Library Accessibility Alliance
***Below is a summary of UARC's accessibility evaluation. For the full report, click the pdf link in the menu on the right.***
MSU Usability/Accessibility Research and Consulting (MSU UARC) conducted a high-level accessibility evaluation of the Taylor & Francis eBooks to evaluate its conformance with WCAG 2.0 AA Criteria. This evaluation did not include all functionality or content of the site or all WCAG 2.0 AA Success Criteria.
During this evaluation, a number of issues were found that will make the site and its content impossible to use for many individuals with disabilities, and difficult to use for some others.
Keyboard users, including screen reader users and users with dexterity impairments, will not be able to use significant site content. Most importantly, a variety of content (including many links, dropdowns, and other interactive elements) cannot be reached or operated via keyboard. Most interactive elements lack a sufficiently visible focus indicator, making it difficult or impossible for many keyboard-only users to effectively use them, as they cannot determine when they have reached the correct element. Focus order is also incorrect in some places, further increasing the difficulty of using the site with a keyboard.
Individuals with visual impairments that rely on screen readers will have additional problems. Structural information (including heading and list structure) is not appropriately conveyed to users, making it difficult to understand content organization. Some content is not read out or is read out in an inappropriate order, and some content that is not visually present is read out. Custom elements throughout the site do not correctly announce themselves or provide appropriate feedback to screen readers, making them difficult or impossible to understand and use. Many images have missing or inappropriate alternative text, significantly impacting users with visual impairments.
While text in PDFs and the Read Online viewer is provided to screen readers, documents have not been tagged for accessibility and no structural information or alternative text is provided to assistive technologies, making them extremely difficult to use for users with disabilities. Additionally, PDFs do not have a title or language set.
Other issues were found that will make it difficult for users with a variety of disabilities to effectively use the system, including insufficient color contrast, missing form labels, and no means to bypass repeated navigation on some pages.
To improve access for users with disabilities, UARC recommends a full WCAG 2.0 AA evaluation and that the problems discovered be remediated.