By SciELO Accessibility1
Image: Hal Gatewood.
In 2018, the SciELO Network held the SciELO 20 Years International Conference. On that occasion, the necessity and importance of promoting accessibility in scientific knowledge dissemination systems progressively aligned with the Open Science modus operandi was emphasized.
In response to this demand, in 2020 the SciELO Program set up the SciELO Accessibility Interdisciplinary Working Group (SciELO Accessibility), in cooperation with the Identities, Disabilities, Education and Accessibility Research Group at the Federal University of São Carlos (GP-Idea / UFSCar). Since then, the group has met every two weeks to discuss and define strategies aimed at promoting the informational and communicational accessibility of scientific content.
The results of these and other actions by the members of the SciELO Network informed the program for the SciELO 25 Years Conference,2 when the collective commitment was officially reaffirmed through the Declaration in Support of Open Science with IDEIA Impact, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility.3
On that occasion, the panel “Standards, methods, techniques, practices: interoperability and accessibility” included, among its themes, the issue of “Attitudinal accessibility in the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge.”
It is therefore appropriate to consider that these and other activities developed at the aforementioned events have contributed, in the short, medium and long term, to the current strengthening of the SciELO Accessibility work fronts. This post is divided into two parts: the first presents the group’s analyses, studies and progress; the second details the improvements made to the SciELO platform.4
For the first four-year period (2020-2024), the following actions were prioritized, based on national and international recommendations and standards:
- Accessibility improvements on the SciELO Brazil website: identification and correction of navigability and usability barriers on the SciELO Brazil Collection website, with the direct participation of visually impaired people using screen readers;
- Actions to raise awareness and promote information accessibility: participation in events, organization and holding of meetings with scientific communities and journal editors; and
- Establishing partnerships: cooperation strategies and actions with scientific journal editors, designers, and computer science information and communication professionals to promote accessibility for visually impaired people.
Graphic and accessibility analysis
Regarding the layout of PDF documents (Portable Document Format), SciELO Accessibility conducted a graphic and accessibility analysis of articles published by the journals Revista de Administração de Empresas (RAE) and História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos (HCSM). The aim was to check whether certain accessibility recommendations were applied in the articles’ layout.
One of the questions raised in the discussions was how the layout of a PDF, historically linked to graphic standards, has adapted and presented itself in the face of the different requirements determined by digital and accessibility. For an accessible online environment, for example, international web standards defined by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) are used to guide layout. And how do accessibility concepts apply to PDFs?
Although it is a digital document, PDF was created in the 1990s as a standard file format for printing. Therefore, it was designed based on graphic standards that had been established until then, making it difficult to use the new approaches that accessibility presents.
When analyzing the articles in PDF format, this rigidity was verified when, for example, problems were found with the alignment of texts and columns due to the use of inappropriate typefaces, which led to poor readability. These problems are more noticeable to users who use assistive technologies to read these PDF files. Anyway, the full text of this analysis will be published in a future post. It will be followed up with a guide with recommendations for designing more accessible PDF files.
Actions to raise awareness and establish partnerships
Among the results of the initiative of events promoted by SciELO (especially those of 2018 and 2023), partnerships were voluntarily established and, currently, SciELO Accessibility also relies on the effective work of the Revista Brasileira de Educação Especial (RBEE), História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos (HCSM), RAE – Revista de Administração de Empresas, SciELO Books and Editora De Castro.
Within RBEE, specifically, the editorial team:
- published a call for proposals for two thematic dossiers which, based on the discussions at SciELO Accessibility, have become opportunities for establishing dialogues between editors, authors, designers and readers to promote accessibility at all stages of the production and dissemination of articles. This is the first concrete strategy of a SciELO Network journal aimed at improving editorial policies and practices to ensure accessibility in the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The first dossier Global and Local Challenges of Special Education from the Perspective of Inclusive Education: Potentiality of a Cartography under Construction5 was published and represents the RBEE’s first step in the quest for accessibility. An example of the adjustments made is the article Cartographies of Inclusive Education in Special Education: Scientific Production, Policies and Practices,6 in which Figure 1 is accompanied by a description of the image, as an accessibility note.
- is revising and adapting the journal’s editorial standards to provide better accessibility practices
The journal RAE-Revista de Administração de Empresas is also dialoguing with its editorial board and proposing adjustments to its editorial policy with a view to making published content more accessible. The journal’s PDF files are being revised and future publications in this format should be more accessible.
