Accessibility statement ScienceDirect
Last updated on January 30, 2024We demonstrate our commitment to web accessibility by enabling access and optimizing the experience for individuals with disabilities and impairments, including auditory, cognitive, physical, speech, and visual disabilities.
ScienceDirect aspires to meet all guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 and the U.S. Section 508 Standards of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, as well as similar standards enacted by countries around the globe.
For a detailed review of how ScienceDirect supports each of the WCAG 2.1 and Section 508 criteria, please refer to our Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) document. This accessibility conformance report was last updated in November 2023. To see the latest improvements, please refer to our list of recent accessibility updates.
Accessibility support and feedback
- To report any accessibility issue or for accessibility support, please contact accessibility@elsevier.com.
- 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. Most requests are fulfilled same day.
- For general Customer Service support for ScienceDirect, please complete the HTML Contact us form.
Summary of ScienceDirect Accessibility Features
| Feature | Blindness / Screenreader | Low vision | Hearing impaired | Mobility / Keyboard-only | Cognitive (Dyslexia, Non-native English) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controls and features are operable using keyboard only | yes | n/a | n/a | yes | n/a |
| Pages include a visible Skip Navigation link to skip repetitive elements | yes | n/a | yes | yes | n/a |
| Pages are responsive, and content reflows well up to 400% zoom | n/a | yes | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Users can jump directly to a main section in a journal article or book using the outline panel to the left of the article and book chapter pages | yes | yes | n/a | yes | yes |
| Content is available in HTML and PDF which can be read using assistive technology such as JAWS screen reader | yes | yes | n/a | n/a | yes |
| Math equations are available in MathML | yes | yes | n/a | n/a | yes |
| Pages employ ARIA (Accessibility for Rich Internet Applications) to enhance navigation, orientation and labelling for users of screen readers and other assistive technology | yes | yes | n/a | n/a | yes |
| All graphical elements and color-coded items have meaningful text equivalents | yes | yes | n/a | n/a | yes |
| Forms are marked using labels that are read correctly by screen readers and allow for easier manual selection | yes | yes | n/a | yes | yes |
| Error messages are clearly identified using headings and iconography | yes | yes | n/a | n/a | yes |
| Pages are uniquely and descriptively titled | yes | n/a | n/a | n/a | yes |
| Global navigation links are consistent across pages and enable users to quickly and easily understand the layout of the site | yes | yes | n/a | n/a | yes |
| Tutorials are available in HTML text in addition to captioned videos | yes | yes | yes | n/a | yes |
| Journal articles include Highlights which summarize main points | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | yes |
| Closed Captions (pilot) in video journal ScienceTalks | n/a | n/a | yes | n/a | yes |
| Accessibility Customer Support is available by an accessible web form or through direct email: accessibility@elsevier.com | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Reading options
Most content on ScienceDirect is available in both HTML and PDF format. We recommend our HTML format as the most accessible version.
| Available formats | How to access on ScienceDirect | How to open | Accessibility considerations | DRM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HTML | Displayed on the article / chapter page where available. From a search result, select an article title or book chapter title to be taken to the HTML version of the content. Full text HTML may not be available in some cases, e.g. for older content, retracted articles or some articles in pre-publication stage. The abstract and references will often still be available in HTML. | Can be accessed using your web browser. | The HTML format for journal articles and book chapters is the most compatible with screen readers such as JAWS and VoiceOver. Example HTML article view. | DRM Free |
| Select 'View PDF' if available. This will open the PDF version of the article or chapter in your default PDF reader. | Use the PDF viewer in your browser, or an external one such as Adobe Reader | PDFs are not currently tagged. To maximize screen reader compatibility, use the Add Tags to Document feature in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Contact accessibility@elsevier.com for support. We suggest disabling the Acrobat Reader option for opening PDFs within the browser window. This will ensure assistive technology works well with PDFs in the native Acrobat Reader. Use Adobe Acrobat Reader’s “Read out loud” option for text-to-speech. | DRM Free |
Image descriptions
- User interface images have alternative text descriptions to convey the meaning of an image to screen readers.
