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. ETD Administrator provides student authors with a simple way to submit their dissertation or thesis for publishing on the ProQuest Platform, opening their work to the world-wide research community. Graduate-school administrative staff use ETD Administrator to manage the submission workflow of dissertations and theses at their institution, including delivery to ProQuest.
At ProQuest, we make every effort to ensure that our platforms – including ETD Administrator – can be used by everyone. ETD Administrator 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
Features
Users of ETD Administrator should be able to:
- Navigate most of the application—including forms-based pages designed to collect information about authors and their work—using just a keyboard.
- Track visual focus while using Tab / Shift+Tab to step forward and backward through interactive elements on the page.
- Go directly to main content areas on the page using ‘Skip to main content’ links.
- Listen to most of the website using a screen reader.
- Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software.
- Intuit the action or destination provided by a link, from the link text and context.
- Take advantage of heading tags and ordered / unordered lists to intuit content structure.
Gaps
There may be some parts of this website that are not fully accessible:
- Text does not reflow when you change the size of the browser window.
- Horizontal scrolling becomes necessary as you zoom . . . starting at around 200%.
- Page titles, particularly for pages in the author-submission workflow are not all unique.
- Controls: The accessible name that assistive technology (AT) recognizes does not always match what you see on the screen.
- Arrow keys should move the focus through menus, like the account menu or author-facing submission steps menu. They do not. However, you can Tab / Shift+Tab through the menus.
We aim to correct these problems in future releases.
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
ETD Administrator 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 2.4 and WCAG 2.1) for ETD Administrator.
Accessibility of this platform
More about what’s good
Using a screen reader like JAWS, users can have page content read aloud as they engage with interactive controls like buttons, links, menus, and input fields. They can also Tab (go forward) or Shift+Tab (go backward) to move through those interactive controls. Screen reader users get a sense for the structure of an ETD Administrator page, as correctly coded heading and list tags are read aloud.
Opportunities for improvement
- ETD Administrator is not currently designed for responsive behavior. This means a couple of things:
- As you adjust your browser’s zoom feature to increments over 100%, you notice that page content begins to get ‘clipped’ in the browser view . . . meaning you cannot see all the content on the page without scrolling horizontally. The need to scroll horizontally in addition to vertically is a poor experience.
- Page content does not re-flow. For example, the page may have content presented in two columns. As you drag one edge of your browser window, narrowing your view, text and image content in the second column should ‘re-flow’ beneath content in the first column. Image and text elements should down-size/shrink, as appropriate, to fit the available space as you approach the mobile display you experience on a tablet or phone. This ‘responsive’ behavior is not the experience in ETD Administrator today. We plan to introduce a responsive design in a future release.
- Page titles are the first element read aloud when you access a page. Titles orient you as you move through the pages of an application. Each page should have a unique title. Nearly all administrator-facing pages are unique. Current exceptions on the student-facing side are the pages that make up the individual steps of the student-author submission process . . . as presented in a vertical menu at the left side of the submission-step pages. We plan to correct this in a future release.
Accessibility Testing
The accessibility of ETD Administrator 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.
ETD Administrator 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
- JAWS with Windows
- VoiceOver with Mac
ETD Administrator is tested on the latest versions of 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 includes:
- 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 SupportPhone:United States & Canada (toll free):
+1 800 889 3358Outside North America:
+800 4997 4111 or
+1 734-707-2513
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This accessibility statement was prepared on January 26, 2021. It was last reviewed on February 1, 2021.
The website was last tested on April 1, 2020. The test was carried out internally at ProQuest.