The ScienceDirect accessibility journey: A case study

Abstract

Key points Policy, top–down support, educational working groups, customer data, and a central accessibility team have helped mature web accessibility at Elsevier ScienceDirect. Collaboration groups are essential for gathering feedback from users with disabilities and experts in the field. Many of the lessons learned from the first accessibility user study in 2001 are still relevant today. Alt text for figures is a challenge for publishers, and using authors or machine learning to provide text descriptions may be a solution. Accessibility is not an achievement to be won and done but a culture paradigm that integrates inclusive design into the very early phases of a product.