a11y horizontal review for EPUB 3.4 family of specifications

[avneeshsingh]

Specifications

There are three specifications.

EPUB 3.4

• TR: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-34/
• Editors' draft: https://w3c.github.io/epub-specs/epub34/authoring/

EPUB Reading Systems 3.4

• TR: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-rs-34/
• editors' draft: https://w3c.github.io/epub-specs/epub34/rs/

EPUB Accessibility 1.2

• TR: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-a11y-12/
• editors' draft: https://w3c.github.io/epub-specs/epub34/a11y/

Status

Working Draft, preparing for Candidate Recommendation
Planned CR transition: 1 June 2026

Scope of request

We request horizontal accessibility review of the EPUB 3.4 family of specifications, including:

• EPUB 3.4 (core)
• EPUB Reading Systems 3.4
• EPUB Accessibility 1.2

Changes since previous review

Change logs:

• EPUB 3.4: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-34/#change-log
• EPUB Reading Systems 3.4: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-rs-34/#change-log
• EPUB Accessibility 1.2: https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-a11y-12/#change-log

Dependencies / related specifications

• HTML 5
• CSS
• WAI-ARIA
• DPUB-ARIA
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Timeline / expectations

We would appreciate initial feedback by May 2026 to support our planned transition to Candidate Recommendation on 1 June 2026.

Previous APA review

The previous horizontal accessibility review for EPUB 3.3 was completed prior to its Candidate Recommendation transition in April 2022. This records that APA review issues were addressed and closed, with additional discussion during TPAC.
w3c/transitions#427

A subsequent accessibility review was also requested in October 2024 in the APA a11y-request repository for the Recommendation with Candidate Corrections:
w3c/a11y-request#92

Contacts

EPUB specs issue tracker for filing issues: https://github.com/w3c/epub-specs/issues

Working group contacts:
@shiestyle
@wareid
@sueneu
@mattgarrish
@iherman
@avneeshsingh

[sueneu]

@avneeshsingh this looks very thorough. What is the next step?

[avneeshsingh]

@sueneu from EPUB 3 WG perspective, we have carefully taken care of accessibility requirements and reviewed it. Thanks to Matt's consistent efforts.
Next step is to hear from APA, if we need to improve anything further.