Open access removes the cost barrier to research, but it does not remove every barrier. A website may be free to read and still exclude readers as effectively as a paywall if its pages, documents, or controls are difficult to perceive, understand, navigate, or operate. The International Center for Promoting Knowledge (ICPK) therefore treats accessibility as part of accessible academic publishing and responsible public access—not merely as a compliance exercise.

ICPK works towards the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. ICPK has not carried out a formal external accessibility audit and does not claim certified conformance with WCAG 2.1 AA. This statement describes the standard ICPK is working towards, its current practices, its known limitations, and how readers may report barriers.

Current accessibility practices

ICPK’s current web practices include:

• supporting keyboard navigation for site links, controls, and core tasks;
• using semantic page structure and a logical heading hierarchy to support screen readers and other assistive technologies;
• selecting text and background contrast aimed at the WCAG 2.1 AA threshold;
• allowing pages to respond to browser zoom and smaller screens without loss of content; and
• maintaining a minimum text size across the interface to support comfortable reading.

These practices apply to the web interface and are intended to make navigation, discovery, and access to publication information more consistent across devices and methods of interaction.

Known limitations

Some published materials do not yet provide the same level of accessibility as the website interface.

Article PDFs are produced from author manuscripts. They are not always tagged for screen reader use and their accessibility varies according to the structure and quality of the source manuscript. To reduce this barrier, each article’s HTML record provides its title, authors, abstract, and reference information in an accessible web format.

The accessibility of figures, tables, and images also depends partly on descriptions supplied by authors. Those descriptions are not always complete or sufficiently detailed for every reader. In addition, older content published before ICPK adopted its current practices may not meet the standards described in this accessibility statement.

Reporting an accessibility problem

Accessibility reports are useful and are treated as defects to be investigated, not as optional feature requests. If you encounter a barrier, please use the Contact page or email info@theicpk.org. Include:

• the page or article concerned;
• the task you were attempting; and
• the assistive technology, browser, or device you were using, where relevant.

ICPK will acknowledge an accessibility report within 5 working days. Within 30 days, ICPK will either resolve the issue or explain what will be done and by when.

If an article is inaccessible in its available format, ICPK will supply its content in a usable alternative form on request. Additional conditions governing use of the website are available in the Terms of Use.