Accessibility

What has been done

The pages of the Society, the journal and the Press are built to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.2, at level AA. In practice this means that every page can be used with a keyboard alone, and shows plainly where the keyboard’s focus lies; that a link at the head of each page skips directly to its content; that headings are in order and regions are labelled for screen readers; that text meets the required contrast against its ground; that the layout adapts to a narrow screen and to enlarged text without loss; and that motion is reduced for those who ask their device to reduce it.

In November 2026 pages of every kind (the home page, the journal and its articles, the catalogue and the pages of its books, the till, the collections, the fellowship pages and each part of the members’ area) were examined with an automated checker, axe-core version 4.14, at the width of a desk and at the width of a telephone. It reported no failure of the Guidelines at levels A and AA. An automated check finds only a part of what can go wrong, and the pages have not yet been tried by people who rely on a screen reader; the Society would be glad to hear from any who do.

Where the site falls short

Collections served by others. The Human Pathology Bank, the Mortality Web, Cellular Evolution and the Ophthalmology Portal were built separately and are displayed here as they stand. They may not meet the standard above.

Articles and reviews. These are published as PDF files, some of which were not prepared with assistive technology in mind. An abstract of every article is given as an ordinary page.

The Murmuration Studio. It is by its nature an instrument of sound and moving pattern. Its controls are labelled and can be worked from the keyboard, but what it shows cannot be conveyed in another form.

The members’ area. It predates the present design, as does the guide to ADHD. Both pass the automated check described above, but their many controls have not been tried one by one with a screen reader.

Reporting a difficulty

If you cannot use some part of this site, or need a document in another form, write to richard@scottishsciencesociety.org. Say what you were trying to do and what happened, and the Society will do what it can to help, and to mend the fault.