Making journals accessible front & back: examining open journal systems at CSU Northridge

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to examine Public Knowledge Project (PKP) Open Journal Systems (OJS) for its overall web accessibility and compliance with the Federal Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility and Compliance Act, also known as Section 508. Design/methodology/approach – Twenty-one individual web pages in the CSUN test instance of PKP’s OJS version 2.4.0 used in three back-end journal development user roles were examined using three web-accessibility tools (WAVE, Fangs, Functional Accessibility Evaluator). Errors in accessibility were then logged and mapped to specific Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) criteria. Findings – In all, 202 accessibility errors were reported across the 21 OJS pages selected for testing. Because of this, the OJS cannot be efficiently utilized by assistive technologies and therefore does not pass the minimal level of acceptability as described in the WCAG 2.0. However, the authors found that the types of errors reported in this study could be simply and effectively remedied. Research limitations/implications – Further studies will need to corroborate, on a larger scale, the problems of accessibility found in the specific pages. Only three user roles were examined; other roles will need to be analyzed for their own problems with accessibility. Finally, although specific errors were noted, most can be easily fixed. Practical implications – There is an important need for accessible software design. In the case of CSUN, one of the campus partners will be better served by improving the web accessibility of the authors’ online open access journals. Originality/value – Although many studies and analyses of Section 508 compliance of front-facing web resources have been conducted, very few appear to address the back-end of such tools. This is the first to examine what problems in accessibility journal users with disabilities might encounter as OJS system administrators, journal managers or journal editors.

Scholarly journal publishing standards, policies and guidelines

“…There are tools for testing web accessibility that a journal team can utilize in evaluating hosting platforms. Borchard et al (2015) have reported using WAVE, Fangs and Functional Accessibility Evaluator tools to test web‐accessibility tools of OJS. Clarivate also stipulates that the information architecture of a journal's website must facilitate easy navigation across all the journal's content (Clarivate, 2019).…”

Libraries as Content Producers: How Library Publishing Services Address the Reading Experience

“…While very few identified lack of expertise as their primary challenge, 60.9 percent said a lack of expertise about readers acted as a barrier to improving design "Sometimes" or "Always." Although most respondents identified multiple sources of expertise, further analysis shows that 28 services (43.8%) did not have any expertise for understanding readers in the library (inside or outside a publishing unit), and nearly all of those (26,40.6% of respondents) lack that expertise even when looking to the university as a whole. In other words, most expertise is external-from vendors, colleagues at other institutions, or previous studies-and these library publishing services have little capacity to assess reader needs directly.…”

“…They found the front end to meet basic accessibility needs for readers. 26 Beyond issues for those with disabilities, interface design and related reading issues, which were not particularly prominent at the first Library Publishing Forum, did get scattered mention at the second.…”

Perancangan Access Open Journal System (AOJS) dengan menggunakan Framework Codeigniter dan ReactJs

“…Customizable, fleksibel, dapat diperluas secara umum dan banyak alasan untuk menggunakan Drupal sebagai mesin untuk membangun sebuah website, Mengembangkan journal directory dan isi artikelnya menggunakan website Drupal bisa dilakukan dengan mudah. Namun, karena journal directory yang dibangun dengan CMF Drupal, maka manajemen penerbitan secara elektronik tidak dimiliki dan hanya menfokuskan pada journal directory.Selain itu, penelitian juga dilakukan olehBorchard, et al (2015). Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji sistem informasi Public Knowledge Project (PKP) Open Journal Systems (OJS) untuk aksesibilitas keseluruhan web dengan hukum Federal Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility and Compliance pada CSU Northridge.…”