Top

 

HACHETTE UK ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION

 

Commitments & Charters

 

As part of our mission to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity, we are committed to making our content and websites as accessible as possible for all readers, including neurodivergent people and those with disabilities.

 

Hachette UK are signatories of both the Charter for Accessible Publishing (ABC Charter) and the Publishing Accessibility Action Group Charter, highlighting our commitment to improving the accessibility of our digital products.

 

 

E-BOOKS

 

We are committed to ensuring all Hachette UK titles published across all our divisions are compliant with the requirements of the European Accessibility Act. Our commitment to accessibility includes ensuring our e-books:

 

  • are produced in EPUB3;
  • are validated against industry-standard accessibility validation criteria; and
  • include descriptions for any non-text content where appropriate.

 

Hachette UK prioritises newly published titles and our most popular backlist titles across all our divisions for accessibility conformance.  We also describe certain accessibility features of our frontlist e-books  and our most popular backlist titles in metadata. This enhances our ability to ensure that our e-books can incorporate the latest technical accessibility features.

 

We continue to review and update our remaining backlist titles to make sure they meet industry standards by 2030.

 

 

Requesting an accessible copy

 

If you have a request for an accessible e-book version of one of our backlist titles that has not yet been made accessible and cannot be found via one of our accessibility partners listed below, or you have an enquiry about a title that has been made accessible, please complete the below form and we will review your enquiry and aim to provide an initial response within 3-5 working days. Please be aware some products may take time to resolve, and your patience is appreciated.

 

https://forms.gle/CpMNNacwgDxhR1pu5

 

 

Hachette UK Partners

 

We partner with several accessibility-first organisations to ensure that wherever possible our content is made available to their members in a format that meet their requirements, including:

 

  • RNIB
  • Benetech Bookshare
  • In addition to the above platforms, our audio titles are also shared with:
  • Calibre
  • Listening Books

 

 

E-COMMERCE WEBSITES

 

We are committed to making our websites as accessible as possible to all users by making them perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Our sites have been designed with accessibility and responsiveness in mind to ensure that:

 

  • the functionality for identification, security and payment are compliant with the requirements of the European Accessibility Act;
  • they are compatible with assistive technologies such as recent versions of popular screen readers, speech recognition software and screen magnifiers;
  • they can be used on different screen sizes and devices including mobile devices;
  • all components such as buttons have been designed for ease of keyboard navigation and use of a screen reader;
  • the typeface, colours and layout of our sites have been designed to the standards of WCAG 2.2 AA; and
  • the colours pass a contrast rating of AA.

 

For more information about the accessibility features provided by our e-commerce partner, Shopify, please visit their accessibility pages:

 

Shopify Accessibility Statement

 

All sites meet or exceed an accessibility rating reflecting strong adherence to accessibility best practices including WCAG 2.2 AA standards. We will continue to conduct regular audits and updates to ensure an inclusive and user-friendly experience for all customers and to maintain accessibility to WCAG 2.2 AA standards.  If we identify any issues, we perform re-testing within two weeks of identification of any issues.

 

 

Customer support services

 

Our support services provide information on the accessibility of our services and its compatibility with assistive technologies, in accessible modes of communication. Contact ecommerce.accessibility@hachette.co.uk  for help with accessibility issues.