The e-book must be accessible – sooner than you think

As society goes digital, we must ensure that people are treated equally. Digital publications and services should be accessible, regardless of the user’s potential limitations, disabilities, sensitivities or constraints in learning and understanding.
The law on the provision of digital services obliges you to comply with accessibility requirements. In just over a year, on 28 June 2025, the Digital Services Act will change so that all e-books must be accessible. You can read more about the changes to the law on saavutettavuusvaatimukset.fi -accessibility requirements.
What is being included in the Digital Services Act?
- All works of general literature
- Information and education books
- Professional digital libraries
- Online book shelves
So now is the perfect time to take the change in the law into account in e-book production. If your company employs more than 10 people, the law change applies to your company.
“It is worth switching to EPUB 3 well before the Digital Services Act comes into force. This will save valuable time and resources already in the production of e-books in 2024,” says Marko Harmia, Aste Helsinki.
What makes an e-book accessible:
- The e-book must comply with the WCAG 2.1 principles, i.e. it must be discoverable, manageable, understandable and functional.
- Visual elements have an alternative textual representation called ALT text
Interested? Contact us and we’ll tell you more!
Advanced e-book production process
“The e-book production process will be developed to support the EPUB 3 format and WCAG standards. Our production process has long used automation and validation, i.e. confirmation that the e-book meets the required criteria. E-book production remains efficient when automation takes care of much of the finalisation of the e-book,” says Tony Martin, Product Manager, Software Architect.
By adding an accessibility checker to the automation, it can be ensured that the e-book meets the accessibility requirements of the WCAG standard.
“The EPUB 3 format does not in itself slow down the production process, but accessibility requirements will add some extra steps to the production of e-books. We are working to automate these additional steps where possible.”

User-friendly and accessible, but also aesthetically pleasing
Aste is a very widely accessible digital publication. For example, it has collaborated with Otava Publishing Company Ltd / Otava Learning, The City of Helsinki and Sanoma Pro.
Aste aims to take a holistic approach to accessibility requirements in digital publications and services, be it in terms of visuals, usability or technical functionality.
Examples of possible accessibility projects at Aste:
- Brochures: product brochures, catalogues, user manuals
- Platforms: forms, websites, surveys
- Documents: PDF files, presentations, reports
In addition to accessibility, digital publications should also be designed with usability and visual appeal in mind. Accessible material can also look in line with the brand image. Aste is an expert partner when it comes to accessible colour contrasts, or even the right type of headlines. Content can be produced so that accessibility needs are taken into account in advance. For example, using the right hierarchy of headings from the outset makes it easier to finalise. The accessibility manager always designs accessible content from a user-centred perspective, not just from the perspective of accessibility specifications.
“From a general usability perspective, you can think about how publications are read or listened to in different situations and on different devices. Especially when using mobile devices, well-designed usability and accessibility is a priority. For example, in a quiet room, it’s annoying if the sound automatically goes on – it’s important that the sound can be easily turned off. In brightly lit spaces such as auditoriums or classrooms, reading should be easy for every reader,” says Leena Rantonen, Team and Product Manager at Aste.
What needs to be achievable?
- Texts; for example, news, instructions, service descriptions and blog posts
- Images, graphs and infographics
- Interactive and dynamic graphics
- Videos and podcasts recorded or embedded on a website or app or published on a social media channel (including video players)
- Navigation and user interface in general
- Links
- Online forms (html forms)
- Booking services
- Chat-services embedded on the site
- Event calendars
- Files generated by office software and stored on the site: for example, PDF and Word files and forms.
Source: Regional State Administrative Agencies of Southern Finland
Text: Elina Salminen, Aste Helsinki
Interested in discussing more or expanding our cooperation? All contact details can be found on the Contact Us page.
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