Accessible and inclusive websites, content and metadata

Abstract

As a companion document to the Toolsuite article on accessible and inclusive websites, content and metadata, these guidelines provide some practical suggestions to help Institutional Publishers and Service Providers (IPSPs) integrate accessibility and inclusivity into their activities. These guidelines include the recommendations laid out in the Diamond Open Access Standard. Given that each IPSP may be at a different stage of integrating accessible and inclusive practices, and that each IPSP may have different resources at their disposal, the guidelines have been organized into three broad categories:

1. Easy to accomplish: So-called “quick wins”, these are practices that can be implemented relatively quickly and easily and need few resources.
2. Moderate investments for the mid-term: These practices may require more effort or resources to implement than the “quick wins”, but overall these investments are relatively modest and can be achieved without significant costs.
3. Longer term goals: These practices may require additional planning or resources, or may need to be developed over a longer period of time.

Within each category, an attempt has been made to organize the suggestions from most easy to accomplish/least resource-intensive to most challenging/resource-intensive. It is important to note that this list of guidelines is suggestive, rather than comprehensive, and the suggestions may not be equally relevant to all IPSPs. 

Main Text

Easy to accomplish

1. Craft and post an equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) statement that addresses accessibility and inclusion.
2. Use inclusive language when preparing manuscripts, peer review or editorial feedback.
3. Raise awareness about accessibility and inclusion for authors, peer reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and employees.
4. Ensure that the publisher/journal website is accessible (e.g. alt-text descriptors for images).
5. Ensure that content is accessible (e.g. alt-text descriptors for images).
6. Provide author guidelines for preparing plain language summaries and/or support services for revising plain language summaries.

Moderate investments for the mid-term

1. Be informed about and ensure compliance with relevant regional or international regulations regarding accessibility. Develop relevant policies to ensure that accessibility requirements are met.
2. Ensure that journal and ebook platforms and content are compatible with assistive technologies (e.g. screen readers). This could include ensuring that font size/colour/style/spacing are adjustable, structuring content with tags, and selecting accessible file formats.
3. Include accessibility-related metadata (e.g. metadata that indicates accessibility modes and features of resources).
4. Provide a means of hosting/posting plain language summaries for research articles on the journal website.

Longer term goals 

1. Offer feedback on plain language summaries (e.g. as part of peer review).
2. Provide training on accessibility and inclusion for employees and editors. Note that some accessibility-related activities require specialised expertise, so hire or train staff appropriately to meet these needs.
3. Conduct regular accessibility audits.
4. Build accessibility into your workflow rather than treating it as an add-on or one-off process.

Related toolsuite articles

• Accessible/inclusive website, content and metadata
   

Related guidelines

• Availability of research protocols, methods and software
   

Related training materials

• Equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging

References

• Rico-Castro, Pilar, Rooryck, Johan, Melinščak Zlodi, Iva, Stojanovski, Jadranka, Ševulšić, Milicia, and Armengou, Clara  (2024) Extensible Quality Standard in Institutional Publishing (EQSIP) V2.0 for Diamond Open Access. 
   

Further reading

• Accessible Books Consortium, What is an accessible product?, Guidelines for Senior Executives and Guidelines for Production and IT
• ACM Journals, How to write alt-text and why
• Advancing Earth and Space Sciences, Plain summaries for AGU Journals
• Ashwell, S.J., Baskin, P.K., Christiansen, S.L., and DiBari, S.J. (2023). Three recommended inclusive language guidelines for scholarly publishing: Words matter. Learned Publishing 36(1): 94-99.
• Bloomsbury, Accessibility statement (Example)
• Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication (C4DISC), Guidelines on inclusive language and images in scholarly communication
• National Disability Authority, Ireland, Ensure compatibility with assistive technologies
• Open Access Journals Toolkit, Article and Journal Metadata
• Oxford Journals, Accessibility statement (Example)
• Publishers Weekly, How Publishers Can get Alt-text Right
• Taylor & Francis Author Services, How to write and publish a plain language summary
• Taylor & Francis Author Services, Why is accessibility important for your research paper?
• Taylor & Francis Journals, A picture is worth a thousand words: The importance of alt-text
• University of Toronto Journal Publishing Guide, Web accessibility
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, Accessibility Fundamentals Overview and Web Accessibility Laws & Policies
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2), W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, W3C Accessibility Standards Overview
   

Licensing

This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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