Scholarly is committed to building a platform that is usable by everyone, including people with disabilities.
Our accessibility program is anchored in internationally‑recognized standards and validated through a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) assessment.
Standards we follow
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 & 2.1 – Levels A and AA
Scholarly conforms to all Level A and Level AA success criteria for both WCAG 2.0 and the newer WCAG 2.1 standard.
Revised Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act (January 2018)
Our conformance report maps WCAG success criteria to the Section 508 technical and functional requirements.
How we test
Our team combines manual inspection, assistive‑technology testing, and automated CI checks to verify accessibility in every release.
Key tools: Apple VoiceOver, axe‑core, and design‑system linting.
PDFs generated by Scholarly are audited with Adobe Acrobat and exported with the PDF/UA‑1 profile.
Conformance snapshot
Topic | Status | Details |
Images & non‑text content | Supports | All images include descriptive alt text |
Keyboard navigation | Supports | No keyboard traps; every function is keyboard‑accessible |
Skip navigation | Supports | “Skip to nav” and “Skip to main” links provided on every page |
Color & contrast | Partially supports | Meets minimum contrast in most components; additional checks in progress |
Focus visibility | Supports | Visible focus styles on all interactive elements |
Responsive / reflow | Supports | Layout reflows down to 320 px without loss of content or functionality |
PDF exports | Supports | Generated with tagged headings, alt text, and bookmarks |
Assistive technology compatibility
Scholarly has been validated with the following assistive technologies and browsers:
AT / Browser | Platform |
VoiceOver + Safari | macOS & iOS |
Keyboard‑only (no mouse) | All platforms |
Continuous improvement
Accessibility is a journey. Our backlog for the next two quarters focuses on:
Contrast enhancements in legacy dashboard widgets.
Consistent tooltip exposure to screen readers.
Expanding unit tests for WCAG 2.2 additions such as target size and focus‑not‑obscured (already largely supported).
Periodic re‑assessment by an external accessibility specialist.
Need help or found an issue?
If you encounter a barrier while using Scholarly, please let us know:
Briefly describe the page or feature and the assistive technology you use.
We aim to reply to all accessibility feedback within 2 business days and will work with you to provide an accessible workaround where possible.
According to our VPAT (commit ed347989c, May 2025), the information above reflects the product state at the time of assessment. Actual accessibility may vary with configuration and custom content.