These and other initiatives could raise awareness and guide other journals to establish similar policies and practices so that scientific knowledge is open and disseminated in a way that is accessible to all societies, according to Roberta Cerqueira of História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos:
The discussion on accessibility presented at the panel “Standards, methods, techniques, practices: interoperability and accessibility” at SciELO 25 Years was very important in drawing publishers’ attention to the necessity to rethink the way we make our scientific journals available. Based on the debate presented at this panel, I came back from the meeting reflecting on how we could begin the process of making HCSM content more accessible. It is a challenging issue for scholarly communication, and it needs to be tackled.
Acknowledging the importance of meetings with other communities dedicated to this issue, SciELO Accessibility took part in the arXiv Accessibility Forum in September in the webinar SciELO and Accessibility with the aim of following discussions on improving the accessibility of scientific content and will always be on the lookout for other similar initiatives to establish exchanges and partnerships.
SciELO Books, in partnership with Editora UEMG, took an important step in scientific accessibility in July 2024, with the publication of the first adapted books with specific tags and detailed descriptions of images, graphics and icons, allowing visually impaired readers who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to read them. The image descriptions were initially generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and reviewed by a visually impaired professional and the authors, ensuring accuracy and clarity. An example of this initiative is the book Movimentos sociais e educação: mútuas influências.7
In September 2024, four more accessible books were made available. The goal is for all of Editora UEMG’s books, as well as those of other publishers indexed in the SciELO collection to follow these standards, promoting the democratization of academic knowledge for people with different physical or sensory needs. It is important to note that in SciELO Books, ePUBs are already marked in an accessible way, following the guidelines established by organizations such as the W3C and the Daisy (Digital Accessible Information System) project, except for the description of images, which for the time being is only done by Editora UEMG.
Future prospects
In addition to these, other actions are planned by SciELO Accessibility for the next four years, within the scope of the SciELO Network’s Priority Lines of Action for Professionalization, Internationalization and Sustainability – 2024-2028:8
- New specific functionalities regarding accessibility, such as the possibility of a bar that will allow you to switch between light and dark themes, enlarge fonts, and link directly to content, among other functions. At the same time, visually impaired people will carry out verification tests to identify items to be improved and to validate elements that work with screen readers.
- Dissemination of editorial policies and recommendations with a view to improving accessibility levels for journals and books.
- Presenting a research project on the subject of research and innovation to funding agencies as one of the ways of obtaining funding sources to strengthen human and technological resources and make our actions more visible.
Another relevant point involves planning actions to raise awareness of the importance of the issue in the academic journals and books community. In this sense, SciELO Accessibility plans to prepare texts for scientific blogs, institutional portals and in a collective effort to participate in meetings and congresses related to scientific publishing to stimulate the participation of editors and editorial teams in the development and improvement of initiatives on accessibility.
These actions show the SciELO Program’s commitment to promoting accessibility in scholarly communication in line with the Open Science modus operandi. SciELO Accessibility will continue to work to identify and remove barriers to accessibility in all the collections and services of the SciELO Network, to ensure that scientific knowledge in the context of Open Science is accessible to all people.
Accessibility in the SciELO Program: current status and future prospects
Notes
1. The SciELO Accessibility group consists of: Alex Mendonça (SciELO), Amanda Ramalho (SciELO Livros), Giovanna Brito Castelhano (SciELO Livros), Solange Santos (SciELO), Leonardo Santos Amâncio Cabral (Gp-Idea/UFSCar), Aline Maira da Silva (RBEE), Ilda Fontes (RAE), Roberta Cardoso Cerqueira (HCSM), Carlos Henrique de Castro Gonçalves (Editora De Castro), and Ramon Cordini (rcordini)
3. Declaration in Support of Open Science with IDEIA
4. Accessibility in the SciELO Program: current status and future prospects – Part 2
