Emerald Publishing's commitment to Accessibility
Accessibility Declaration
Emerald Publishing is committed to ensuring that our platform is accessible for all of our users, regardless of their ability or technology. We are constantly working on improving the accessibility and usability of our platform.
Our platform endeavours to conform to level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (WAI-ARIA) 1.1 and Section 508 Standards of the U.S. Federal Accessibility Standard. These guidelines detail how to make content accessible to a wide range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these.
Embedding Accessibility: Emerald’s Approach
Emerald aims to ensure that accessibility is at the heart of our platform development, by subscribing to five core principles:
Development
All features and functionality on the Emerald Insight platform are developed in line with WCAG 2.1 and WAI-ARIA 1.1 guidelines. These are based on relevant international accessibility guidelines. Where possible our approaches to meeting accessibility guidelines have been validated through testing with relevant user groups.
Testing
All features and functionality on the Emerald Insight platform are tested by our internal testing team before being deployed on the live site. Automated and manual testing is conducted to ensure new features and functionality conform to accessibility guidelines.
Review
An accessibility audit of the Emerald Insight platform is conducted periodically to ensure it conforms to international accessibility guidelines. Any issues discovered are assessed and prioritised accordingly in our accessibility roadmap.
Feedback
Feedback is welcomed from users to notify us of any accessibility bugs they find or any aspects of the site that they found particularly useful. Your feedback helps us to improve Emerald Insight. Please contact us on support@emerald.com. For more contact options please see our Contact us section for different way to send us feedback.
Transparency
We aim to be open and honest about what is not working well on our platform and what needs to be improved. We aim to resolve known issues as quickly as possible.
Accessibility Roadmap
In light of our commitment to remain open and honest about where our accessibility can be improved, this roadmap details our plans to address issues that arise and to make necessary improvements.
| WCAG guideline | Description | Estimated time to resolve |
|---|---|---|
|
Success Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard |
We display AltMetrics badges on some content pages and search results. These badges have a popover tooltip displaying further information. Neither the tooltip, nor the links it contains, can be accessed via keyboard navigation. |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion 1.4.1 (A), 3.3.1 (A) |
Form errors not conveyed to assistive technology. |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion 1.3.1 (A), 2.4.1 (A), 2.4.6 (AA) |
Illogical heading structure |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion 4.1.3 (AA) |
Changes in content not conveyed to assistive technology |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion 1.1.1 (A) |
Images missing alt text |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion (AA) one dot four dot ten |
Content unreadable when magnified to 300% or greater. |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion 4.1.2 (A) |
Role and state of checkboxes not conveyed to screen readers |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion 1.4.3 (AA) |
Low text contrast |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion (AA) one dot four dot eleven |
Low graphics contrast |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion 2.4.4 (A), 3.2.2 (A) |
Missing warning of links opening in a new window |
TBC* |
|
Success Criterion 2.4.9 (AAA) |
Links not understandable out of context |
TBC* |
* Note: please note that we are investigating the best way to resolve these identified areas as indicated by TBC in the “Estimated time to resolve” column of the table above. This table column will be updated with remediation timelines as soon as we have details.
Emerald Insight’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a technical document which evaluates how accessible a platform is according to recognised accessibility guidelines. For a copy of Emerald Insight’s latest platform please contact: support@emerald.com.
User Guides
In-depth support on a range of academic publishing topics, from research methodologies, observation and analysis to how to publish a journal article and ensure it's downloaded, and writing a dissertation can be found on our how to page.
Content Types and Formats
User Interface
All images/figures on the platform’s user interface have meaningful text alternatives. All tables on the platform’s user interface are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Emerald Insight hosts journals, books, case study, and Expert Briefings content. Details on the formats in which these different forms of content are available are listed below.
Journals
Most journal content is offered in HTML and PDF format. Some journal content published before 2000 is only available in PDF. All PDFs are downloadable.
HTML
Most tables are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Some tables within older content (pre-2000) may not be compatible with screen readers. Most images/figures have alternative text. However, the quality of the alternative text varies. Images/figures in older content (pre-2000) may not have alternative text.
Most tables are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Some tables within older content (pre-2000) may not be compatible with screen readers. Most images/figures have alternative text. However, the quality of the alternative text varies. Images/figures in older content (pre-2000) may not have alternative text.
Books
Most book content is offered in HTML and PDF format. All books content published after 2008 is also available in EPUB format. Some journal content published before 2000 is only available in PDF. All PDFs are downloadable.
HTML
Most tables are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Some tables within older content (pre-2000) may not be compatible with screen readers. Most images/figures have alternative text. However, the quality of the alternative text varies. Images/figures in older content (pre-2000) may not have alternative text.
Most tables are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Some tables within older content (pre-2000) may not be compatible with screen readers. Most images/figures have alternative text. However, the quality of the alternative text varies. Images/figures in older content (pre-2000) may not have alternative text.
EPUB
EPUB allows content to be enhanced for users with specific accessibility needs (e.g., dyslexia) or preferred reading modality (e.g., audio, tactile).EPUB offers enchantments such as e-sizeable fonts, changeable text and background colours, page bookmarking as well as passage highlighting and notes.
Case Studies
All case study content is offered in HTML and PDF format. All PDFs are downloadable.
HTML
Most tables are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Some tables within older content (pre-2000) may not be compatible with screen readers. Most images/figures have alternative text. However, the quality of the alternative text varies. Images/figures in older content (pre-2000) may not have alternative text.