- Inline content figures are accompanied by a text caption and in some cases meaningful descriptive text in the adjacent body text.
Clear Navigation
- Pages are well structured using headings, landmarks and lists which allow users of assistive technology to easily jump around pages.
- Global navigation links are consistent across pages and enable users to quickly and easily understand the layout of the site.
- Links are named appropriately and include meaningful information about the purpose of the link.
- Pages have unique and descriptive page titles which help with orientation, tabbed browsing and bookmarking.
- Readers can skip between sections on all views, using the outline on the HTML page or the Enhanced Reader view or using the table of contents on the PDF.
Keyboard friendly
- Pages provide logical tab order.
- Pages include a visible skip navigation link to skip repetitive elements.
- Interactive elements provide an obvious visible focus state.
- Keyboard-only users can jump directly to a main section in a journal article or book by using the left-side table of contents.
- Controls and features are operable using keyboard only.
- When opening dialog windows and panes, the system places the focus in logical places.
Flexible display
- Magnification: The Enhanced Reader view also offers options to adjust text size (+ and – buttons). Users can also enlarge pages and text with either browser controls or screen magnification software such as GW Micro’s Windows-Eyes, or ZoomText.
- Reflow: Content can be viewed in either HTML or PDF. The PDF does not reflow but the HTML version does. Content can be zoomed up to 400% with reflow and without causing horizontal scrolling.
- 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.
Colors and Contrast
- Text and link color contrast ratio with background is at least 4.5:1 (e.g. dark grey text on white background, and blue links on white background).
- Link text has at least 3:1 contrast with surrounding text (e.g. blue links against surrounding dark grey text).
- Links are identified using color but also use an obvious visual hover and focus state – a color change and either a border or underline.
- Error messages utilize an icon in addition to red color and an alert role to denote the error state.
- Disabled links are shown in gray but also coded with aria-disabled or disabled.
- The best way to adjust color contrast on ScienceDirect is to utilize the accessibility settings in your operating system (e.g. Windows high contrast mode, macOS Dark mode, iOS Dark Mode, Android dark theme) with the benefit that it will therefore apply to all websites you access.
Screen Reader Friendly
- HTML journal articles and book chapters are compatible with screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA and Apple’s VoiceOver.
- Math content is displayed in MathML, which can be spoken by text-to-speech engines, magnified, converted to Braille, and pasted into math equation editors or Microsoft Office documents.
- Article and chapter experimental data are presented in HTML tables with appropriate header markup.
- Pages employ ARIA (Accessibility for Rich Internet Applications) to enhance navigation, orientation and labeling for users of screen readers and other assistive technology.
- PDFs with searchable text are available.
Copying & Printing
- There are some limits on the amount of Elsevier content that can be copied or printed. Please refer to our Terms & Conditions.
- If copying/printing/re-use of the content is not permitted under our Terms & Conditions you may request permission using the Copyright Clearance Center's Rightslink® service or by contacting Elsevier's Global Rights Department at Permissions@elsevier.com.
- Elsevier also supports responsible sharing.
Other accessibility initiatives
- Read more about Elsevier’s Accessibility Policy
- Read more about RELX Group’s Accessibility Policy
- In 2010, Elsevier was awarded the first ever Jisc TechDis award to highlight publishers that improve their business processes to make resources more accessible to people with disabilities
- In 2016, Elsevier was awarded the Accessible Books Consortium Award for Accessible Publishing.
- Elsevier shared the story of best practices in a journal special issue of Learned Publishing: The ScienceDirect accessibility journey: A case study.
- ScienceDirect collaborated with the Big 10 Academic Library Alliance on the Library E-Resource testing.
- ScienceDirect won a bronze Aspire badge in January 2019 for providing a clear and detailed accessibility page with information on e-book features and support.
- ScienceDirect has been awarded as Top 1% most accessible sites on the internet in the 2023 WebAIM Million accessibility report