Accessibility statement

We aim to ensure that accessibility is at the core of our platform development.

We endeavor that all features and functionality on the degruyterbrill.com platform are developed in line with WCAG 2.1 guidelines. Automated and manual testing is conducted to ensure new features and functionality conform to accessibility guidelines.

We aim to be open and transparent about what is not working well on our platform. Our aim is to resolve known issues as quickly as possible.

A full accessibility audit of the degruyterbrill.com platform is conducted periodically to ensure it conforms to the current international accessibility guidelines. Any issues discovered are assessed and prioritized accordingly in our development roadmap.

Feedback is welcomed from users to notify us of any accessibility bugs they find. Your feedback helps us to improve degruyterbrill.com. Please see below for contact options.

For a detailed review of how degruyter.com supports the WCAG 2.1 and Section 508 criteria, please refer to our Accessibility Conformance Report (based on VPAT v2.4).

Please note: this statement was last updated in October 2021, and all information contained within is correct as of that date for the site degruyter.com. The website degruyter.com was redesigned and moved to the new domain degruyterbrill.com in April 2025, keeping accessibility standards at the forefront of our development. We are currently working on providing an updated VPAT showing the current status of the website.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and our content. You should be able to:

• Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• Listen to most of the website using a screen reader

The website is accessible for:

• Usage with limited or no vision or perception of colour
• Usage with limited or no hearing, and with no or limited vocal capability
• Usage with limited reach

Recommended Browser
Google Chrome / Microsoft Edge

Evaluation methods used for accessibility testing

• The website was tested with assistive technologies (including screen reader, screen magnification, contrast switching, keyboard, speech recognition)
• Testing with automated accessibility tools, such as:
  • Accessibility Insights for Web
  • Lighthouse Automation Tool
  • ClaroRead Screen Reader

Keyboard navigation
The TAB key can be used to navigate through links within the site menu and the main text of each page. Once a link has been highlighted, use the ENTER key to activate the link.

Headers
Our content pages use structured headers to aid legibility of the text. The first header on the page is the main content header followed by any appropriate sub-headers.

Changing the text size
Most browsers will allow you to change the font size. This will be reflected on the site.

Alternative content
For visitors using screen reader or speech browser software, we've provided sensible alternative text for most of the images where this alternative text will aid your understanding of the web page.

Tables
We are using tables for the display of tabular data. For users of screen readers and speech browsers, we associate headers with their respective rows and columns to aid legibility.

Magnification and Reflow
Text can be resized without assistive technology up to 300 percent without loss of content or functionality.

Copy and Printing
All content on degruyterbrill.com is DRM-free. Printing or copying text through browser functionality is possible. Please keep in mind that copyright conditions apply and can be found in our Terms and Conditions. For details on permitted uses of the content, please contact our Rights Team at: rights@degruyterbrill.com.

PDF files
To open PDF files, you need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader. Adobe provides advice on Adobe Reader’s accessibility features.

degruyterbrill.com is both an information source for anyone wanting to find information about the services of the publisher De Gruyter Brill, and also the publishing platform for all electronic content published by De Gruyter Brill and our partner publishers including a webshop.

As such, degruyterbrill.com hosts content from journals, books and online ressources.

Journals

Our journals are available in HTML and PDF format. Journal content from before 2012 as well as content from some current journals is only available in PDF format. All PDFs can be downloaded from our website and viewed in a PDF viewer.

Most tables in HTML articles are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Some older content may not include alternative text for images.

Since PDF standards have changed over the years, older PDFs may not be accessible through screen readers or other assistive technologies.

Books

Our books are offered in PDF (for the content itself) and HTML (for metadata). Book chapters can be downloaded individually in PDF. Many of the books additionally feature a PDF-download option for the complete book. Many books published after 2015 are also available in EPUB format. All PDF and EPUB files are downloadable from our website.

Since PDF standards have changed over the years, older PDFs may not be accessible through screen readers or other assistive technologies.

EPUB allows content to be enhanced for users with specific accessibility needs (e.g. dyslexia) or preferred reading modality (e.g. audio, tactile). EPUB also offers features such as e-sizeable fonts, changeable text and background colours, page bookmarking as well as highlighting and notes.

Online Ressources

Our Online Ressources are available in HTML. Some products, which are based on print products, additionally feature a PDF-download option for the original text.

All tables are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Relevant alternative texts are provided for all figures.

European Accessibility Act

New book titles published from June 28, 2025, onward are available in accessible formats.

These include:

• PDF/UA-compliant files for the entire book as well as each chapter
• EPUB 3 editions (for most titles)

These publications include:

• Alternative texts for figures
• MathML for formulas (EPUB)
• Semantic markup of all structural elements (e.g., titles, headings, paragraphs, footnotes)
• Marked page breaks for reliable citation (EPUB)
• Accessibility information in the metadata (PDF metadata, EPUB metadata, ONIX)

This means that our publications meet the requirements of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and the standards for accessible documents (ISO 14289-1 / PDF/UA).

For the past two years, an internal working group at De Gruyter Brill has been working toward the optimal implementation of these standards – in close coordination with the editorial departments and taking into account established scientific publishing processes. Our goal is to ensure maximum accessibility. However, due to the complexity of some individual titles, there may be exceptions where not all accessibility features can be fully implemented. In such cases, we still mark as many elements as possible as accessible and only resort to publishing a non-accessible title in exceptional cases.

Recent corrections to the site

At the beginning of April 2025, the platform degruyter.com underwent a complete design overhaul and moved to the new domain degruyterbrill.com The redesign of the site was done with utmost care with respect to accessibility.

Further Roadmap

We are in the process of a full assessment of the site and will place a list of known accessibility issues here soon. A new VPAT will be made available in Q4/2025.

The development team works in continuous development mode, improvements to any accessibility issues will be attended to with high priority.