Accessibility Regulations and Standards

Understanding and adopting accessibility standards can help ensure that your journal reaches and benefits a broad audience with diverse abilities. This is crucial to open science because it guarantees that research is truly available to all, removing barriers that exclude people with different abilities. In addition, using accessibility standards to guide your work can help your journal meet international requirements set through laws and policies. All links below lead to external websites with resources that are free to access or download unless otherwise stated.

For those new to digital or web accessibility, it’s essential to understand who accessibility impacts and why it matters beyond just technical compliance. The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative provides foundational resources, including an Accessibility Fundamentals Overview [Archived] and practical guidance on Developing an Accessibility Statement [Archived] for your website, complete with a helpful statement generator tool. Additionally, the particularly valuable Stories of Web Users [Archived] highlights real people affected by digital barriers when content isn’t designed with accessibility in mind.

Regulations

Laws requiring digital accessibility exist worldwide, with recent updates in the European Union and the United States:

• The European Accessibility Act (EAA) [Archived] requires accessible digital content and metadata across the supply chain. 
• In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II [Archived] was updated in 2024 to mandate accessible websites and apps for publicly funded entities.

Countries often base their accessibility laws and policies on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Identify laws and policies by country, including the specific versions of WCAG a given country requires:

• W3C: Overview of Accessibility Laws and Policies [Archived]

Ensure you review the laws and regulations applicable to your region.

Standards

The Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) is an international standard applicable to any content that is digitally published on the web, including journal articles and web pages:

• W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at a Glance (WCAG) [Archived]

In combination with WCAG and The Matterhorn Protocol 1.1, the PDF Universal Accessibility (PDF/UA) standard can help ensure your journal PDFs meet accessibility requirements and policies:

• International Standard Organization (ISO) PDF/UA (Requires sign up to download specification)

Content Accessibility Fundamentals

Colour

Check colour contrast compliance.

• WebAIM: Color Contrast Checker [Archived]
• TPGi: Colour Contrast Analyser [Archived]
• Directed Edges: Contrast Grid [Archived]

Font, Layout, and Formatting

Use accessible fonts, layouts, and formatting for journal publications.

• Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing: Font, Layout, and Formatting Guidelines for Journal Publications [Archived]

Images and Figures

Create alternative textual descriptions (alt text) for various image types.

• Poet Training Tool for Alt Text [Archived]
• WebAIM: Alternative Text [Archived]
• Describing Visual Resources Toolkit [Archived]
• Image Alt Text – Accessibility and Usability at Penn State [Archived]
• Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing: Writing Alt Text – Guidelines for Authors [Archived]
• Penn State University Press Accessibility and Alt-Text Guidelines [Archived]

Accessibility by File Type

Microsoft Word

Create accessible Word documents.

• USDA: How to Create, Test, and Remediate Documents Using MS Word [PDF] [Archived]
• UNC-Chapel Hill: Word Accessibility [Archived]
• Microsoft: Microsoft Word Accessibility Page [Archived]

LibreOffice

Create accessible LibreOffice Writer files.

• Document Wiki Foundation: How to Create Accessible LibreOffice Files [Archived]

Adobe PDF

Create accessible PDFs.

• Cornell IT: Create Accessible PDFs [Archived]
• Adobe Acrobat: Create and Verify PDF Accessibility [Archived]
• W3C: PDF Accessibility Techniques for WCAG 2.2 [Archived]
• PDF/UA: Accessibility Checklist [PDF] [Archived]

HTML

Create accessible digital publications in HTML.

• DAISY Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base: HTML [Archived]
• W3C: Accessibility Evaluation Tools List [Archived]

EPUB

Create accessible digital publications in EPUB.

• DAISY Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base: EPUB [Archived]
• EPUB Checker Ace by DAISY [Archived]

InDesign

Create accessible files using InDesign.

• Adobe: Creating Accessible PDFs [Archived]
• University of Rochester: Adobe InDesign Digital Accessibility [Archived]

LaTeX

Create accessible LaTeX for both HTML and PDF outputs.

• LaTeX Prototype for Accessible PDF [Archived]
• University of South Carolina: Using Pandoc to Convert LaTeX to HTML and MathML [Archived]

JATS XML

Create accessible JATS XML from JATS for Reuse (JATS4R).

• JATS4R Accessibility Recommendations [Archived]

Working with Compositors

For publishers who work with compositors, many offer accessibility remediation services and are Benetech certified.

• Certified Conversion Vendors [Archived]