Accessibility

Accessibility on TheLancet.com

We demonstrate our commitment to accessibility by enabling access and optimising the experience for individuals with disabilities and impairments, including auditory, cognitive, physical, speech and visual disabilities. The Lancet journals aspire to meet all guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and the U.S. Section 508 Standards of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, as well as similar standards enacted by countries around the globe.

Accessibility and Usability Features

We regularly test our product with people who use assistive technology such as screen readers. We also continuously test our product against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines using a variety of checker tools and disability simulations. Features that benefit all of our users include full-text searching, bookmark-friendly links to journal articles, and a flexible and consistent user interface design. We provide content in a number of different formats, including HTML and PDF.

Screen Reader Friendly

  • HTML journal articles are compatible with screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA and Apple’s VoiceOver.
  • Pages are well structured using headings, landmarks and lists which allow users of assistive technology to easily jump around pages.
  • Pages employ ARIA (Accessibility for Rich Internet Applications) to enhance navigation, orientation and labeling for users of screen readers and other assistive technology.
  • Images have alternative text descriptions to convey the meaning of an image to screen readers.
  • PDFs with searchable text are available.

Keyboard Friendly

  • Pages include a visible skip navigation link to skip repetitive elements.
  • Keyboard-only users can jump directly to a main section in a journal article by using the Jump to Section feature.
  • Controls and features are operable using keyboard only.
  • Pages provide logical tab order.
  • When opening dialog windows and panes, the system places the cursor in logical places.

Flexible Display

  • Pages use separate cascading style sheets (CSS), allowing users to more easily customize the display and contrast.
  • Pages are usable when style sheets are disabled.
  • Users can enlarge pages and text with either browser controls or screen magnification software such as GW Micro’s Windows-Eyes or AI Squared’s ZoomText.
  • Figures and images can be viewed as high resolution images.
  • All figures in an article may be downloaded to power point with caption text in case accommodations are needed.
  • Article content can be viewed in either HTML or PDF.

Clear Navigation

  • Links are named appropriately and include necessary information about the link.
  • Global navigation links are consistent across pages and enable users to quickly and easily understand the layout of the site.
  • Pages have unique and descriptive page titles which help with orientation, tabbed browsing and bookmarking.

Summary of The Lancet.com’s Accessibility Features

Feature Blindness/Screen Reader Low Vision Hearing Impaired Mobility/Keyboard- Only Cognitive (Dyslexia, Non-native English)
Controls and features are operable using keyboard only Yes     Yes  
Pages include a visible Skip Navigation link to skip repetitive elements Yes     Yes  
Users can jump directly to a main section in a journal article using Jump to Section Yes Yes   Yes Yes
Content is available in HTML that can be resized or read using assistive technology such as JAWS screen reader Yes Yes     Yes
Pages employ ARIA (Accessibility for Rich Internet Applications) to enhance navigation, orientation and labeling for users of screen readers and other assistive technology Yes Yes     Yes
Graphical elements and color-coded items have meaningful text equivalents Yes Yes     Yes
Forms are marked using labels that are read correctly by screen readers and allow for easier manual selection Yes Yes   Yes Yes
Error messages are clearly identified and summarized using headings, iconography, and links to incorrect fields Yes Yes     Yes
Pages are uniquely and descriptively titled Yes       Yes
Global navigation links are consistent across pages and enable users to quickly and easily understand the layout of the site Yes Yes     Yes
Accessibility Customer Support is available by an accessible web form or through direct email: [email protected] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Tips for Users of Assistive Technology

We suggest disabling the Acrobat Reader option for opening PDFs within the browser window. This disablement will help users 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 for 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 HTML format for journal articles is the most compatible with screen readers such as JAWS and VoiceOver. From a search result, select an article title to be taken to the HTML version of the content.

The Lancet’s Accessibility & Usability Collaboration

Since 2011, Elsevier has led an accessibility and usability collaboration with several university leaders in assistive technology and web accessibility. Our collaboration group meets twice a month to apply accessibility best practices to our onsite features to improve the overall usability and accessibility for all users, regardless of disability. Seven universities currently participate: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of California, Berkeley; University of Texas; San Francisco State University; Indiana University; and Michigan State University. The results of the working group and the lessons learned have been featured at CSUN, the International Conference on Assistive Technology and Persons with Disabilities. Please contact [email protected] to join the accessibility collaboration.

Elsevier Accessibility

Support

  • To report an accessibility issue on TheLancet.com please contact [email protected].
  • If you require electronic files for a student or staff member with a disability, you may use the AccessText Network or the Elsevier Disability Request Form to request a file.
  • For general Customer Service support for a Lancet journal, please email [email protected].