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DATE: May 22, 2025
REVISED:
NAME: Additions and Revisions to Accessibility Fields 341 and 532 in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
SOURCE: Canadian Committee on Metadata Exchange (CCM)
SUMMARY: This paper proposes additional indicators and subfields for fields 341 (Accessibility Content) and 532 (Accessibility Note) in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format.
KEYWORDS: Field 341 (BD); Accessibility content (BD); Field 532 (BD); Accessibility note (BD); Accessibility (BD); Sensory hazards (BD); Data provenance (BD); Conformance (BD); Uniform Resource Identifier (BD); Source of term (BD)
RELATED: 2024-02; 2023-DP05; 2018-03; 2017-11; 2017-DP03
STATUS/COMMENTS:
05/22/25 – Made available to the MARC community for discussion.
06/26/25 – Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion: MAC was generally receptive to the field 341 changes, however, there were somce concerns articulated for field 532, particularly with respect to the proposed granularity of the field. It was not clear why all the granularity was needed. All the subfielding seemed to be making the field more complex than it needed to be. There was also a question about how multiple 341 fields, as well as how the absence of accessibility content, would be handled in a display. The authors agreed to address these concerns in a forthcoming proposal.
MARC fields 341 (Accessibility Content) and 532 (Accessibility Note) were added to the MARC Bibliographic Standard in November 2018. Field 341 was updated in June 2024 based on changes proposed in MARC Proposal 2024-02. As Fields 341 and 532 have become more widely implemented, additional useful data that could be recorded in these fields has been identified but requires the addition of subfields and indicators to these fields and rephrasing of the Field 341 Field Definition and Scope.
Field 341 is currently defined, in part, in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format as follows:
FIELD DEFINITION AND SCOPE
Information about modes of access to the content of a resource, including its primary mode of access and alternative mode(s) of access or accessibility features.
Field 532 is currently defined, in part, in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format as follows:
FIELD DEFINITION AND SCOPE
Textual information describing the accessibility features, hazards, and deficiencies of a resource, including technical details relating to accessibility features. This field may be used to expand on or to qualify data in field 341 (Accessibility Content).
It would be useful to clearly state the presence or absence of accessibility features in a resource. Three conditions need to be distinguished:
Indicating the presence of accessibility features is less ambiguous than implying the presence of accessibility features based solely on the inclusion of 341 in a bibliographic record. Additionally, in the case of a resource with multiple modes of access, a cataloger can indicate that accessibility features are present for one mode, e.g., textual, but absent for another, e.g. visual.
Relying on the absence of a 341 to indicate that no accessibility features are present is ambiguous since the field is recently defined and in any case not mandatory. Indicating explicitly that accessibility features are absent would signal to the user that the resource has been evaluated for accessibility and the absence of features duly recorded.
Finally, it would be helpful to identify to users that the accessibility of a resource has not been assessed, for example, in the case of legacy bibliographic records.
Sensory hazards—such as flashing, motion and sound—restrict the accessibility of users who are adversely affected by these hazards. When the presence of such hazards has been clearly identified in a resource, it would be advisable to inform users that there are hazards present.
Conformance of a resource to an established accessibility standard, such as WCAG 2.1, is an important selection criteria when searching for accessible resources. Conformance can be certified by an accredited third-party certifier or self-certified by the creator of the resource. Useful metadata that can be recorded related to conformance are:
In order to identify the source of accessibility metadata in bibliographic records, we recommend the use of Appendix J to record subfield-level data provenance metadata. Appendix J requires the definition of a subfield in which to record this metadata.
Identifying the source of accessibility metadata using data provenance metadata, supports user confidence in the reliability of the metadata based on the source.
We propose a revision of the text of the Field 341 Field Definition and Scope that clarifies that the field is used to record metadata relating to the accessibility of a resource, including but not limited to access mode, alternative modes, and accessibility features.
Current Text:
Information about modes of access to the content of a resource, including its primary mode of access and alternative mode(s) of access or accessibility features.
Proposed Text:
Information about the accessibility of a resource, including modes of access to the content of the resource as well as accessibility features providing alternative modes of access, and warnings about sensory hazards.
In line with the proposed revision of the Field 341 Field Definition and Scope, it would follow that the labels and values of the First Indicator be equally revised to indicate that the data recorded is not restricted to adaptive features but can include other types of accessibility information (e.g., sensory hazards).
Current Text:
0 - Adaptive features to access primary content
Adaptive features to access primary content of a resource.1 - Adaptive features to access secondary content
Adaptive features to access secondary content of a resource.Proposed Text:
0 – Accessibility information related to primary content
Accessibility information related to the primary content of a resource.1 - Accessibility information related to secondary content
Accessibility information related to secondary content of a resource.
