CLOCKSS Accessibility Statement

Introduction

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 200% 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand. My Computer My Way has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability and the AT Hive can help you find assistive technologies that work for you.

Our commitment

CLOCKSS is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for all users, including individuals with disabilities. We strive to provide an inclusive and user-friendly experience and to comply with applicable federal accessibility requirements.

CLOCKSS works to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA. Accessibility is an ongoing effort at CLOCKSS. We regularly review our website and digital content to identify and address accessibility barriers, taking into account evolving standards, user feedback, and available resources.

Archived Content

Our website includes archived materials that were created before current accessibility standards were in place. While some of these materials may not fully meet WCAG requirements, CLOCKSS affirms its commitment to making archived content accessible where possible. If you require a specific piece of archive content and it is not accessible, please contact us at info@clockss.org and we will provide an accessible version of the content on request.

Contact Us

We welcome feedback and will make reasonable efforts to respond promptly and to provide accessible information or assistance. If you need more accessible information or have any feedback or suggestions, please contact us at info@clockss.org. We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as we can and in no case later than 15 days.

Read tips on contacting organizations about inaccessible websites.

Non-accessible content

Our website was last tested on 12/08/2025 against the WCAG 2.2 standard. The test was carried out by All Able Ltd. A representative sample of pages of the website were tested along with a sample of the documents from each area of the website. Testing was composed of a mixture of manual, semi-automated and assistive technology.

CLOCKSS preserves documents from many sources and time periods and we know that many of the archival documents triggered from the archive have accessibility issues. The issues we are aware of are listed below.

PDFs

  • Documents include images without alternative text descriptions. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A)
  • Some graphs use color alone to differentiate information. This fails WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Color (A).
  • Some documents have text contrast issues. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum (AA).
  • Documents include images of text without alternatives. This fails WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text (AA).
  • Documents are missing either all tags, or heading structure, table structure, and list structure. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A)
  • Documents are missing bookmarks. This fails WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A)
  • Most documents do not have programmatically set document titles. This fails WCAG 2.4.2 Page Titled (A).

Harvested web content

  • Many 3rd party pages include images that do not have alternative text descriptions. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A).
  • Many 3rd party pages do not have appropriate heading structure or have duplicate H1 elements. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and relationships (A).
  • Many checkboxes and input fields on 3rd party pages do not have associated text labels. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A).
  • Some 3rd party pages that include tables do not have appropriate table structure. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A).
  • Some link text is not differentiated from surrounding text by any visual means and would only be known through audible messages. This fails WCAG 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics (A).
  • Some 3rd party pages use colour alone to differentiate link text. This fails WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Colour (A).
  • Many 3rd party pages have a variety of colour contrast issues. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum (AA).
  • Some 3rd party pages contain meta viewports which may cause some magnification issues for mobile users. This fails WCAG 1.4.4 Resize Text (AA).
  • Many 3rd party pages do not respond to reflow or magnification. This fails WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow (AA).
  • Many 3rd party pages do not respond to user-triggered text spacing adjustments. This fails WCAG 1.4.12 Text Spacing (AA).
  • Some 3rd party pages contain auto scrolling information that cannot be paused. This fails WCAG 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide (A).
  • No 3rd party pages include skip to content functions. This fails WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A).
  • Some 3rd party pages still contain cookie banners which block other content but are the last thing to be focussed on the page. This fails WCAG 2.4.3 Focus Order (A).
  • Many 3rd party pages include broken image links without appropriate link text. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A)
  • Many 3rd party table of contents pages contain duplicate links that do not have appropriate contextual descriptions. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A).
  • Some 3rd party pages contain content that does not receive focus indication. This fails WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA).
  • On some pages with scrolling content, users can focus elements that are moved off the page. This fails WCAG 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (AA).
  • Many 3rd party pages do not include a language attribute. This fails WCAG 3.1.1 Language of Page (A).
  • Many checkboxes and input fields on 3rd party pages do not have accessible text names. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A).
  • Many pages include iframes without frame titles. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A).

CLOCKS No Styles pages

  • Some pages contain text content that is visually used as headings but not programmatically marked as headings. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A).
  • Some author names do not meet contrast requirements. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum (AA).
  • Some templated sidebar content does not respond well to magnification or reflow. This fails WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow (AA).
  • Some pages contain links that have duplicate link text that are not otherwise clear. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A).
  • Pages do not have language attributes. This fails WCAG 3.1.1 Language of Page (A).
  • There are some empty heading elements that disrupt AT navigation. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A).

If you find an issue that we have yet to identify, please contact us at info@clockss.org. Thank you!

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

General website

  1. We will address accessibility issues identified by site users.
  2. We will undertake another accessibility audit in Autumn 2026, and will address any accessibility issues identified.

Triggered content

  1. We are systematically working through accessibility issues identified in the CLOCKSS No Style pages, with the aim of completing this work by 24 April 2026.
  2. We will prioritize accessibility issues identified by content users.
  3. We will migrate to LOCKSS 2.0 software during 2026 and 2027.
  4. After migration to LOCKSS 2.0 we will be in a position to evolve our ingest and trigger processes to systematically improve accessibility for archived content moving forward.
  5. We may be able to re-crawl some archived content to benefit from publisher investments in accessibility.
  6. We anticipate there will remain accessibility issues, particularly for older web harvested content that cannot be re-crawled, for some time.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 26 March 2026. It was last reviewed on 26 March 2026.

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