From publishing to museums: natively accessible content for cultural sites

by Cristina Musinelli, Caterina Morelli

Reflecting on the field of accessibility requires a historical understanding of the social, cultural, and political developments that led to the adoption of national and international laws, policies, and conventions aimed at ensuring people with disabilities full and effective participation in society. At the international level, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) of 2006 represents a fundamental turning point, establishing a paradigm based on the concept of the person with disabilities as a “rights holder” and “subject of human rights” who must be able to enjoy all the rights recognized to other members of society, applying the general principles of equal opportunities and non-discrimination [1]. Within the Convention, therefore, the right to full access to information and education, to move independently in physical and digital spaces without necessarily depending on third-party assistance, and to actively participate in all aspects of social and cultural life are recognized. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entered into force for the European Union on January 22, 2011, after the signature and ratification by all Member States, which thus committed to guaranteeing the rights of people with disabilities. In Italy, the ratification took place with the Law of March 3, 2009, no. 18. To date, accessibility constitutes a priority at the European level, exemplified by the strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities (2021-2030), included within a broader vision aimed at creating a Union of Equality. 

2025, in particular, marks a turning point year for accessibility with the entry into force, on June 28, of the European Directive known as the European Accessibility Act (EAA) (Directive (EU) 2019/882). The European Directive aims to harmonize and regulate the internal market of the European Union regarding the accessibility of products and services – from e-books to interactive terminals, from e-commerce to transport services – and is implemented in Italy by Legislative Decree 82/2022 (Legislative Decree of May 27, 2022, no. 82). Within the scope of accessibility for public administration websites and mobile applications, Directive (EU) 2016/2102 was already in force, implemented in Italy by the  Legislative Decree 106/2018 (Legislative Decree of August 10, 2018, no. 106), which updates the Law of January 9, 2004, no. 4 - Provisions to promote and simplify user access, particularly for people with disabilities, to IT tools, known as the “Legge Stanca”. 

The European Accessibility Act adopts the definition of disability from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, thus overcoming a restrictive view of the concept. According to this approach, disability is not a characteristic of the person but the result of interaction with behavioral and environmental barriers that limit full participation in society. This same principle was recently adopted in Italy with Legislative Decree 62/2024 (Legislative Decree of May 3, 2024, no. 62), which defines the “disability condition” as the interaction between the person and obstacles that may prevent them from participating fully and effectively in social life on an equal basis with others. The European Accessibility Act clarifies that barriers can affect not only people with permanent disabilities but also anyone experiencing temporary functional limitations, such as those due to injury or age. This step is crucial: it emphasizes how the issues of disability and accessibility should not be considered “for others” since the condition of disability can affect any of us during life. The goal is therefore to promote equitable and autonomous access to everyone in all aspects of life. 

In the museum field, attention to accessibility issues has grown exponentially in recent years, moving beyond reflection on overcoming physical barriers toward a broader understanding of what can constitute a “barrier” to autonomous and independent access to culture [2]. The Contextual Model of Learning [3] offers a useful perspective to understand how the European Accessibility Act can represent an opportunity for change for museums. According to the Contextual Model of Learning:

• the museum experience begins before the museum visit through interaction with, for example, informational material, the museum's own website;
• the museum experience arises from the interaction and overlap of three main types of contexts: 

1. personal context – namely the knowledge, previous experiences, values, motivations, and beliefs related to the contents offered by the museum, and the museum itself as an institution;
2. sociocultural context – the cultural background of the visitor and the milieu in which the museum itself is situated;
3. physical context – the “place” in a broad sense, real and virtual, connected to the museum, its experience, and the objects it houses.

If the museum experience results from the interaction between personal, sociocultural, and physical contexts, which influence each other mutually in a temporal continuum , then accessibility cannot be an adaptation made afterward but a structural condition for such experience to occur. In other words, an inaccessible website, a digital catalog, or non-navigable informational material exclude entire portions of the society that the museum, as an “institution serving society” [4], should serve. An interdisciplinary approach open to principles and good practices from other disciplines is essential to implement this change process not only theoretically but also, and above all, practically. The paradigm of Universal Design, described in Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is one of these. In publishing, this approach translates into creating natively accessible digital content, according to the Born Accessible model [5]. In the Italian and international landscape, Fondazione LIA has promoted this concept for more than ten years. Founded in 2011 as a project of the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) with the support of the Ministry of Culture to promote accessibility in publishing, in 2014 it became a Foundation thanks to the initiative of AIE and the collaboration with the Unione Italiana dei Ciechi e degli Ipovedenti (UICI). 

Among the most significant results of this path is the creation and maintenance of the catalog libriitalianiaccessibili.it, which introduced an innovative model to certify and promote the accessibility of e-books, built together with publishers. Today the catalog counts over 40,000 certified titles, thanks to the participation of 19 publishers with more than 80 publishing brands [6], supported by key players in the digital book supply chain: the MLOL library lending platform, Casalini Libri – one of the main distributors of publications in the Mediterranean area for libraries and international institutions – and international organizations that define industry standards such as EDItEUR, Book Industry Study Group, STM Association. The Foundation also includes the Italian Library for the Blind “Regina Margherita” and the Italian Dyslexia Association.

