Accessibility Statement

Making Scientific Content Online Accessible to All

ScienceDirect features and content have been designed to be universally accessible by users and user agents/devices. We strive to adhere to the Section 508 Guidelines for Web. We also strive to meet the WC3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 1.0.

Our User Centered Design team frequently conducts usability testing of ScienceDirect’s navigation, flow, labels, and consistency. Furthermore, we have conducted user testing of ScienceDirect with blind individuals using JAWS, Windows Eyes, Home Page Reader, and a Braille display.

Some of the accessibility features of our site include:

• Meaningful page titles to help with orientation
• Most images have either a meaningful alt-text (text equivalent) or have alt="" for purely cosmetic images
• Minimal use of frames
• Use of resizable fonts
• It is possible to interact with SD using only the keyboard
• Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to separate content from presentation.
• Notifying a user when a link opens a new window
• The (core) functionalities are usable without JavaScript
• Where color is used to convey meaning, we supplement the meaning in another way, for example subscribed journal icons have alt=”Subscribed”
• E-mail can be sent in HTML and plain text format
• Most content is available in HTML format as well as the PDF format

We suggest disabling the Acrobat Reader option of opening PDFs within the browser window. This will help users of JAWS maintain the ability to use the browser back and forward button commands.

The Adobe Accessibility Site is a resource for working with PDFs and accessibility issues. The Adobe Site offers a service to converting PDF files into ASCII and HTML. Also, you may download the latest version of Acrobat Reader which includes features that enhance the accessibility of PDF files.

The ScienceDirect Interactive (Flash) Tutorials are available in a text version and available to users without Javascript. There is a "white" link at the bottom of the tutorial page for the assistance devices for textual version of the tutorial. This link is not viewable by the eye, but the assistive technology devices can read (or detect) it and access the text file.

Please send us any feedback or questions on the accessibility of ScienceDirect with the feedback form.