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American Association for Cancer Research Journals

Summary

Accessiblü conducted a high-level accessibility evaluation of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Journals platform to assess its usability for individuals with disabilities. The review was conducted using the JAWS and NVDA screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and manual inspection for conformance to select WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria.

Key Findings

The AACR Journals platform demonstrates several accessibility strengths while presenting significant opportunities for improvement. The platform successfully implements basic keyboard navigation and includes appropriate bypass links, which are essential accessibility features. However, critical structural elements that screen reader users depend on are inconsistent or missing across the platform.

During testing, we identified several non-critical issues, these include improper heading hierarchies, missing landmark regions, inadequate alternative text for images, and inconsistent list structure announcements. While these barriers don't prevent basic navigation, they significantly impact the efficiency and user experience for people with disabilities accessing this important research platform.

Addressing these concerns would substantially improve the research accessibility experience for scholars and students with disabilities, ensuring equitable access to cancer research publications and supporting the AACR's mission of advancing cancer science for the benefit of humanity.

Top 3 Issues

1. Missing Landmark Regions and Page Structure

  • Brief description: The platform lacks essential landmark regions such as main content areas and footer landmarks, with only navigation regions identified by screen readers.
  • Impact: Screen reader users cannot efficiently navigate between major page sections, requiring them to tab through entire pages to locate content.
  • WCAG Success Criteria: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A), 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A) 

2. Inconsistent Heading Structure

  • Brief description: Pages begin with H2 headings instead of H1, and heading levels jump inconsistently without logical progression.
  • Impact: Screen reader users cannot build a proper mental model of page structure or navigate efficiently using heading shortcuts.
  • WCAG Success Criteria: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A), 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (AA) 

3. Missing Alternative Text for Images

  • Brief description: Critical journal cover images and graphics lack meaningful alternative text, with some images producing confusing announcements like "missing image descriptions."
  • Impact: Screen reader users cannot understand visual content that provides context about journal issues, research topics, and publication information.
  • WCAG Success Criteria: 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A) 

Disabilities Impacted

Blind and Low-Vision Users

  • Issues: Missing landmark regions prevent efficient page navigation, inconsistent heading structures make content organization unclear, and missing alternative text for journal covers and graphics eliminate access to visual research context.
  • Impact: Screen reader users must work significantly harder to navigate the platform and often miss important visual information about research publications, reducing their ability to efficiently access cancer research literature. 

Users with Motor Disabilities

  • Issues: While basic keyboard navigation functions, the lack of efficient bypass mechanisms requires excessive tabbing through interface elements to reach desired content.
  • Impact: Keyboard-only users experience fatigue from repetitive navigation actions and may struggle to efficiently access specific research articles or platform features. 

Neurodiverse Users

  • Issues: Inconsistent heading hierarchies and unclear page structure make it difficult to develop predictable mental models of the platform organization.
  • Impact: Users with cognitive disabilities may struggle to understand platform organization and efficiently locate relevant research materials, potentially limiting their access to important cancer research information.