All researchers, regardless of ability, need access to scholarly information. ProQuest is committed to providing all our users with a fully accessible experience for research, teaching and learning. 

At ProQuest, we make every effort to ensure that our platforms – including CultureGrams – can be used by everyone. CultureGrams is continually designed and developed to meet Level AA of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) and Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act for features and functions.

Accessibility features and gaps

• Users of CultureGrams should be able to:
• Enable closed captions and access transcripts for videos.
• Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard, a screen reader, or speech recognition software.
• Have the key content on the website read aloud to you using a text-to-speech feature.
• Hear audio recordings of foreign terms read aloud by a native speaker.
• Access content using a mobile device, laptop, or desktop computer without loss of functionality.
• Zoom in up to 400% using browser tools without text spilling off screen.

There may be some parts of this website that are not fully accessible:

• The Comparison Graph Tool and the photo galleries are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard.
• Images within CultureGrams slideshows are missing alt text. 
• Country infographics have inaccessible text.
• There are no skip links available for skipping repetitive content.
• There are a small number of areas where color contrast is not sufficient to meet standards. 

If you have a disability and need to make your computer, tablet or other device easier to use, AbilityNet is a recommended resource. We also recommend browsing free plugins offered for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

Technical Information about this site’s accessibility

CultureGrams is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with:

• Level A and Level AA of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1)
• Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act for features and functions.
• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance level and report 

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. 

Access the full Accessibility Compliance Report (VPAT 2.3 and WCAG) for CultureGrams.

Accessibility of this platform

CultureGrams is structured around reports of countries, states, and provinces – each of which contains facts and cultural information, links to interviews of citizens, photos, slideshows videos, and more. 

Navigating CultureGrams

After selecting a CultureGrams edition, you can select a report using the interactive map. In some cases, adjacent countries or regions may not have adequate color contrast. If you find the interactive map difficult to use, you can navigate to a particular report using the dropdown menu which appears before the map, or by using the list of regions below the map.

Keyboard navigation

CultureGrams is designed for keyboard-only navigation, but there are some areas where you might have difficulty:

• The Comparison Graph Tool cannot be effectively used using just a keyboard. If you need to select multiple countries in the list, the only way to do this is to hold the Control key and click each country or region with the mouse.
• Within the image photo gallery, the focus order for controls makes this area hard to navigate using a keyboard. The arrows that move to the next or previous image function, but if you want to download or cite the current image using the on-page buttons, you may find it necessary to tab many times through off-screen elements before these buttons are highlighted. 

Text-to-speech

On each main report page for a country, state, or province – and within the subsections of the report –  there is an option to have the text on the page read aloud. To use this feature, look for the widget near the top of the page next to the “Listen” label and select the play button. 

Note: If you use voice navigation, you may have difficulty accessing this feature. The visual text label is “Listen,” but the accessible name for this label is “Play.” So, you will need to say “Play” to access this element.

Lastly, CultureGrams has a helpful feature called Native Voices. On some country reports in CultureGrams World Edition, you will find that certain foreign terms are preceded by a play button. By clicking on this play button, or accessing it via the keyboard, you will be able to hear recordings of native speakers pronouncing these terms.

Videos

CultureGrams features videos about native traditions, food, and more. All videos with spoken English have closed captions and transcripts. For non-English audio, you will find English translations. If captions exist for a given video, you can enable them using the controls in the video player. 

Please note that captions and transcripts only include audio that is deemed central to the video by our editors. Incidental audio (i.e. conversations in the background) is generally not transcribed. 

Many videos do not contain spoken text but show clips of local scenery, events, and more. Audio descriptions are not provided for this non-text video content.

Color Contrast

For most site pages and features, color contrast meets or exceeds accessibility standards. There are two exceptions:

• In the Navigating CultureGrams section above, we reviewed alternatives for the interactive map navigation, where color contrast is sometimes not sufficient. 
• On the sidebar of the main country, state, or province reports, the headings for each section do not meet color contrast. 

If color contrast is a concern for you, we recommend utilizing one of the free browser plugins that can increase text/background color contrast, such as the High Contrast extension for Google Chrome.

Page magnification 

On video pages, setting your browser’s zoom level to 400% causes the page to require scrolling in two directions. In this case, we recommend enabling the full screen option on the video player.

Accessibility Testing

The accessibility of CultureGrams is a continual effort at ProQuest. Accessibility standards are built into our design, and style guides and included as part of requirements in our software development and quality assurance pipeline.

CultureGrams code is checked for accessibility using a range of automated and manual checks including but not limited to: 

• Color Contrast Analyzer provided by WebAIM
• Deque aXe accessibility testing tool
• High Contrast Chrome extension
• Keyboard-access manual testing and assessment
• WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation tool) provided by WebAIM
• NVDA with Windows
• VoiceOver with Mac

CultureGrams is tested on the latest version Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Edge, and on devices including Mac and Windows computers, and Android and iOS devices.

What We’re Doing to Improve Accessibility

Making content accessible is an ongoing effort at ProQuest. We’re committed to working with the community to ensure we continue to meet our customers’ needs. A list of our ongoing efforts include:

• The ProQuest Accessibility Council: a team of stakeholders working to increase accessibility resources and capabilities 
• Pursuing partnerships with colleges, universities and other institutions to assist us in reviewing and updating our accessibility standards 
• Supporting certifications for our employees
• Consulting with accessibility experts such as Deque 

Support and feedback

If you have difficulty accessing specific ProQuest content or features with adaptive technology after trying the workarounds suggested in this statement, you can contact us using the links provided below. Our support services will respond within three days and are available to accommodate the communication needs of end users with disabilities. We will work with you to identify the best option for remediation, subject to content licensing restrictions and technical capability. 

Online: ProQuest Technical Support

Phone:
United States & Canada (toll free):
+1 800 889 3358

Outside North America:
+800 4997 4111 or +1 734-707-2513

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This accessibility statement was prepared on September 8th, 2020. It was last reviewed on September 8th, 2020.

The website was last tested on March 5th, 2020. The test was carried out internally at ProQuest.