5. PLETSCH, M.D., MENDES, G.M.L. and EBERSÖHN, L. Global and Local Challenges of Special Education from the Perspective of Inclusive Education: Potentiality of a Cartography under Construction. Rev. bras. educ. espec. [online]. 2024, vol. 30, e0190 [viewed 8 November 2024]. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-54702024v30e0190. Available from: https://www.scielo.br/j/rbee/a/sJX5FdhGkX3kvP77zStr7fv/
6. PLETSCH, M.D. and MENDES, G.M.L. Cartographies of Inclusive Education in Special Education: Scientific Production, Policies and Practices. Rev. bras. educ. espec. [online]. 2024, vol. 30, e143p [viewed 8 November 2024]. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-54702024v30e143i. Available from: https://www.scielo.br/j/rbee/a/m83TGFWyPS6PFqxTBTCQD4J/
7. FREITAS, M.A. and NORONHA, I.O. Movimentos sociais e educação: mútuas influências. Belo Horizonte: Editora EUMG, 2023. https://doi.org/10.36704/9786586832167. Available from: https://books.scielo.org/id/p5f97
References
arXiv Accessibility Forum 2024: SciELO y accessibilidad / e acessibilidade. arXiv on YouTube. 2024 [viewed 8 November 2024]. Available from: https://youtu.be/wjzYB1DTbe0?si=jgKdo_M6ieh7Mo6C
Barreiras de navegação enfrentadas por pessoas com baixa visão: aprenda a identificar quais são essas barreiras [online]. Web Para Todos. 2017 [viewed 8 November 2024]. Available from: https://mwpt.com.br/barreiras-de-navegacao-enfrentadas-por-pessoas-com-baixa-visao/
C4DISC. Accessibility – Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication [online]. Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications. 2022 [viewed 8 November 2024]. Available from: https://c4disc.pubpub.org/pub/v4up8c2n
Como criar um layout de texto acessível para a WEB? [online]. Web Para Todos. 2022 [viewed 8 November 2024]. Available from: https://mwpt.com.br/como-criar-um-layout-de-texto-acessivel-para-a-web/
Design acessível: conheça 3 dicas para colocar em prática. [online]. Web Para Todos. 2019. Available from: https://mwpt.com.br/design-acessivel-conheca-3-dicas-para-colocar-em-pratica/
FORMAT [social network]. Vamos falar de serifa em materiais didáticos? [online]. LinkedIn, 2023 [viewed 8 November 2024]. Available from: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/formatdidaticos_vamos-falar-de-serifa-em-materiais-did%C3%A1ticos-activity-7113562686562443264-lJfF
FREITAS, M.A. and NORONHA, I.O. Movimentos sociais e educação: mútuas influências. Belo Horizonte: Editora EUMG, 2023. https://doi.org/10.36704/9786586832167. Available from: https://books.scielo.org/id/p5f97
GANNER, J., et al. Books without barriers: a practical guide to inclusive publishing, Institute of Professional Editors and Australian Publishers Association, 2023. Available from: https://www.iped-editors.org/resources-for-editors/books-without-barriers/
PACKER, A.L., et al. SciELO 25 Anos: Ciência Aberta com IDEIA – Impacto, Diversidade, Equidade, Inclusão e Acessibilidade [online]. SciELO em Perspectiva, 2022 [viewed 8 November 2024]. Available from: https://blog.scielo.org/blog/2022/09/29/scielo-25-anos-ciencia-aberta-com-ideia/
PLETSCH, M.D. and MENDES, G.M.L. Cartographies of Inclusive Education in Special Education: Scientific Production, Policies and Practices. Rev. bras. educ. espec. [online]. 2024, vol. 30, e143p [viewed 8 November 2024]. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-54702024v30e143i. Available from: https://www.scielo.br/j/rbee/a/m83TGFWyPS6PFqxTBTCQD4J/
PLETSCH, M.D., MENDES, G.M.L. and EBERSÖHN, L. Global and Local Challenges of Special Education from the Perspective of Inclusive Education: Potentiality of a Cartography under Construction. Rev. bras. educ. espec. [online]. 2024, vol. 30, e0190 [viewed 8 November 2024]. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-54702024v30e0190. Available from: https://www.scielo.br/j/rbee/a/sJX5FdhGkX3kvP77zStr7fv/
SALTON, B.P., AGNOL, A.D. and TURCATTI, A. Manual de Acessibilidade em Documentos Digitais. Bento Gonçalves, RS: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul, 2017. Available from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1prnE3MJfTsxARpWR2cOLbWmtK3x6aLNt/view
SciELO 25 Years Week | International Conference – September 29, 2023. SciELO on YouTube. 2023 [viewed 8 November 2024]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDJFH2aLh6Q&t=4714s
External links
Accessibility Fundamentals Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C
Acessibilidade Digital – Governo Digital
Declaration in Support of Open Science with IDEIA
Diretrizes de Acessibilidade para Conteúdo Web (WCAG) 2.1 – Português
eMAG – Modelo de Acessibilidade em Governo Eletrônico
Lei no. 10.098 – Acessibilidade
O que é um PDF? Portable Document Format
Perguntas mais frequentes – Conselho Nacional de Arquivos
Revista Brasileira de Educação Especial – Instructions to authors
SciELO and Accessibility at the arXiv Accessibility Forum 2024 – arXiv Accessibility Forum 2024
SciELO Interdisciplinary Accessibility Working Group
Translated from the original in Portuguese by Lilian Nassi-Calò.
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