Accessibility

Our Commitment to Accessibility

Oxford University Press continuously strives to make its products accessible to, and inclusive of, all our users, including those with visual, hearing, cognitive, or motor impairments.

To support these goals, we follow the general principles of web usability and universal design and, where feasible, endeavour to make the Oxford Learning Link platform accessible to all regardless of physical or cognitive impairment or the device used.

Note: For many OUP titles, Oxford Learning Link content is available via the Oxford Learning Link platform, and via links embedded in individual instructors’ courses within their institution’s LMS/VLE. In the latter case, the overall site interface (site navigation, header links, footer links, etc.) are not displayed to the user, and so any notes below regarding those elements do not apply.

User Experience and Accessibility

Information for users with vision impairments

• All content and interactive elements on the page are usable with the majority of screen-readers
• Forms and inputs have been labelled so that their purpose is communicated via a screen-reader
• All pages have skip navigation links so that repeated navigation elements can be bypassed
• New features are tested against the NVDA screen-reader and the Google Chrome screen-reader during development
• Images within digital content have alternative text provided
• Most punctuation, special characters, and emojis can be read by screen-readers (e.g., JAWS, NVDA). You can use settings within your chosen software to control the level of reading and how certain characters are read by the screen-reader
• Note that many platforms also provide a “read aloud” feature to recite screen content but these are primarily intended for sight-enabled users and may not replicate the robust features of screen-readers, such as the presentation of alt-text for images
• All non-third party videos have descriptive text provided
• All page elements (excluding interactive content) have been designed so that brightness contrast levels comply with the  WCAG AA standard of 4.5:1 between foreground and background colors
• The majority of pages can be magnified up to 400% and most of page content will reflow so that all content is presented on the page without the need for horizontal scrolling. Some customized content will necessitate horizontal scrolling before magnifying
• There may be browser features or extensions that will support your individual needs, such as changing text size and color, or system settings or applications that can override colors on this site
• Adjusting monitor settings to change brightness, contrast or color settings, or using physical colored monitor overlays may also provide extra support when using this site
• Further tips and guidance for making adjustments to your computer, laptop, tablet or smart phone to make it easier to use can be found on the GCF Global resource (NA) and the AbilityNet My Computer My Way  resource (UK)

Information for keyboard-only users

• All elements of this site should be reachable and usable with a keyboard
• Elements that can be used with a keyboard should display a visible focus outline when the element has been reached by the keyboard. The site will display the default outline style as determined by your browser. For Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, this is currently a red dashed outline
• Dropdowns and expandable menus can be opened by pressing the Enter key. Items within the menu can then be navigated using the Tab key. Checkboxes can be checked or unchecked using the space bar
• Skip navigation links are present on every page to avoid having to tab through repeated page elements each time the page loads

Information for users with hearing impairments

• Closed captions and transcripts are available for all pre-recorded multimedia files and can be found in the media player frame by clicking on the ‘Captions’ and ‘Show Transcript’ buttons respectively.
• Some users of the platform may benefit from listening to text. The platform itself does not currently include an embedded text-to-speech tool. However, text-to-speech compatibility is:

  -- built into the Edge browser and available as plug-ins for Chrome and Firefox browsers.

  -- built into most modern digital devices such as PCs, Macs, tablets and smart phones e.g. the VoiceOver screen-reader, integrated into the Mac OS X operating system.

Servicing Other Accessibility Needs

• While our standard e-book and online materials fully meet the accessibility needs of most institutions, we also recognize that accommodations still play an important role in fulfilling a school’s legal obligation to provide accessible content.
• Alternative formats are available for specific use-cases where our standardized products are not suitable. We do not produce Braille or large print, but we can provide Word or PDF versions of a text so that an institution can produce a version for these use-cases.
• To make a special request for accessible materials, please send an email to our Customer Service team and provide details about your situation. Making this request require the user to complete a non-disclosure form to protect our copyrighted content from unauthorized reproduction or distribution.
• Once received, opening any of our PDF file will require a PDF viewer such as  Adobe Reader. Adobe Reader is highly configurable for visually impaired and motion-impaired users. For guidance, please see this document:  Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features.
• We are working on the accessibility of the PDF files themselves. Currently our PDFs are not tagged, and embedded images do not have alternative text, although the image caption is provided adjacent to the image and can be read by a screen-reader.
• OUP works in collaboration with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) – one of the UK’s leading sight loss charities and the largest community of blind and partially sighted people – to provide access to OUP’s academic books.  Through an agreement with RNIB Bookshare, users needing accessible and adaptive file types can access all of OUP’s frontlist collections. To obtain an accessible version of a book please visit  the RNIB Bookshare site . Customers outside of the UK should continue to contact OUP Customer Services.

Navigation Features

The site can be navigated with both a mouse and a keyboard. Please see below for some specific guidance on navigating the site:

Skip Links

Each page contains a skip link that will jump you to the main content on the page, bypassing the site toolbars which appear on every page. The skip link is the first link on every page and reads ‘Skip to main content’. The link appears as soon as you use the tab key to tab into the page. The skip links will take you to different locations depending on the page, but in the majority of cases the links will jump to the first link in the page’s left-hand column:

• Oxford Learning Link Homepage -> link to Carousel
• Search results page -> body section
• Product title homepage -> body section
• Student and instructor/lecturer resources homepage -> body section

Menus

There are several dropdown menus across the site. Dropdowns in the navigation bars will open on mouse-click or by pressing the Enter key on a keyboard when the menu receives focus. All dropdown menus are usable with a keyboard by tabbing to the menu and then pressing the Enter/Return key to open the menu. The items within each menu can be reached by pressing the Tab key, and the menus can be closed again by pressing Shift+Tabbing back to the menu link and pressing the Enter/Return key, or by opening another menu, or by clicking outside of the menu with a mouse.

