Accessibility statement for Ubiquity Press Publishing Platforms
Ubiquity Press strives to allow our platform to be used by the widest possible audience. This statement provides accessibility information to users of the platform.
This website is run by Ubiquity Press. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
- navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
- navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
- listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
Higher Priority Issues
- Some images represent unique information on the page. Due to the lack of alternative text, users might miss this information
- Some pages lack a heading structure, as heading semantics are not provided. Users cannot use the headings to understand the page structure and may struggle to navigate the page content.
- There are elements with insufficient colour contrast. These elements can be difficult to read, especially for those with low vision, poor eyesight, or colour blindness.
- Some elements cannot be resized with browser settings. Users relying on browser text resize might have difficulties reading the content on the pages
- Some elements overlap when the user changes the text spacing in the browser. This may cause some users to miss important information.
- Some elements that are visually styled as lists are not marked up as such. This may make them difficult to understand when using assistive technology.
- Some interactive elements lack a visible focus indicator. Users who rely on keyboard might lose track of the navigation
- There are no error messages present for some elements. Users may not know something has gone wrong with the data they enter.
- Some pages have illogical focus order. Keyboard-only users depend on meaningful focus order.
Lower Priority Issues
- Some elements that are visually styled as lists are not marked up as such. This may make them difficult to understand when using assistive technology.
- The site does not appropriately reflow content when viewed at 400% zoom. As a result, low vision users might miss some information and functionality.
- Some multimedia content plays automatically. This may prove disorienting for some users.
- No skip link is available for users to bypass certain blocks of content.
- Some pages lack a descriptive page title. This may cause initial confusion over the purpose of the page.
- Some pages have non-interactive elements in the focus order. Keyboard-only users depend on meaningful focus order and may be confused by focus on elements they can't interact with.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
- email: support@ubiquitypress.com
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 2 business days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: support@ubiquitypress.com.
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018(the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Ubiquity Press is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Currently, Ubiquity Press Journals platform front end content and Ubiquity Press Press Portal platform front end content partially support assistive technologies that visitors might use, such as screen readers or text only browsers. We are working to achieve complete support with updates in the coming 12 months, and we are currently in the process of redesigning and reimplementing the public-facing frontends of all of our sites. This process puts a priority on designing for accessibility. Current interface redesign efforts employ the REACT framework javascript library with accessibility step-testing with axe Tools, as well as manual audits.
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to ‘the non-compliances’ listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
| Issue | Where is it found? | What we are doing about it |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A) | --Main navigation (subnav) --Home page carousel controls --Checkboxes in Content>Articles --Some sections of submission forms | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 1.1.1 Non-text (Level A) | --Thumbnail images across site --Icons in About>Editorial Team --Icons in Content>Articles --Icons in Volume/Issue layout --Logos in Main navigation --Section policies graphic in About>Editorial Policies | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) | --Heading tags, while typically consistent in usage, have been employed to privilege visual style over logical nesting structure across the site --Instructions and cures are not always programmatically associated with their components in forms across the site | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide (Level A) | -- Home page carousels and Twitter feed automatic autoplaying cannot be paused. | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (Level A) | -- Bypass link not present for main navigation | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.4.2 Page Titled (Level A) | --Main templated pages and subpages (Home, About, Contact, Content, Researcher Integrity) use the same title (Journal Name). Individual Articles are properly titled. | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A) | --Main navigation has non-logical focus order --Quick links navigation in About>Editorial Polices does not precede content in Tab order --Filter/Sort controls in Content>Articles do not precede content in Tab order | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.4.4 Link Purpose (in Context) (Level A) | --Linked images in main navigation lack meaningful names that describe unique destination for AT --Linked Icons for Email and Website in About>Editorial Team lack meaningful names that describe unique destination/function for AT – --Vague link “click here” in About>Submissions --Linked thumbnail images in Content>Articles lack meaningful name that describes unique destination for AT --Linked icons (eyeball and