Platform accessibility statement
Our commitment to accessibility
The Royal Society of Chemistry is committed to ensuring our websites are accessible and usable to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.
Aligned to our commitment to inclusion and diversity, and our obligations under the Equality Act 2010, the Special education needs and disability (SEND) code of practice 2014 and the European accessibility act (EAA) 2025, we aim to make our websites as accessible as possible to all users. We are striving to ensure that books.rsc.org conforms to level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, and our roadmap to achieving this is outlined below.
This accessibility statement applies to the website books.rsc.org and all of its subdomains. For more information on the accessibility of our eBooks, please see our eBook accessibility statement.
Our approach
books.rsc.org was built with accessibility in mind, adhering to P.O.U.R. (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) best practices and incorporating accessibility features including:
- semantically structured pages for e-reader operability
- logical page layout to assist in location and prioritisation of content
- WCAG AA-compliant fonts, colours and contrast ratios
- WCAG AA-compliant content reflowability
- text is magnifiable up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality
- site functionality is operable by keyboard with no traps
- provision of alternative text for images (except where not available for some eBooks – for more information please see our eBook accessibility statement).
We are working towards books.rsc.org being fully WCAG 2.2 AA-compliant and expect to achieve this by Q1 2026, as detailed in the accessibility roadmap provided below.
To monitor our progress to WCAG 2.2 AA compliance and to ensure that any potential emergent issues are addressed as quickly as possible, accessibility testing is routinely performed on the platform using a combination of manual exploration and automated tools. A full accessibility audit was provided by Testlio in August 2024, with retesting planned for Q3 2025. A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is completed on at least a biennial basis, the most recent of which is available on request.
Books.rsc.org accessibility roadmap
While extensive work has been done towards achieving WCAG 2.2 AA compliance, books.rsc.org remains partially AA compliant. The following table shows the current list of known issues that do not conform to WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines, and work is ongoing to address these as soon as possible.
| Page / area | Known issue | Resolution date |
| Header | Using a screen reader, focusing the links that have an icon to indicate that the link opens in a new window do not have the image announced. | |
| Home page | Latest published and bestseller links are duplicated and not grouped as one item. | |
| Search results | Calendar days that can be activated with a mouse cannot be focused or activated using a keyboard. | |
| Book page | The expanded state of the control for the ‘Share’ dropdown is not announced by a screen reader. | |
| Collection page | Book cover images do not have meaningful alternative text descriptions. | |
| Billing address cart | The checkout progress bar is announced by a screenreader, but not which step is currently highlighted. |
eBook formats
Most RSC eBooks published since 2012 are available in PDF, EPUB and HTML format. Whether purchased directly or downloaded via your institution or library, if for any reason the provided format does not meet your accessibility needs, please contact us at [email protected]. We will gladly consider your request and aim to respond within 5 days. Please see our full eBook accessibility statement for further information.
Feedback and contact information
If you require any assistance, or have feedback on the accessibility of this website, please contact us at [email protected]. In your message, please include the web address of the specific content that is the subject of your enquiry.
Date last updated
This accessibility statement was last reviewed and updated on 26th June 2025.
