The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has announced its support for the establishment of EPUB 3 as the standard global distribution format for eBooks and has embarked on a new initiative designed to rapidly advance the format's implementation in the marketplace.
The EPUB 3 Implementation Project is being developed in a partnership with retailers, digital content distributors, device makers, reading systems providers, assistive technology experts and standards organisations, with the support and engagement of leading advocates for people with disabilities.
The initiative's goal is to accelerate the across-the-board adoption of the EPUB 3 format in the consumer market by identifying and implementing what stakeholders consider to be the core set of baseline features critical to the format's acceptance. Among these features are greater interactivity for users, multimedia-enhanced content and expanded accessibility for people who are blind or have other print disabilities.
Publishers have set an ambitious six-month goal to rapidly advance implementation of EPUB 3 through the initiative. Although each individual publisher will make decisions about introducing EPUB 3 titles on its own timeline, many anticipate introducing large numbers of EPUB 3 files into the marketplace beginning first quarter 2014.
AAP publishers are currently recruiting representation from all stakeholder groups to participate in the initiative's two central efforts - a working group to identify baseline accessibility features for the EPUB 3 files and for metadata, and to plan the program for the September workshop.