We propose defining a second indicator in Field 341. as follows, to indicate the presence or absence of accessibility features in the resource as well as the presence of sensory hazards in the resource:
Second Indicator – Presence of Accessibility Features/Hazards
# - No information provided
1 – Accessibility features present
2 – No accessibility features present
3 – Presence of accessibility features unknown or undetermined
4 – Sensory hazards present
We propose the addition of a subfield code to record sensory hazards and a subfield code to record Data provenance in field 341, as follows:
Subfields
$h – Sensory hazards (R)
A known sensory aspect of a resource, such as visual flashing or motion simulation that may induce a negative physiological reaction.$7 - Data provenance (R)
See description of this subfield in Appendix J: Data Provenance Subfields.
We propose the addition of a new first indicator value and the addition of subfields to accommodate metadata indicating the conformance of a resource to an accessibility standard. This includes defining a subfield to accommodate a URL to an external Certifier's report. There is precedent for recording URLs in a notes field in the Bibliographic Format: 506 (Restrictions on Access Note); 538 (System Details Note); 540 (Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note); 542 (Information relating to Copyright Status); 545 (Biographical or Historical Data); 552 (Entity and Attribute Information Note); 555 (Cumulative Index/Finding Aids Note); 561 (Ownership and Custodial History); 563 (Binding Information); 583 (Action Note).
We propose a new first indicator value 5, as follows, to clearly mark the contents of the note as Conformance metadata.
First Indicator - Display constant controller
5 – Conformance
Provides information on the conformance of the resource to an established accessibility standard such as WCAG 2 Level AAA.
We propose the addition of new subfields, as follows, in which to record accessibility standard conformance metadata ($i, $p, $q, $r, $s, $t, $u), the definition of a subfield ($2) to record the source of a term used, and the definition of a subfield ($7) to record data provenance using Appendix J.
Subfield Codes
$i – Display text (NR)
Display and identification of the materials described in subfield $u.$p – Accessibility standard to which resource conforms (NR)
Records the accessibility standard to which a resource is certified to conform (e.g., WCAG)$q – MARC organization code or the name of third-party certifier (NR)
Identifies a third party (not the creator, producer or publisher of the resource) that has certified that the resource meets the accessibility standard cited in subfield $p.$r – MARC organization code or the name of self-certifying publisher (NR)
Identifies the publisher or the producer of a resource that has self-certified that the resource meets the accessibility standard cited in subfield $p.$s – Certifier credential (R)
Identifies the credential that gives an organization the authority to certify the accessibility of a resource according to the standard cited in subfield $p$t – Date conformance certified (NR)
Records the date on which the accessibility of a resource has been certified as meeting the standard cited in subfield $p. The date is recorded according to Representations of Dates and Times (ISO 8601).$u – Uniform Resource Identifier (NR)
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), for example a URL or URN, which provides electronic access data in a standard syntax. This data can be used for automated access to an electronic item using one of the Internet protocols.$2 – Source of term (NR)
Identification of the source of terms when they are from a controlled list.$7 – Data provenance (R)
See description of this subfield in Appendix J: Data Provenance Subfields.
4.1.1. Presence or Absence of Accessibility featuresA DVD with Described Video
341 01 $avisual$daudioDescription$2sapdv
A DVD with no Captions for Bonus Features
341 12 $3Bonus features$aauditory
A PDF for which accessibility has not been evaluated
341 03 $atextual
4.1.2. Presence of Sensory Hazards
Indicates the presence of a flashing hazard in the resource.
341 04 $hflashing$2sapdv
4.1.3. Data Provenance
Indicates which institution added the subfield b’s
341 01 $atextual$bpageBreakMarkers$bstructuralNavigation $btableOfContents$2sapdv$7(dpeaa/dpsfb)CDN
4.2.1. ConformanceThis resource conforms to WCAG 2 Level AAA as certified by third-party certifier Benetech on September 7, 2021, URL to Certifier’s Report provided.
532 5# $pWCAG 2 Level AAA$qCaPaBT$t20210907$iCertifier report:$u[URL]
4.2.2. Source of Term
This resource conforms to requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec 1.0 and WCAG level AA, as self-certified by Ex Publishing, which is accredited through Benetech’s Global Certified Accessible program. Certified on September 7, 2021, URL to Certifier’s Report provided.
532 5# $81$p[List 196, Code 03]$2onix
532 5# $81$rEx Publishing$sGCA$t20210907$iCertifier report:$u[URL]4.2.3 Data Provenance
Concordia University has added subfield $p to indicate the accessibility standard to which a remediated resource conforms.
532 5# $pWCAG 2 Level AAA$7(dpeaa/dpsfp)CDN
The ContentAccessibility class/property has not been fully developed in BIBFRAME.
6.1. Has the case been made for defining the second indicator in field 341 to record the presence or absence of accessibility features?
6.2. Has the case been made for adding a new subfield in field 341 to record sensory hazards?
6.3. Has the case been made for rewording for clarity the Field Definition and Scope in 341?
6.4. Has the case been made for rewording for clarity the labels and description of the first Indicators in 341?
6.5. Has the case been made for recording metadata describing conformance to an accessibility standard in field 532?
6.6. Has the case been made for the need to record provenance data at the subfield level in fields 341 and 532?
6.7. Is there anything else that should be considered?
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