download) in Issue TOCs lack meaningful name that describes unique destination/purpose for AT --Linked thumbnail images in Issue TOCs lack meaningful name that describes unique destination for AT | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 3.2.2 On Input (Level A) | --JavaScript Events (Show # of Articles per page & Sort Order popup buttons) on Content>>Article page automatically initiate a change of context without advising user of behavior in advance | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A) | --Interactive UI components across the site, especially form elements and checkboxes, do not tend to include proper label elements and therefore do not allow state changes to be programmatically determined. | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA) | --Most content in the Ubiquity Press Journals front end is black text on a white background, but certain design elements (especially the use of a “primary” branding color for each journal as the default link color) currently lead to contrast ratios that do not meet the 4.5:1 requirement. | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 1.4.4 Resize Text (Level AA) | -- Submission button & Become a reviewer button not available on mobile. | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| Issue | Where is it found? | What we are doing about it |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A) | --Main navigation (subnav) --Carousel controls are not keyboard accessible --Keyboard trap in main navigation (when reversing from “AddThis” focus, focus jumps to bottom of screen) --“Download” (+subnav buttons) and “Buy Book” buttons do not receive visible focus on “Books” --“Download” (+subnav buttons) and “Buy Book” buttons do not receive visible focus on individual book title record --Hidden author affiliation detail in individual book title record does not receive keyboard focus --In hidden “Get citation” modal, citation style tabs (Harvard, MLA, etc.) do not receive visual keyboard focus --In hidden “Get citation” modal, close icon (“X”) does not receive visual keyboard focus | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 1.1.1 Non-text (Level A) | --Carousel images lack descriptions --Captcha iframe in “Contact Us” is not labeled --Twitter iframes are not labeled --Button icons and thumbnail images in several locations are not labeled | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) | --Headings to not match visual outline level (across site) | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide (Level A) | --Home page carousels and Twitter feed automatic autoplaying cannot be paused. | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (Level A) | --Bypass link not present for main navigation | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.4.2 Page Titled (Level A) | --Main Press Portal pages in folder structure are titled with Press name but lack additional descriptions (e.g., “Press Name – About”, Press Name – Journals,” etc.). | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.4.4 Link Purpose (in Context) (Level A) | --Several links lack meaningful name --Several ambiguous links --Several linked images lack meaningful name | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A) | --Required fields in Contact Form on “Contact Us” are not visually identified. Some elements in the header are missing labels. | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A) | --“About” tab and subnav (in main navigation) is not labeled for AT --Interactive UI components across the site do not tend to include proper label elements and therefore do not allow state changes to be programmatically determined. | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA) | --White text on gray background in footer does not meet minimum contrast ratio (4.5:1) --White text on tertiary color background often does not meet minimum contrast ratio (4.5:1) --White text on gray background in “Submit an Article” button in “Journals” does not meet minimum contrast ratio (4.5:1) --White text on Discipline buttons, Keyword buttons, Download buttons, Buy book buttons, does not meet minimum contrast ratio (4.5:1) | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 1.4.4 Resize Text (Level AA) | --Interactive buttons in main press banner disappear when screen is zoomed | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
| 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA) | --Textbox (“Filter”) in “Journals” lacks accessible name --Textbox (“Filter”) in “Books” lacks accessible name | Will be corrected in upcoming release (~ 12 months) |
Disproportionate burden
N/A
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
We are working to review the PDFs and Word documents that are essential to providing our services. We’ll either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Live video
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We are working to achieve complete support with updates in the coming 12 months, and we are currently in the process of redesigning and reimplementing the public-facing frontends of all of our sites. This process puts a priority on designing for accessibility. Current interface redesign efforts employ the REACT framework javascript library with accessibility step-testing with axe Tools, as well as manual audits.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on August 25, 2020. It was last reviewed on July 15, 2021.
This website was last tested on August 25, 2020. The test was carried out by Ubiquity Press.
We tested programmatically-determined elements of the Ubiquity Press Journal platform front end and the Ubiquity Press Press Portal platform front end for potential challenges that non-accessible content would have on the core user journey of the site.
You can read the full accessibility Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) documentation at the following links: