Some of the information on this page is taken from the eBook Central accessibility statement

ProQuest are aware of the importance of making their products accessible and try to ensure that their products can be used by everyone.

Profile Settings

In your account profile, accessible from the menu top right of any eBook Central page, you can change a coupe of settings to make ebooks more accessible.

In your profile, you can select Text Only Mode, to have PDFs presented as plain text only, with no images, charts or other non-textual elements. You can only change the font to Open Dyslexic, a font that might make text easier to read for dyslexics.  To activate either of these, go to your account profile page, scroll down to accessibility settings  and tick Enable Text Only Mode and Enable Open DyslexicTypeface

 

ASPIRE

ASPIRE provides expert assessment of publisher, ebook platform, educational institution + public sector website accessibility statements. ProQuest eBook Central has been verified by ASPIRE with an ASPIRE score of 100%

Accessibility Guidelines

The eBook Central platform is continually designed and developed to comply with the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 level AA and the U.S. Section 508 Standards of the Federal Rehabilitation Act.

Accessibility Standards and Features

The Ebook Central interface and ebook readers are designed to be accessible, giving users the ability to manage the following aspects of the site:

Colours, Contrasts and Fonts

ProQuest uses colours that meet minimum contrast specifications. Colour schemes can be changed in the browser settings. Browser extensions can be used to change the colour and contrast settings, including Midnight Lizard which is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

Users can change the website typeface to OpenDyslexic in the Profile settings.

Magnification

Users can zoom in up to 300% without text spilling off screen using inbuilt browser features (e.g., CTRL +/- for PCs and Command +/- for Macs). Browser extensions are also available, such as Zoom Page WE for Firefox or Custom Page Zoom for Chrome.

Keyboard navigation

eBook Central can be navigated using only the keyboard.  The tab, enter, and arrow keys can:

•  Navigate website menus
•  Perform basic and advanced searches
•  Navigate search results
•  Read online including book navigation
•  Download ebooks

Screen Readers

eBook Central tests using the latest version of screen reader and browser combinations as follows:

•     Desktop:
  • Chrome or Microsoft Edge + JAWS
  • Firefox + NVDA
  • Safari + Voiceover
•     Apple Mobile: Safari + Voiceover
•     Android Mobile: Chrome + Talkback

Text to Speech

eBook Central doesn't have its own text-to-speech tool. However, text-to-speech is:

    built into the Microsoft Edge browser
    available as browser plug-ins for Chrome, Firefox and Opera.
    built into most digital devices such as PCs, Macs, Tablets and Phones.

Non-Accessible Content

eBooks on the platform come from a variety of sources which may have different accessibility standards. Non-accessible content may include the following:

• Some ebooks have images without accessible descriptions and cannot be read by a screen reader.
• Headings and labels within ebook files are not always provided by the publisher, making it difficult to navigate with assisted technology.
• There may be issues with missing skip-link navigation issues on some ebooks.

Links

eBook Central Accessibility

• A short video providing a brief demonstration of eBook Central’s accessibility options

AbilityNet: Simple 'how to' guides to make your device easier to use

• For those with disabilities, a series of step-by-step instructions on how to adapt your phone, computer or tablet to meet your needs