At the international level, Fondazione LIA, besides being a partner of organizations such as the Daisy Consortium – specifically within the initiative Inclusive Publishing Partners, a program aimed at publishers and technology companies wishing to integrate accessibility into their production processes, sharing the vision of equal access to information regardless of reading abilities –  collaborates with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in creating standards and guidelines regarding digital accessibility. 

To comply with the European Accessibility Act requirements in digital publishing, two W3C technical specifications to which Fondazione LIA contributed are fundamental. The first is EPUB Accessibility 1.1, the reference specification to certify the accessibility of e-books in EPUB format. This specification establishes formal criteria to ensure that a publication is accessible, following an approach similar to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the web content accessibility guidelines developed by the W3C. Accessibility requirements remain stable over time, while concrete implementation techniques – collected in the document EPUB Accessibility Techniques – are periodically updated to follow the format's evolution. The second is the Accessibility Metadata Display Guide for Digital Publications 2.0, which defines a standard language to communicate the accessibility features of a work. The goal is twofold:

• for the reader: to allow anyone, regardless of technical skills, to understand if a publication meets their reading needs;
• for the market: to ensure that accessibility information is presented consistently across different publications and catalogs.

Features such as the adjustment of text size, contrast, or spacing described by these metadata improve the reading experience for everyone, not only for people with disabilities.

Precisely because of its commitment to creating a natively accessible ecosystem, on the occasion of the entry into force of the European Accessibility Act, Fondazione LIA coordinated the project APACE (Accelerating Publishing Accessibility through Collaboration in Europe), co-funded under the Creative Europe program (January 2024 – December 2025), involving seven partners in six European countries to support accessible digital publishing. The goal of APACE was to enhance the skills of the European publishing industry in accessibility, reducing the current skills gap and contributing to the training of a new generation of experts in accessibility. Within the project, the European Accessibility Directory, a portal that makes available the results of APACE activities, was created: operational guidelines, best practices and resources  that serve as a reference point for publishers and professionals wishing to comply with the European Accessibility Act requirements. The project received the ABC International Excellence Award 2025 from the Accessible Books Consortium.

What does it mean for the museum to look at a model of an accessible digital ecosystem like the one proposed by Fondazione LIA for the publishing sector? 

It means optimizing the entire supply chain in terms of accessibility: to ensure the end user a fully accessible experience, each link in the chain must comply with specific requirements and take responsibility. Concretely, it means adopting and referring to international guidelines and technical specifications in creating one’s editorial products and digital services: 

• the European harmonized standard EN 301 549 - Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services (currently at version v3.2.1 of 2021-03, harmonized on August 18, 2021);
• the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 for websites and mobile applications;
• the adoption of the EPUB 3 standard and the EPUB Accessibility 1.1 and Accessibility Metadata Display Guide for Digital Publications 2.0 specifications for digital publications;
• apply the principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) also to downloadable documents (such as brochures, informational and educational material in PDF format) to ensure full usability.

It also means referring to authoritative and constantly updated sources when it comes to accessibility guidelines. 

Like the publishing sector, museums operate in complex digital ecosystems with multiple actors: curators, content creators, web developers, platform and technology providers, and more. The concept of “accessibility chain” [7], according to which the failure of a single link compromises accessibility for the end user, applies directly to the museum context: only coordinated action along the entire supply chain can ensure the accessibility of digital content and services over time.

Questo contenuto è rilasciato secondo i termini e le condizioni della licenza Creative Commons c.d. “Free Culture” – CC BY- NC-ND

Diversi termini di titolarità e licenza sono indicati esplicitamente.

[1] Degener, Theresia. «Disability in a Human Rights Context». Laws 5, no. 3 (2016): 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws5030035.

[2] The literature on this topic is quite vast and continuously evolving; for a global view, see Ciaccheri, Maria Chiara. Museum Accessibility by Design: A Systemic Approach to Organizational Change. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5771/9781538156049 and Jalla, Daniele. Il museo accogliente: manuale di pratica museale. Scuola nazionale del patrimonio e delle attività culturali, 2025.

[3] Falk, John H, and Lynn D Dierking. The Museum Experience Revisited. 1st ed. Routledge, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315417851.

[4] ICOM. Standing Committee for the Museum Definition – ICOM Define Final Report (2020-2022). 2022. 

[5] For further information, Fondazione LIA. E-books for all. Towards an accessible digital publishing ecosystem. 2019. https://www.fondazionelia.org/risorse/e-books-for-all-un-paper-tecnico/.

[6] Institutional members of Fondazione LIA are: AIE - Associazione Italiana Editori, UICI - Unione Italiana dei Ciechi e degli Ipovedenti, AID - Associazione Italiana Dislessia, Biblioteca Italiana per i Ciechi “Regina Margherita”. Membri Partecipanti: Casalini Libri, Centro Studi Erickson, Codice Edizioni, Ediciclo Editore, Editori Laterza, Effatà Editrice, Egea, Feltrinelli Editore, Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori, Franco Angeli Edizioni, Gruppo Editoriale Mauri Spagnol (GEMS), Harper Collins Italia, Il leone verde edizioni, il Mulino, Il Portico, Iperborea, Marsilio, Messaggerie Libri, MLOL, Gruppo Mondadori, Nottetempo, Rubbettino, Sonda. 

[7] Kerscher, George. «Do You Have a Broken Link in Your Accessibility Chain?». Learned Publishing 31, no. 1 (2018): 83–85. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1147.