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Accessibility

Table of Contents

Mission Statement

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, which is committed to ensuring that its Routledge.com website and products are accessible to all users, regardless of their ability or the technology they're using. This includes people with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor impairments.

We are continually working on improving the accessibility and usability of Routledge.com so that it conforms with level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Opens in new tab or window and Section 508 Standards of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act Opens in new tab or window .

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 standards are set by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the Internet. These guidelines are widely accepted as the gold standards for digital accessibility and serve as the basis of most accessibility regulations worldwide.

The Section 508 Standards were established to implement Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, which requires government agencies to provide access to electronic and information technologies for disabled individuals that is comparable to access available to non-disabled individuals.

For a detailed review of how the Routledge.com website supports the WCAG 2.1 and Section 508 criteria, please refer to our Voluntary Product Assessment Template (VPAT) document .

Please note: This Statement was last updated in September 2020, and all information contained within is correct as of that date.

Accessibility Explained

Disabilities can take many forms including visual, motor and cognitive. At Taylor & Francis, we recognize that our accessibility commitment should improve the online experience for all users of our websites and digital products, no matter their form of disability.

Visual - includes blind low vision and colour blind:

To assist visually impaired users,  Taylor & Francis strives to ensure compatibility of the Routledge.com website with popular screen readers. Also, text on Routledge.com can be resized without assistive technology (up to 200%) without loss of content or functionality.

For more information on the available assistive technology for vision impaired users, please refer to the website of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Opens in new tab or window .

Motor includes people who are not able to use a mouse:

To assist users with motor disabilities, the Routledge.com website is navigable via the keyboard, without the need to use the mouse. Pages also include “a go to top” link to make it easier to navigate the page, as well as, skip navigation links where applicable.

Cognitive - includes dyslexia, ADD, and epilepsy:

To assist users with cognitive disabilities, we have enhanced the platform so that all graphical elements have meaningful text equivalents. Pages are descriptively titled, and global navigation links are consistent across pages to make it easy to understand the layout of the platform.

For a more comprehensive list of accessibility enhancements implemented on Routledge.com, please visit the Accessibility features section of this page.

Accessibility Principles

All accessibility enhancements on Routledge.com have been implemented in line with the Four Principles of Accessibility Opens in new tab or window , as published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These principles provide that websites should be:

  1. Perceivable - Users must be able to perceive the information being presented to them by at least one of their senses.
  2. Operable - Users must be able to operate the interface. The interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform.
  3. Understandable - Users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface. The content or operation cannot be beyond the user's understanding.
  4. Robust - Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies. This means that users must be able to access the content as technologies advance.

Accessibility Features

Taylor & Francis is committed to meeting the Four Principles of Accessibility, as set out above. As such, we are working towards making the following changes to all parts of our platform.

Principle 1 - Perceivable

Readability

  • Information on Routledge.com is presented with consideration for readability. Foreground is separated from background with the use of appropriate color and contrast
  • Text and images of text have a contrast ratio of at least 4:5:1.
  • Text can be resized without assistive technology (up to 200%) without loss of content or functionality.

Alternative text for images

  • Most non-text elements are provided with alternative text.
  • Occasionally, when smaller imagery is used for design purposes only, empty alt values are used.

Adaptable content

  • The reading and navigation order are logical and intuitive.
  • Content can be presented without loss of information or functionality, and without requiring scrolling in two dimensions for:
    • Vertical scrolling at a width equivalent to 320 CSS pixels;
    • Horizontal scrolling at a height equivalent to 256 CSS pixels
  • The display is responsive. Content view and operation is not restricted to a single display orientation, such as portrait or landscape.

Principle 2 – Operable

A user can easily use controls, buttons, navigation etc.

Keyboard accessible

  • All platform functionalities are operable through keyboard interface. The user can navigate to and from all navigable page elements using only a keyboard. For example, volume, share button and dropdown can be all operated using tabs.

Page structure

  • Headings hierarchy is correctly used to organize content.
  • Web pages have titles that clearly describe topic or purpose.
  • All labels and fields are clearly defined.
  • The purpose of each link can be determined from the text alone or the link text.
  • Components receive focus in an order that preserves meaning and operability.
  • The navigation order of links, form elements etc is logical and intuitive.

Navigation

  • Consistent, global navigation links are provided.
  • All pages on Routledge.com, not related to a specific marketing campaign, contain a search box.
  • There are multiple ways to navigate Routledge.com e.g. Site Search, Browse by Subject, Featured / Recommended Titles, and through our Main Navigation.
  • There is a mechanism in place to bypass the main navigation.

