Accessibility

Our commitment to accessibility

At Oxford University Press, we always seek to make our 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 our platforms and services 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.) is not displayed to the user, and so any notes below regarding those elements do not apply.

We will continue to update this page with details of further improvements as they are added to the site.

Information for users

The following functionality has been included for accessibility.

Information for blind users

• All content and interactive elements on the page are usable with 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

Information for partially-sighted and low-vision users

• 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
• 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
• 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)
• 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

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

Text-to-speech compatibility

• 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.

Continuous improvements

We do recognise that some parts of this website may not be accessible to all users:

• 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.
• some material is 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.

We will continue to update this page with details of further improvements as they are added to the site.

Guidance on navigating the site

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.

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 2.2 (WCAG 2.2), to help our users take full advantage of the accessibility features provided by their chosen device, web browser or operating system or assistive technology.

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 with our Accessibility Team and we will address the issue.

How we test 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 2.2, 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 provide updated VPATs on this page.

Download the 2025 version of the VPAT

Recent improvements

Much of Oxford Learning Link is already accessible in accordance with WCAG 2.2 AA. We continue to make ongoing improvements, however, and to accomplish these we have a committed investment and development programme to deliver improved accessibility compliance over the coming months and beyond.

Since commencing this programme, these are the areas we have improved:

Screen-reader use

• Improved screen reader announcement of forms across the site, including login and register pages
• Updated the buttons and controls within site pages and content types to ensure they have appropriate screen-reader labels
• Improved screen reader performance on mobile devices across OLL pages and content types
• Added screen-reader text to multiple site pop-ups/dialogs so that they are announced when opened

Keyboard use

• Added consistent display of accessibility and keyboard instructions across content types
• Fixes to keyboard focus order on multiple OLL pages and content types
• Improved keyboard focus behaviour when interacting with modals and popups across the site

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 images and icons within content types, adding alt-text where necessary
• Reviewed and adjusted heading structure of site pages to provide a proper hierarchy of page content

Forthcoming improvements

Our goal is to bring our platform and content into full conformance with WCAG 2.2 AA by April 1, 2026. Planned development will improve the following areas:

• Revamping purchase journey screens to improve accessibility and deliver a more intuitive user experience.
• Addressing Android TalkBack compatibility issues to enhance usability for screen reader users.
• Improving accessibility of image-based content types by ensuring better support for assistive technologies.

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 status icons – Available and Available for Purchase. The meaning of the icons is viewable on hover-over and is read by screen-readers.

How to request accessible copies of our publications

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 titles.  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, UK customers should visit  https://www.rnibbookshare.org/cms. Customers outside of the UK should contact accessibility.resources@oup.com.

To make a request for other accessible materials, please complete this non-disclosure agreement and provide details about your situation and proof of access. This protects our copyrighted content from unauthorized reproduction or distribution.

Feedback and contact information

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 our Accessibility Team.