Pop-Ups

Several site features such as country selection, purchasing options, alerts, and most content type instructions are contained within pop-ups. Pop-ups appear on-screen once their link has been activated with a mouse or keyboard. When the pop-up opens the background fades to a dark grey. When a keyboard is used to open a pop-up, the focus will be pulled into the pop-up and remain within the pop-up until the user tabs to the ‘Close’ icon. When the pop-up closes the focus returns to the original link that opened the pop-up.

Links

All links within the site are reachable and usable with a mouse and keyboard. When a link receives focus it will show as a dashed outline in Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox. Links can be activated with a keyboard by using the Tab key to reach the link, then pressing the Enter/Return key.

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Content on Oxford Learning Link that isn’t open access (OA) or available freely for promotional or other reasons for a limited time is only available to authenticated users and is thus subject to digital rights management.

A content item’s availability status is indicated using one of two icons: Available and Available for Purchase.

How Accessible is Oxford Learning Link ?

We are currently targeting adherence to level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1), in order to help our users take full advantage of the accessibility features provided by their chosen device, web browser or operating system.

However, we do recognise that some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• some legacy content was created before accessibility guidelines were well known; therefore they are not fully accessible. Where possible, we have supplied an accessible HTML alternative.
• some tables and diagrams contained within HTML format content are presented as images.
• some images within HTML content do not include alt-text but most include adjacent descriptions.
• third party software is used to enhance the user experience. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that any third party we work with provide accessible software, we cannot guarantee full AA compliance. For example: YouTube, Spotify, MolView, Interactive Timelines.
• In some cases, material may be inherently not accessible. This is particularly the case with highly visual or interactive activities. In these cases, we endeavour to provide alt-text-based accessible versions that convey the content of the activity.

Browser and mobile device support

Oxford Learning Link is optimised for modern browsers including Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox. The site is responsive, meaning that the content reflows depending on the screen size and orientation of the device being used. If you find any issues with accessing the content in any format or an any device, please get in touch via he.accessibility@oup.com and we will address the issue.

How we assess this website and its content

Oxford University Press commissions an independent assessment of Oxford Learning Link every year, to help us better understand how we can improve accessibility and the overall user experience. The output of that assessment is an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), published in the form of the International version of Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT). The VPAT is a self-assessment document which discloses how accessible Information and Communication Technology products are in accordance with global standards. The VPAT disclosure templates do not guarantee product accessibility but provide transparency around the product(s) and enables direction when accessing accessibility requirements.

The VPAT provides details each aspect of the standards, and how the product supports each criterion - WCAG 2.1, Revised Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act, and EN 301 549 (EU) Please download our latest VPAT below. As we develop and improve our accessibility offering, we will update the link accordingly.

Download the 2024 version of the VPAT

Our Program of Continuous Improvement

Accessibility is central to our design and development efforts. To continuously improve the accessibility of our products, we work with our internal product teams, engage with external experts, and solicit user feedback according to a strategy for digital accessibility. Every time we consider a new feature or functionality, or a change to an existing feature, we ensure that the feature is fully accessible for all users. The utilisation of the axe-dev tool is testament to our commitment to an inclusive development approach that prioritises accessibility. We also work closely with our external development partners to ensure that they are fully invested in our commitment to accessibility for all.

As per our digital accessibility strategy, we have a program of continuous improvement to deliver improved compliance over the coming months. Since commencing this program, here are several measures we have taken with generally with our processes and practices, and specifically with site elements:

• In 2019-20, we began proactively adding accessible content to all our digital products. During that changeover period, we provided remedial help for customers on legacy products until such a time as they could be revised with accessible features.
• Content teams start conversations with authors early in the writing process so that art is rendered with accessibility in mind. Content teams (in consultation with Design) check figures prior to handover to production to ensure that they meet accessibility requirements. We’ve provided detailed guidelines for authors and specifications for our suppliers for rendering accessible art.
• We require our suppliers to create alt-text in compliance with Level AA for all images, illustrations, tables, and any other visual material that appears in our e-books that isn’t captured as text. Production teams ensure that alt-text requirements are communicated to the suppliers and that alt-text is delivered with every e-book.
• We complete a periodic review of alt-text content created by our suppliers to ensure that it is of high quality and complies with OUP standards. We modify and share out alt-text guidelines when we need to see improvement from our suppliers.
• We have developed many techniques to align with WCAG 2.2 Level AA to comply with needs for assessment, media, and other interactive features that appear in our latest Oxford Learning link and Oxford Insight titles.

Screen-reader use

• Updated the buttons and controls within site pages and content types to ensure they have appropriate screen-reader labels
• Reviewed images and icons within content types, adding alt-text where necessary
• Added screen-reader text to multiple site pop-ups/dialogs so that they are announced when opened

General use

• Added support for zoom up to 400% without overlap across many site pages and content types
• Adjusted the text color on multiple site pages and content types to ensure they meet WCAG 2.1 color contrast requirements
• Reviewed and adjusted heading structure of site pages to provide a proper hierarchy of page content

Our commitment to providing accessible and inclusive content is an ongoing activity. If you have any comments or insights on accessibility that you would like to share with us to help us in this mission, please contact  he.accessibility@oup.com