ℹ️ We expect iPaper to be compliant with the Web Accessibility Directive (WAD) by June 28th, 2025. Read more about the Web Accessibility Directive, here.
As of 2020, directives in multiple countries have been set by authorities to ensure that websites comply with the WCAG 2.1.
In Europe 🇪🇺, all websites within the public sector must be in compliance with the European Accessibility Act (EAA) Directive. In the US 🇺🇸, this is known as ADA compliance.
💡 We recommend reading the legislation of your region to ensure you are living up to their standard.
If you’re reading this, you have probably made sure your website is accessible. But is iPaper compliant too?
The short answer is no. iPaper does not live up to WCAG 2.1 or ADA compliance at present.
Why isn’t iPaper web accessible?
When you process a Flipbook, the pages in the PDF become rasterized images that are optimized to be seen online.
As all readable text has become an image, it will not be possible for screen readers or other assistive technologies to convert the text to speech.
Will iPaper become accessible?
Yes, in accordance with the recent Website Accessibility Directive legislation, we are working toward being compliant by June 28th, 2025.
Becoming accessible encompasses a number of changes to the iPaper product. These will be rolled out in phases, and we expect to be compliant by June 2025.
But read on to find out how you might be able to live up to the directive, while still using iPaper. 😊
How will I know of the latest accessibility changes?
We share all of our product and feature updates, including accessibility improvements, on our News page.
How will WAD compliance affect my Flipbooks?
We don’t have the full scope of changes at present. However, you should expect to enrich both existing and future Flipbooks with additional information.
While we're working on things, there are several things you can do to still be compliant while using iPaper.
What can you do to provide a web-accessible experience?
While we're working on it, there are a number of things you can do to still be compliant while using iPaper. The PDF format is quite accessible by itself.
You can choose to offer visitors the iPaper format, as a more engaging alternative or supplement to the PDF.
Use our accessible landing page
Give your visitors the choice between PDF and Flipbook with our accessible landing page, which can be read using any type of assistive technology.
Each Flipbook has an accessible landing page, by simply adding “accessible.aspx” at the end of the Flipbook URL.Acrobat Accessibility tool
Adobe Acrobat offers an accessibility checker to help you make sure your PDF is accessible.
By default, you won't see it on the Tools sidebar.
To activate it:
Open the Tools tab.
2. Find the accessibility Icon.
3. Click Add.
Now you can see it in your tools panel and run the checker. The checker will try to point out, which elements and sections might not be accessible, giving you the chance to change it before uploading to iPaper.
💡 Design your Flipbooks for accessibility
You can already design your Flipbooks according to WCAG 2.1 recommendations. Here, you can access a wide variety of tips and tools to make sure you're designing for Web Accessibility:
Documentation
Read about Web Accessibility here: https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-principles/
Read the European accessibility act here:
https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1202
Read the ADA compliance Act here:
https://www.interactiveaccessibility.com/services/ada-compliance
There are ways to make your Flipbook experience more accessible, through manual enrichments. If you would like to learn more, we would be happy to discuss the options and best approach for your content 🙏.