Most tables are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Some tables within older content (pre-2000) may not be compatible with screen readers. Most images/figures have alternative text. However, the quality of the alternative text varies. Images/figures in older content (pre-2000) may not have alternative text.
Expert Briefings
All Expert Briefings content is offered in HTML format.
HTML
All tables are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. All images/figures all have meaningful alternative text.
General Information on using Emerald Insight with assistive technologies
Recommended Browser
Google Chrome
Assistive technologies used for accessibility testing
- NVDA Screen Reader
- Various High Contrast Chrome Plugins
- ZoomText
- WAVE
- Lighthouse Automation Tool
Keyboard navigation
The TAB key can be used to navigate through links within the site menu and the main text of each page. Once a link has been highlighted, use the ENTER key to activate the link.
Logical tab order and page layout
We've built pages so that it's easier to tab through the links – the content area is reached immediately after the header, making it easier to move around within a site.
Changing the text size
Most browsers will allow you to change the font size. Guidance on making text size larger can be found on Abilitynet’s My Computer My Way page.
Alternatively, see the "help" section in your browser for more details on customization.
Skip to main content link
We've positioned skip to main content link at the top of the page so that you can quickly navigate to the most important sections of the page.
Alternative content
For visitors using screen reader or speech browser software, we've provided sensible alternative text for images where this alternative text will aid your understanding of the web page.
Headers
Our pages use structured headers to aid legibility. The first header on the page is the main content header followed by any appropriate sub-headers.
Tables
We are no longer using tables, except for the display of tabular data. For users of screen readers and speech browsers, we associate headers with their respective rows and columns to aid legibility.
Forms
Forms now have their labels explicitly associated with their controls, aiding users of certain screen readers and speech browsers.
Text to speech
Tested with users using Read&Write literacy software.
Magnification and Reflow
Except for captions and images of text, text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality.
Depending on your screen size and resolution, most content can be magnified up to 400% without spilling off the edge of the screen. Technically, this means content is presented without loss of information or functionality, and without requiring scrolling in two dimensions for: (i) Vertical scrolling content at a width equivalent to 320 CSS pixels, and; (ii) Horizontal scrolling content at a height equivalent to 256 CSS pixels. However, this does not apply to parts of the content which require two-dimensional layout for usage or meaning.
Relevant information for particular user groups
Information for blind users
We have tested our interface and content with the following screen reader/browser combinations:
- NVDA and Google Chrome
Keyboard operability have all been tested manually.
Information for Low Vision Users
Emerald Insight’s interface has a responsive design that allows users with vision impairments to zoom in up to 400% without loss of functionality. It also enables reflow. You can do this through browser Zoom (CTRL Plus) and changing default text size. Between the two you can often get higher magnification without usability issues.
Minimum colour contrasts, as specified in WCAG 2.1, are applied. Colour contrast has been tested manually. The platform has been tested manually in all browsers with the ZoomText screen magnifier.
The formats which provide the optimum reading interface for low vision users are EPUB for books and HTML for all other forms of content.
Information for Colour Vision-Impaired Users
Minimum colour contrasts, as specified in WCAG 2.1, are applied. Colour contrast has been tested manually in all browsers. Information is not conveyed solely by colour differences alone; alternative signifiers are included.
Browser plugins and EPub readers can be used for different colour contrasts. PDF also has a wide range of background colour alternatives.
Information for users with vision who rely on the keyboard
The TAB key can be used to navigate through links within the site menu and the main text of each page. Once a link has been highlighted, use the ENTER key to activate the link. The current link the tab is focused on is shown by an accessibility compliant colour highlight.
Information for Users with Dyslexia
Emerald Insight interface uses museo and open sans fonts which are regarded to work well for dyslexic users. Emerald Insight interface has been tested with users and has been shown to work well with text-to-speech tools. “Books are available in EPUB. Most EPUB readers such as Thorium (for Windows) or ReadEra (Android) allow users to :
- Select from a range of fonts,
- Change line spacing or word spacing,
- Change background colours,
Work with text to speech tools.”
Information for Hearing Impaired Users
Emerald Insight does not contain audio or video content.
Alternative book content
Our platform currently offers most books content in EPub, HTML and PDF formats. However, Emerald Publishing is committed to ensuring that our content reaches as wide an audience as possible. Wherever possible we will endeavour to provide alternative electronic copies of content to those unable to read traditional print books because of visual impairment, physical disability or severe learning disability. If you are in the US or Canada, the AccessText Network service is currently being reviewed. If you have any queries, please contact us via our accessibility request. For all other accessibility requests, please complete this form. We aim to fulfil requests within 5 working days.
Digital Rights Management
Emerald does not have any DRM content. However, details on permitted uses of the Content please see our Terms and Conditions of use page or contact our Rights Team: support@emerald.com.Accessibility Schemes
RNIB Bookshare Scheme
Emerald is a member of The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Bookshare. This service to provides print-disabled students within UK institutions with the same educational opportunities as their peers.
The AccessText Network
If you are in the US or Canada, the AccessText Network service is currently being reviewed. If you have any queries, please contact us via our accessibility request.
Accreditations
Contact Us
We are always developing solutions to further improve the platform’s overall accessibility. In the meantime, should you experience any difficulty in accessing Emerald Insight, please don’t hesitate to contact our dedicated support team. We aim to respond within 24 hours.
- Email us at support@emerald.com
- Call us on +44 (0)1274 777700
- More contact details can be found here: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/about/contact.htm