# WIA-a11y-wiabooks PHASE 4 — INTEGRATION Specification **Standard:** WIA-a11y-wiabooks **Phase:** 4 — INTEGRATION **Version:** 1.0 **Status:** Stable This document defines how a wiabooks accessibility programme integrates with the systems that surround it: accessibility- metadata aggregators (Bookshare, Vital Source, Accessible Books Consortium / ABC, Library of Congress NLS BARD, National Library service for the Blind in the operator's jurisdiction); EPUB reading-system vendors; assistive- technology vendors; library and education-procurement platforms; the W3C EPUB Working Group's accessibility- techniques registry; statutory regulators (US Access Board, EU EAA conformity-assessment bodies, KR National Information Society Agency); and long-term archives that preserve accessible publications for the long-term reading record. References (CITATION-POLICY ALLOW only): - IETF RFC 8259 / 9457 / 8615 / 8288 / 9421 - ISO/IEC 27001:2022 (information security management) - ISO/IEC 17065:2012 (conformity-assessment bodies) - ISO 8601 (date and time) - W3C EPUB Accessibility 1.1 - W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 2.0 (optional) - Schema.org Accessibility properties - Marrakesh Treaty (cross-border exchange of accessible copies for blind and print-disabled persons) --- ## §1 Accessibility Metadata Aggregator Integration Aggregators (Bookshare, ABC, Vital Source, NLS BARD, operator-specific national libraries for the blind) ingest publisher accessibility statements and alternative- format catalogues so that disabled readers can discover accessible titles through the aggregator's interface. Integration carries each aggregator's identifier, the per- title metadata-deposit schedule, and the aggregator's conformance criteria for ingest acceptance. ## §2 EPUB Reading System Vendor Integration Reading systems (Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo, Thorium, Readium-2, Voice Dream, Adobe Digital Editions, Calibre Reader) consume publisher accessibility statements to surface accessibility metadata in the reader UI. Integration carries each vendor's identifier, the vendor's EPUB Accessibility 1.1 implementation profile, and the operator's per-vendor compatibility test results. ## §3 Assistive-Technology Vendor Integration AT vendors (NV Access for NVDA, Vispero for JAWS, Apple for VoiceOver, Google for TalkBack, Acapela / ReadSpeaker for TTS engines, refreshable-Braille hardware vendors including HumanWare, Freedom Scientific, BraillePen) consume per-publication AT compatibility test results so that AT vendor support and roadmap planning can prioritise defects affecting publisher catalogues. Integration carries each vendor's identifier, the per-AT-version support window, and the AT-side defect-intake reference. ## §4 Library and Education-Procurement Platform Integration Library platforms (OverDrive, Hoopla, RBdigital, Scribd education tier, OPAC integrations) and education- procurement platforms (university library digital collections, K-12 textbook adoption systems) filter catalogue by accessibility conformance level. Integration carries each platform's identifier, the per-platform filter taxonomy, and the operator's catalogue-feed update cadence. ## §5 W3C EPUB Working Group Integration The W3C EPUB Working Group maintains the EPUB Accessibility 1.1 + Techniques 1.1 specifications. Integration is one-way (operator consumes the specifications); the operator records the spec revision in force per published title so that downstream consumers can resolve the conformance-claim to the spec version the publisher targeted at publication time. ## §6 Statutory Regulator Integration Statutory regulators (US Access Board for Section 508, EU national EAA conformity-assessment bodies, KR National Information Society Agency for KS X 6308 conformance, equivalent national authorities) consume per-title compliance evidence. Integration carries the regulator's identifier, the per-jurisdiction submission template, and the regulator's complaint-intake endpoint through which disabled readers may file accessibility complaints. ## §7 Marrakesh Treaty Cross-Border Exchange Integration The Marrakesh Treaty enables cross-border exchange of accessible copies for blind and print-disabled persons through authorised entities. Operators that participate as an authorised entity (or that supply authorised entities) integrate with the Marrakesh Treaty exchange network. Integration carries the operator's authorised- entity status reference, the per-title eligibility declaration, and the per-cross-border-recipient acknowledgement record. ## §8 Evidence Package Format ``` evidence/ manifest.json — package manifest (signed) programme.json — programme record publications/ — per-publication records accessibility-statements/ — per-publication conformance statements alternative-formats/ — per-publication alternative format references (artefact bodies content-addressed) media-overlays/ — per-publication overlay metadata at-compatibility-tests/ — per-publication AT test results audit/ — API audit log excerpts ``` The package is content-addressable; the manifest is signed by the operator's HTTP-message-signature key (RFC 9421) and counter-signed by the accessibility-certification body when the package supports a regulator submission or a Marrakesh-Treaty cross-border declaration. ## §9 Manifest and Signatures Verification tools recompute file digests, compare to the manifest, and reject the package on mismatch with type `urn:wia:a11y-wiabooks:evidence-mismatch`. ## §10 well-known URI Discovery