Avoid flashing and blinking text

  • Web pages do not contain anything that flashes more than three times in any one second, or the flash is below the general flash and red flash threshold.

Principle 3 – Understandable

Technology is consistent in its presentation and format, predictable in its design and usage patterns.

Input assistance

  • Provides text descriptions to identify required fields that were not completed. These suggestions help users to complete required information.

Predictable web pages

  • Web pages are predictable and operate in a consistent way. Repeated components are presented in the same relative order every time they appear.
  • Headings are used correctly to display content.
  • Focus is used appropriately.
  • Navigation is consistent.

Aria Labels

  • Unique and descriptive names have been used for links. ARIA roles and landmarks have been used whenever necessary.

Principle 4 - Robust

I.T. is standards-compliant and designed to function on all appropriate technologies.

Browser support

  • Routledge.com supports all modern browsers and follows the graceful degradation web design strategy for older browsers. This means that all content should be available but newer features may not be fully supported.

Screen readers

  • Routledge.com has been built to modern web standards using valid HTML and CSS.
  • We have used headings properly to help assistive technology users browse the page content.
  • We have improved focus of certain elements and labelling.
  • Routledge.com is compatible with all known major hardware devices and it automatically adapts to different screen sizes depending on the device being used (e.g. mobile, tablet or laptop).
  • In many cases we have increased size of tap targets for mobile users (links and buttons).

Ensuring Accessibility

We use a combination of manual testing and automated tools to test the Routledge.com website for accessibility. Automated tools used include:

No accessibility tool provides a 100% thorough assessment of a website's level of accessibility. Therefore, we also carry out manual reviews of the Routledge.com website. This includes running manual tests of the website using different types of assistive technology.

Based on results from our accessibility reviews, we strive to carry out bi-weekly accessibility enhancements on the website. Validation testing has been performed to ensure all accessibility enhancements are functional.

We continually monitor our practices to ensure that accessibility is embedded at every step of our development process.

eBooks on Routledge.com

We aim to publish all eBooks with searchable, selectable text. All eBooks sold on Routledge.com are currently sold through the VitalSource platform to which its own statement applies:  VitalSource accessibility statement page Opens in new tab or window . For details on alternative format requests, and to download a request form, please visit the Accessibility at Taylor & Francis page Opens in new tab or window .

Help and Support

If you have any accessibility issues in using Routledge.com, or if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions related to accessibility, please contact:  [email protected] .

The information on this page is specific to Routledge.com. If you would like more general information or help with web accessibility we recommend the BBC website My Web, My Way Opens in new tab or window .

AbilityNet - My Computer, My Way Opens in new tab or window provides guidance on how to make your computer more accessible.

Recently Resolved

August 2022

Pages Impacted Issue Description
Request Inspection Copy Pages Introduced inline field validation and made some enhancements to field accessibility, with additional enhancements scheduled to release in early September.

July 2022

Pages Impacted Issue Description
Shopping Cart Checkout Pages Redesigned checkout flow so that there are fewer pages and addressed color contrast issues.
Search Results

Focus returns to the top of the new results after pagination is used.

Additionally, there was popup information being displayed that was causing difficulties with screen readers that was removed.
Pages With Form Validation Inline form validation added to account registration form and to the forms in the checkout flow.

June 2022

Pages Impacted Issue Description
Search Results Page Aria-label attribute added to one of the filter buttons. All results in the default grid view were redesigned so that tabbing through results is much more intuitive. Original prices and sale prices are announced. Popover effects that appears over top of the results were removed.

May 2022

Pages Impacted Issue Description
View Cart Page Addressed color contrast issues.

Feb 2022

Pages Impacted Issue Description
All Pages Tabindex removed from the Skip to Main Content link.
Search Results The pagination bar now correctly identifies the function of each active button and correctly identifies the selected page.

Jan 2022

Pages Impacted Issue Description
Various Pages Author name links are no longer repeated when read by screen readers.
Search Results The selected button for gallery view vs. detail view is now correctly identified.
Search Results Users were previously unable to skip the search results filters, but may now skip to the results list.
Search Bar Search input field ID was corrected and now reads properly.

Known Issues

Pages Impacted Issue Description
Marketing Content Pages Whenever possible, the website programatically includes alt text for imagery, however alt text issues are present on some of our marketing content pages. We continue to educate our team on the importance of using properly coded alt text and will continue to address issues as they are identified.
Various Pages We are currently using a 3rd party popup tool called Hotjar. After testing, it appears that this tool was not designed with accessibility in mind. We are currently searching for a new survey tool that properly meets web accessible guidelines.