Accessibility Compliance Audit

Overview

Accessibility requirements are now written into university policy, public-sector law in many countries, and funder expectations. Most journal sites have never been tested, and most PDFs would not pass. The Accessibility Compliance Audit tells you, in plain terms, what fails, how serious it is, and what to fix first.

This is for journals on Open Journal Systems (OJS), the free, open-source software from PKP, and on other platforms, and for institutions that need documented evidence of accessibility work.

What’s Included

• Website audit — automated and manual testing of the journal site against WCAG 2.2 at level AA: navigation, forms, color contrast, keyboard access, screen-reader behavior, headings and landmarks, media and the submission workflow pages authors and reviewers use
• Article output audit — a sample of published PDFs and HTML articles checked for tagging, reading order, alternative text, language, tables, figures and equations
• Findings report — each issue documented with location, WCAG criterion, severity and a screenshot or example
• Remediation plan — prioritized actions split between theme fixes, content practices and production changes, with effort estimates
• Accessibility statement — draft text for your website reflecting the current state and planned improvements
• Review call — walk-through of findings with your team

How It Works

1. We agree the scope: which site, which pages, how many article files to sample.
2. We run automated scans and manual testing with assistive technology.
3. We deliver the findings report, remediation plan and draft statement.
4. Review call and handover. Pricing is a fixed fee per journal site, plus an add-on per batch of article files sampled.

Important Limitations

• Audit, not remediation — this service identifies and prioritizes issues. Fixing theme code is available under managed hosting or as a quoted project; making article files accessible is covered by our accessible typesetting service.
• Sampling — article files are audited as a sample. A full-archive remediation is a separate project.
• No certification — we assess against WCAG criteria and report findings; we do not issue a legal certification of conformance.

Common Questions

Can OJS be made accessible?
The current default OJS themes are built with accessibility in mind. Most failures come from custom themes, uploaded content and PDFs, which is what the audit will show.

Which standard do you test against?
WCAG 2.2 level AA, which underpins most national regulations and institutional policies. We can map findings to a specific regulation on request.

How often should we repeat the audit?
After any major theme change or platform upgrade, and periodically as part of normal governance.

Request a proposal, or begin with the Journal Health Check.