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Bloomsbury Collections

Summary

Accessiblü̈ conducted a high-level accessibility evaluation of the Bloomsbury Collections platform bloomsburycollections.com), a digital academic library providing access to scholarly books, reference works, and eBook content across the humanities, social sciences, and arts. The evaluation was performed on behalf of the Library Accessibility Alliance (LAA) to assess the platform's usability for users with disabilities.

Testing was conducted using the JAWS 2025 screen reader on a Windows 11 desktop with Google Chrome, supplemented by NVDA, keyboard-only navigation, and automated scanning via the axe DevTools browser extension for conformance against select WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria. Four pages were evaluated: the Home page, the Search Results page, the Advanced Search page, and an individual Book/Product page (monograph detail view).

The platform demonstrates a solid structural foundation with clearly defined landmark regions, a functioning skip link, and some well-labeled interactive controls. The main navigation and search form convey basic state information, and the site's color scheme provides good contrast in most areas. These are encouraging signs that the development team has given thought to accessibility. At the same time, the evaluation identified several areas of opportunity that, when addressed, will meaningfully reduce friction for users relying on assistive technologies. The most significant patterns observed involve the home page carousel components, filter panel keyboard accessibility on the search results page, modal dialog focus management across multiple pages, and inconsistent ARIA role and property usage throughout the interface. Addressing these opportunities will improve the experience for blind and low-vision users, keyboard-only users, and screen reader users across the platform.

Key Findings

The evaluation identified accessibility opportunities that may create challenges for users relying on assistive technologies. A number of the carousel features on the home page lack the accessible names, structure, and keyboard controls needed to make them usable for screen reader users. Across multiple pages, interactive elements including navigation menus, filter panels, modal dialogs, and custom widgets use ARIA attributes inconsistently or incompletely, which can cause confusion for users navigating via keyboard and screen reader. Form controls on the Advanced Search page and the Book page lack proper programmatic labels, preventing screen reader users from understanding the purpose of those fields. None of these concerns represent insurmountable challenges, and the platform's overall architecture means targeted code-level fixes can address most issues systematically.

Top 3 Issues

  1. Carousel Components Inaccessible to Screen Reader and Keyboard Users

    • Brief Description: Both featured book carousels on the Home page lack accessible names, proper ARIA listbox structure, and fully functional keyboard controls. The auto-advancing carousel has no accessible landmark or region label, leaving screen reader users unable to identify they have entered a carousel widget. Navigation controls (previous, next) for the first carousel were not reachable via keyboard during testing, and the position indicator buttons are labeled only as "cell indicator 0" and "cell indicator 1," conveying no meaningful information.
    • Impact: Blind and low-vision users, keyboard-only users.
    • WCAG Success Criteria: 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A), 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A), 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).

  2. Keyboard Inaccessibility of Filter Controls and Search Results Elements

    • Brief Description: On the Search Results page, multiple interactive filter elements within the refine panel are not reachable or operable by keyboard alone. The filter accordion panels use an invalid ARIA attribute (aria-multiselectable) on the panel-group container, and several elements including sort dropdowns lack accessible names. A critical pattern is the complete keyboard-inaccessibility of numerous interactive elements throughout the search results interface.
    • Impact: Users with motor disabilities, blind and low-vision users relying on keyboard navigation.
    • WCAG Success Criteria: 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A), 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level AA), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).

  3. Modal Dialogs Do Not Announce or Manage Focus Properly

    • Brief Description: On the Book/Product page, the Share, Print, and Citation dialogs activate visually but do not announce themselves as modal dialogs to the screen reader. Focus does not move into the dialog upon activation, and on close, focus is returned to the top of the page rather than the triggering element. Additionally, on the Advanced Search page, the help dialog allows screen readers to read content outside the dialog while it is open.
    • Impact: Blind and low-vision users, neurodiverse users relying on predictable interaction patterns.
    • WCAG Success Criteria: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A), 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).

Disabilities Impacted

Blind and Low-Vision Users

  • Issues: Missing or inadequate alternative text on carousel book cover images. Carousel widgets lack accessible names and proper ARIA landmark structure. Navigation submenus include redundant link elements that interrupt the button-based pattern. Modal dialogs do not announce their role. The Download button on the Book page has aria-hidden="true" while remaining focusable, making it invisible to screen readers. The pagination input field on the Book page has no programmatic label.
  • Impact: Screen reader users navigating via headings, landmarks, or tab order encounter gaps in the information architecture that require extra effort to work around, or in some cases prevent task completion entirely without sighted assistance.

Users with Motor Disabilities

  • Issues: Keyboard-inaccessible interactive controls on the Search Results page, including filter elements and content widgets. Navigation dropdown menus are not fully operable by keyboard (spacebar does not activate buttons consistently). Carousel navigation buttons for the first home page carousel are not reachable by keyboard. Focus moves to the top of the page after closing modals, requiring users to re-navigate lengthy content to return to their place.
  • Impact: Users who rely on keyboard-only navigation cannot access significant portions of the search and filtering functionality, limiting their ability to refine search results and find relevant content.

Neurodiverse Users

  • Issues: Heading hierarchy on the Home page starts at H4 rather than H1, disrupting the logical document outline. The Book page also lacks an H1. Navigation menus announce ambiguous states (links described as "collapsed" alongside buttons). Multiple dialogs open without notifying users, creating unpredictable page state changes. 
  • Impact: Users who rely on consistent page structure, predictable interaction patterns, and clear navigation landmarks may find the platform's heading hierarchy and widget behavior disorienting, increasing cognitive load during research tasks.