A conformant operator exposes a discovery document at `/.well-known/wia-a11y-wiabooks` that links to the API root, the operator's accessibility-framework enrolments, the published quality dossier, the per-jurisdiction statutory framework binding, and the catalogue of released publications with their accessibility-conformance profiles. ## §11 Long-Term Archive Integration Operators designate a long-term archive that holds publications and their alternative formats beyond the operator's primary distribution horizon (commercial deletion is not equivalent to accessibility withdrawal — already-distributed accessible copies remain available to readers). Quarterly deposits round-trip content- addresses; on programme wind-down, remaining records transfer to the archive with content-addresses preserved. ## §12 Verifiable-Credential Re-Issuance (optional) Operators that wish to expose attestations (EPUB Accessibility 1.1 conformance, accessibility- certification body credentials, ISO/IEC 27001 certification) to consumers of W3C Verifiable Credentials MAY re-issue the attestations as Verifiable Credentials under the Data Model 2.0 specification. Re-issuance is optional; the canonical record remains the JSON evidence- package manifest. ## §13 Streaming Heartbeat SSE subscribers receive a heartbeat every 30 seconds with `Last-Event-ID` resume support. Subscribers that disconnect during long publication-batch ingest or AT-test reporting windows resume from the last seen event identifier without losing visibility of priority-1 events (statement revisions affecting distribution, regulator-notified complaints, AT-compatibility regressions). ## §14 Backwards-Compatibility Guarantee PHASE-4 minor revisions remain backwards-compatible with prior-minor clients. Major revisions go through a deprecation window of at least one full W3C EPUB Accessibility specification revision cycle so that aggregator and reading-system integrations have time to migrate. ## §15 Cross-Standard Linkage Operators that consume adjacent WIA standards (WIA- i18n for translation-pipeline integration, WIA-images for accessibility-aware image alt-text production, WIA- braille for refreshable-Braille rendering, WIA-tts for text-to-speech voice management) emit cross-standard linkage records that name the consuming standard and the version under which the linkage is claimed. ## §16 Public Catalogue Feed Operators publish a public catalogue feed (Atom or JSON Feed) listing distributed publications with their accessibility-statement digests, alternative-format catalogue, and AT compatibility summary. The feed enables discovery by disabled readers using assistive technologies; aggregators ingest the feed at the operator's published cadence. ## §17 Reader Tooling for Accessibility Reviewers Accessibility reviewers (publisher-internal QA, external certification bodies, regulator inspectors) benefit from visualisation tools that surface accessibility statement diff views, AT compatibility matrices, and known- limitation evolution timelines. Operators MAY publish reader tools alongside the canonical evidence package; the tools are non-normative. ## §18 Migration from Pre-Standard Records Operators of pre-standard accessible publishing programmes MAY migrate historical records by emitting synthetic publication records with a `legacyImport` flag. Synthetic publications are accepted by the public catalogue but require contemporaneous EPUB Accessibility 1.1 re-validation before the publication can advance past `ready-for-distribution`. ## §19 TTS Voice Vendor Integration Operators that bind TTS narration to per-vendor voices (ReadSpeaker, Acapela, Polly, Google Cloud TTS, Azure Speech) integrate with each TTS vendor's voice inventory. Integration carries the vendor's identifier, the per-voice licensing terms, and the voice-revision notification endpoint that triggers regeneration of TTS-narrated alternative formats when a voice is revised or retired. ## §20 Accessibility-Complaint Intake Integration The operator's accessibility-complaint intake (through the operator's website, the operating jurisdiction's regulator, and Marrakesh-Treaty-aligned authorised entities) ingests reader complaints and routes them to the operator's remediation workflow. Integration carries the intake-channel identifier, the per-complaint classification (defect, missing format, statement inaccuracy, AT incompatibility), and the response SLA the operator commits to. ## §21 Authoring-Tool Plug-in Integration Operators integrate accessibility-checking plug-ins into the publisher's authoring workflow (InDesign accessibility plug-ins, Word accessibility checker integrations, custom markdown-to-EPUB pipelines with built-in WCAG validation). Integration carries the plug-in's identifier, the per- revision check capability matrix, and the per-issue severity classification that flows back into the publisher's editorial review. ## §22 Conformance and Sunset A programme conformant with PHASE-4 has integrated successfully with at least one accessibility-metadata aggregator, at least one EPUB reading-system vendor, the relevant statutory regulator (where the operating jurisdiction has one), and at least one long-term archive, and has published at least one externally citable evidence package. Sunsetting an integration is announced via the well- known discovery document at least 90 calendar days before removal. --- **Document Information:** - **Version:** 1.0 - **Phase:** 4 — INTEGRATION - **Status:** Stable - **Standard:** WIA-a11y-wiabooks - **Last Updated:** 2026-04-28