Some Quebec publishers are in the race: to sell their new releases in digital format in France, they must, from June 28, 2025, also be available in accessible books. No, the accessible book is not the one you borrow for free from the library. It is a digital book, with tools to overcome reading difficulties. The reader can enlarge and change the characters, for example, or hear through speech synthesis rather than reading.
The idea is inclusive and virtuous. With the aging population, observers believe that this shift may guarantee the future of the Quebec book industry. However, switching to accessible digital books, for the publishing industry, is not so simple.
“Making accessible books is just not accessible to us at the moment,” sums up Anne Migner-Laurin, editor at Éditions du Stir-Mage, as a joke. “If in paper books, our sales in France account for a significant 20% to 30% of our overall turnover, our digital books, in all territories, represent 5% of our sales. »
“And France is 3% of this 5%,” continues the editor. The level of complexity to make digital books accessible is high. For us, it’s not worth it. We are just going to remove our digital catalog from France in 2025.”
At Éditions Fonfon, the general director Véronique Fontaine wholeheartedly supports “the cause” of accessible books. “I believe in it,” says the editor, while whispering that she can also afford these tests, because her production, at four or five new releases per year, is light.
In Quebec, “as of May 2023, out of more than 35,000 Quebec EPUB files surveyed, approximately 6% of the digital catalog presents advanced accessibility features,” according to De Marque, a distributor of digital and audio books and producer of accessible digital books . It’s still little.
Choose your layout
The accessible book can be presented as “a universal book”, as Mélissa Haquenne, knowledge manager at De Marque, does. This EPUB 3 format document allows the reader to personalize the layout, according to their needs; and it can’ be read with different tools. For example, speech synthesis,” describes Mme Haquenne.
“You can change the color of the background, the size of the font, the font itself — which is really useful for people with dyslexia. You can change everything in content that is “reformatable” […] It will simplify life, especially for blind people, visually impaired people, or those suffering from “dys disorders”. [dyslexie, dysorthographie…] », Specifies Ms. Haquenne.
Tell the images
For publishers who want to experiment with accessible digital books, the challenges vary greatly. “If we’re talking about a novel, without images, it’s not very difficult. This requires perhaps 10 to 15% more time,” he ventures to assess, at the request of the Duty, Melissa Haquenne. “As soon as we talk about illustrated or academic content, it’s something else. I don’t like stopping an assessment as it depends on the books, but I would say it could be 30-35% extra time. »
If we’re talking about a novel, without images, it’s not very difficult. This takes maybe 10-15% more time. As soon as we talk about illustrated or academic content, that’s something else. I don’t like stopping an assessment as it depends on the books, but I would say it could be 30-35% extra time.
The main difficulties? Create a complete and navigable table of contents. Second big challenge: if there are illustrations, offer a description, an “alternative text” as an option for the visually impaired.
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is why putting an image into words is complex. “There are 1000 schools on how to make an image description,” recalls Véronique Fontaine, general director of Fonfon.
“We are still looking,” she admits. “We asked some of our authors to write these alternative texts, but is it up to them or the illustrator to do it? And with what money? »
Véronique Fontaine adds: “There we are discouraged, we want to make comics Jaja at night, by Valérie Boivin, to try, in an accessible book. We can see that it’s going to be infinite, describing the illustrations…”
These alternative texts, paradoxically, mean that the most “inaccessible” books, harder to convert, are illustrated books, comics and recipe books.
A book is a book
“Making accessible books raises lots of questions,” continues Véronique Fontaine. “We come up against a lot of artistic issues. »
“On paper, I don’t always position the text in the same place; the page is thought of as a composition. Sometimes, we will choose a hand typeface, it’s more beautiful. If I then want to make it an accessible book, that forces me to sacrifice these elements, which are part of what defines my books,” explains M.me Fountain.
What makes a book? Only its text? Also its visual, its layout, the artistic composition? The feel of paper? Should accessibility necessarily be dematerialized? If we rely on EPUB 3 as the only accessible book, are we not depriving the visually impaired of reading in Braille, which retains a materiality? Véronique Fontaine vibrates with these questions.
“As an editor, you find yourself making compromises on all sides; it hurts my heart ; we make the book accessible, but not completely. I don’t yet know how to make an accessible book while respecting the values of my house and the work of my artists. »
As an editor, we find ourselves making compromises on all sides; it hurts my heart ; we make the book accessible, but not completely. I don’t yet know how to make an accessible book while respecting the values of my house and the work of my artists.
Democratizing knowledge
“We must not forget the social dimension,” recalls Mélissa Haquenne. When a publisher chooses not to make an accessible book, they cut off their content from many people. There is a dimension of access to knowledge which is essential. »
Certainly. But to go from an exceptional production, made on request in three months by the Quebec Adapted Book Service, to suddenly aim for the ideal of a 100% accessible literary return, as France desires, is a very high step.
The burden imposed on publishers in this catch-up is heavy, even when funding from the Book Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage is there. The National Association of Book Publishers was able, thanks to these envelopes, to finance 50% of the conversions into accessible books for interested publishers.
Several of the speakers interviewed by The duty expect that Canada will also adopt an accessible book law, in line with the Trudeau government’s policies on equity, diversity and inclusion.
Is this viable, when we know that the costs of producing a book in an accessible format are greater than the sales potential, especially since the sector is completely structured around a borrowing system, and not ‘purchase ?
Readers prevented, readers to come
Fonfon editions have how many readers of their accessible books? “I don’t know,” replies Véronique Fontaine. “I don’t even know if the rare accessible books that I sell are used as simple digital books, or as reading tools. »
The director continues: “I have the impression that what makes it not work today is that no one knows that these options are on the book. When we are able to promote the capabilities of these files, when the message gets out, I am convinced that it will expand their use. That it can really help teachers. »
“There are certainly works that will have been adapted as accessible which will not be useful at all,” reflects Véronique Fontaine. “If our digital productions support our paper books and help readers read more and better, I believe in it. Everyone also puts pressure on us and tells us that we have to do it. But it’s not going to work tomorrow,” she believes. “Maybe in ten years. »