This report reflects the findings of a high-level assessment of the Ovid Medline platform for its conformance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 (WCAG 2.1).
There are very few WCAG 2.1 compliance issues with Ovid Medline and they are very minor overall with the most pressing issue being with ARIA implementation and a few color issues. Below are the most critical issues to address to improve system compliance.
Top 3 Issues
- Perception: The main problem with the accessibility is the improper use of ARIA and semantic HTML elements, particularly in the navigation. There are missing roles, roles that are not contained by proper parents, and HTML elements that are improperly nested. These can cause significant issues with screen readers and keyboard navigation.
- Compatibility: Another major issue is compatibility, seemingly caused by ARIA labels and several instances of nested controls across the site. This will cause issues with screen readers and keyboard navigation. Please refer to the WAI-ARIA Authoring Best Practices Guide for examples of proper aria implementation across a variety of use cases.
- Color: There are a few minor color issues that were identified. There are some links that are only identifiable using color that do not meet the minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio and there should be an additional way of identifying the links even without color, such as, underlining and making sure they meet 4.5:1 contrast with the background and 3:1 contrast with surrounding text.