter their impairments or circumstances at any given moment?

Books and documents should be prepared to a standard that allows them to be opened by different devices. It’s a complex topic, involving different formats, navigation, and more. Applications can be easily replaced, we can always choose the one which takes what’s best from the document. What we cannot so quickly change is the file itself. This is why it's so important that publishers follow the WCAG core principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR).

The Crucial Role of Well-Prepared Files

Key features like structure, semantics, navigation, metadata, logical reading order, alt texts, page lists, and properly tagged elements should be part of every accessible document. A well-prepared file allows individuals to adjust it for their specific needs—whether it's enlarging text, changing fonts, tracking pages, or listening to the content.

If the app or device doesn’t support these adjustments, it’s time to switch to one that does. But the file must be accessible in the first place.

Overcoming a Different Kind of Blindness

There is a type of blindness that goes beyond eyesight—an inability to recognize the needs of others. Let’s work together to create a more inclusive world with accessible books for all.

On our blog, together with the Polish Foundation for the Blind and Visually Impaired ‘Trakt’, we are presenting a bunch of articles about accessibility both from the user and technical perspective (https://www.haveabook.eu/blog).

Raising awareness isn’t a matter of choice—it’s a necessity for a more inclusive world.