Accessibility statement

We aim to ensure that accessibility is at the core of our platform development.

We endeavor that all features and functionality on the degruyter.com platform are developed in line with WCAG 2.1 guidelines. Automated and manual testing is conducted to ensure new features and functionality conform to accessibility guidelines.

We aim to be open and transparent about what is not working well on our platform. Our aim is to resolve known issues as quickly as possible.

A full accessibility audit of the degruyter.com platform is conducted periodically to ensure it conforms to the current international accessibility guidelines. Any issues discovered are assessed and prioritized accordingly in our development roadmap.

Feedback is welcomed from users to notify us of any accessibility bugs they find. Your feedback helps us to improve degruyter.com. Please see below for contact options.

For a detailed review of how degruyter.com supports the WCAG 2.1 and Section 508 criteria, please refer to our Accessibility Conformance Report (based on VPAT v2.4).

Please note: this statement was last updated in October 2021, and all information contained within is correct as of that date.

We are currently working on getting an updated VPAT showing the current status of the website.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and our content. You should be able to:

• Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen

• Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard

• Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software

• Listen to most of the website using a screen reader

The website is accessible for:

• Usage with limited or no vision or perception of colour

• Usage with limited or no hearing, and with no or limited vocal capability

• Usage with limited reach

Recommended Browser
Google Chrome

Evaluation methods used for accessibility testing

• The website was tested with assistive technologies (including screen reader, screen magnification, contrast switching, keyboard, speech recognition)

• Testing with automated accessibility tools, such as:

  • Accessibility Insights for Web

  • Lighthouse Automation Tool

  • ClaroRead Screen Reader

Keyboard navigation
The TAB key can be used to navigate through links within the site menu and the main text of each page. Once a link has been highlighted, use the ENTER key to activate the link.

Headers
Our content pages use structured headers to aid legibility of the text. The first header on the page is the main content header followed by any appropriate sub-headers.

Changing the text size
Most browsers will allow you to change the font size. This will be reflected on the site.

Alternative content
For visitors using screen reader or speech browser software, we've provided sensible alternative text for most of the images where this alternative text will aid your understanding of the web page.

Tables
We are using tables for the display of tabular data. For users of screen readers and speech browsers, we associate headers with their respective rows and columns to aid legibility.

Magnification and Reflow
Text can be resized without assistive technology up to 300 percent without loss of content or functionality.

Copy and Printing
All content on degruyter.com is DRM-free. Printing or copying text through browser functionality is possible. Please keep in mind that copyright conditions apply and can be found in our Terms and Conditions. For details on permitted uses of the content, please contact our Rights Team at: [email protected].

PDF files
To open PDF files, you need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader. Adobe provides advice on Adobe Reader’s accessibility features.

degruyter.com is both an information source for anyone wanting to find information about the services of the publisher De Gruyter, and also the publishing platform for all electronic content published by De Gruyter and our partner publishers including a webshop.

As such, degruyter.com hosts content from journals, books and online databases.

Journals

Most journal content is offered in HTML and PDF format. Journal content from before 2012 and also content from some current journals is only available in PDF format. All PDFs can be downloaded by the user and viewed in a PDF viewer.

Most tables in HTML articles are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Some older content may not have alternative text for images.

PDF standards have changed over the years and especially the PDFs for older content may not be accessible with screen readers or other assistive technologies.

Books

Book content is offered with HTML for metadata and PDF for the content itself. For all books, it is possible to download each chapter as a PDF. Many of the books additionally have a download option for the PDF of the complete book. Many books published after 2015 are also available in EPUB format. All PDF and EPUB files are downloadable from the site.

PDF standards have changed over the years and especially the PDFs for older content may not be accessible with screen readers or other assistive technologies.

EPUB allows content to be enhanced for users with specific accessibility needs (e.g. dyslexia) or preferred reading modality (e.g. audio, tactile). EPUB offers further features such as e-sizeable fonts, changeable text and background colours, page bookmarking as well as passage highlighting and notes.

Databases

Most database content is offered in HTML. Some database products, which are based on print products, additionally have a PDF download option for the original text.

All tables are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. All images/figures all have meaningful alternative text.

European Accessibility Act

De Gruyter has formed an internal working group with the aim to make all newly published content compliant with the European Accessibility Act which comes into effect in the summer of 2025. The working group has reviewed the guidelines and have defined the way forward to make them applicable to all content published in PDF format. Things like title and language tagging, alternative text for visual elements, semantic enrichment of structural elements, division of content, structure and style and additional metadata are part of the enhancements which will be taken forward.

Recent corrections to degruyter.com

• We fixed some issues in the mobile website where links and buttons did not have a discernible name.
• We fixed an issue where the "skip to content" button on the corporate content pages did not work.
• We reviewed and corrected the color contrasts for various parts of the page.
• We changed the focus outline for the Cookie banner page, so that it can be more quickly addressed when tabbing through the site.
• We updated the colour contrast in links on texts in product pages and generally updated the focus outlines. (July 2024)
• We added a "skip" option to the search facets on search result pages, and made tabbing through the results easier. (July 2024)

Further known issues

• We are aware that H2 headings are missing from the homepage of degruyter.com. This is due to the structure of the page, and we are working on a solution which is due end of Q4/2024.
• We are aware of issues on our so-called "corporate content" pages which explain the services of De Gruyter to various user groups. Here the usage of tab keys to go through the site may not always open the respective sections, and the open/close icons may appear to the screen reader as "closed" even though the section may be expanded. This is currently being addressed and we hope to have a solution in early Q3/2024.

Should you experience any difficulty in accessing degruyter.com, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our support team. We aim to respond within 3 business days.

• Email us at [email protected]

• Call us on +49 (0)30 26005-102

• More contact details can be found on our Customer Service contact page

This statement was last reviewed and updated on July 31, 2024