Publishing a journal that looks perfect on screen does not necessarily mean it is accessible.
For scholarly and STM publishers, accessibility needs to work across the entire content lifecycle, from structured XML and article metadata to HTML, PDF, and EPUB. A journal article may contain the right information, but if headings are poorly structured, figures lack meaningful descriptions, tables cannot be navigated with a screen reader, or the reading order is incorrect, readers using assistive technologies can still face significant barriers.
WCAG 2.2 provides an important framework for making digital content more accessible to people with disabilities. It builds on earlier WCAG versions and introduces nine additional success criteria, making it particularly relevant for publishers reviewing their digital content workflows. W3C
Here are seven accessibility gaps worth checking in your journal content.
1. Missing or Meaningless Alternative Text
Scientific and academic journals frequently rely on graphs, diagrams, photographs, illustrations, and other figures to communicate information.
Simply adding image or figure as alt text does not make the content accessible.
Alternative text should communicate the purpose and relevant information of the image. For a decorative image, an empty alternative may be appropriate. For a scientific chart, however, the important data or relationship represented by the chart needs to be available to readers who cannot see it.
JATS specifically supports <alt-text> for accessibility purposes and distinguishes it from captions and other visible figure information. Journal Article Tag Suite
How to fix it: Review every meaningful image and provide appropriate alt text, long descriptions, or equivalent textual alternatives where necessary.
2. Poor Heading and Document Structure
A journal article can appear visually well organized while having a confusing underlying structure.
For example, headings may be created through font sizes and styling rather than semantic heading levels. A screen reader user may then struggle to understand the relationship between the abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and references.
Semantic structure matters because accessible content needs to communicate meaning, hierarchy, and relationships, not just visual appearance.
JATS provides structured elements for journal content, helping publishers create consistent source content that can be reused across multiple output formats. Journal Article Tag Suite
How to fix it: Establish a consistent heading hierarchy and ensure the underlying XML, HTML, EPUB, and PDF structures preserve it.
3. Inaccessible Tables, Equations, and Complex Content
Tables and mathematical content are particularly important in scholarly publishing, but they are also common accessibility problem areas.
A table that looks clear visually may become confusing when read sequentially by assistive technology. Missing headers, incorrect relationships between cells, or poorly structured rows and columns can make data difficult to interpret.
The same applies to equations, formulas, chemical structures, and other complex scholarly content.
How to fix it: Use semantic markup and structured content wherever possible. Ensure table headers and relationships are correctly identified and that complex information has an accessible equivalent.This is one reason an XML-first publishing workflow can be valuable. Structured source content can support multiple accessible outputs instead of accessibility being manually recreated for every format.
4. Incorrect Reading Order
Imagine opening a journal PDF or EPUB with a screen reader and hearing:
Figure caption → sidebar → paragraph → heading → reference → main text
The content may technically be present, but the order makes it difficult to understand.
Reading order is especially important for multi-column journal layouts, complex figures, sidebars, footnotes, tables, and PDFs created from print-oriented files.
How to fix it: Validate the logical reading order in the final publication, not just the source document. Accessibility testing should cover the actual output delivered to readers.
5. Accessibility Metadata Is Missing
Accessibility is not only about what readers experience. It is also about how accessible content is described and discovered.
For digital publications, accessibility metadata can communicate information about available access modes and accessibility characteristics. The current EPUB Accessibility specification, for example, requires accessibility metadata in EPUB package documents and addresses both accessibility and discoverability. W3C
This becomes particularly important as publishers distribute content across repositories, platforms, libraries, aggregators, and institutional systems.
For a deeper look at this issue, see our related article, [What Is Accessibility Metadata in EPUB, and Why Do Most Files Fail Without It?]. This makes a natural next step for publishers who want to understand how accessibility information is represented and exposed within digital publications.
How to fix it: Include appropriate accessibility metadata and validate it as part of your EPUB and digital publishing workflow.
6. PDF and EPUB Accessibility Are Treated as an Afterthought
One of the biggest workflow problems is leaving accessibility until the final production stage.
If accessibility is considered only after a journal has already been typeset and converted, remediation can involve restructuring content, recreating tags, fixing reading order, rewriting descriptions, and correcting metadata.
That can increase production time and introduce unnecessary rework.
Modern digital publishing standards increasingly emphasize structured and semantically enhanced content. EPUB 3, for example, is designed around structured web content, while EPUB Accessibility provides specific requirements for accessible EPUB publications. W3C
How to fix it: Build accessibility checks into editorial, XML, composition, conversion, and quality assurance workflows rather than treating them as a final-stage correction.
7. Accessibility Is Not Validated Across Every Output
A common mistake is testing one format and assuming every other format will also be accessible.
A journal may have accessible HTML but an inaccessible PDF. Its EPUB may have better navigation but missing metadata. Its XML may be structurally sound but generate an output with incorrect reading order.
JATS itself is designed primarily as a structured source format rather than an end-user presentation format. Its purpose includes enabling publishers to create different outputs from structured journal content. Journal Article Tag Suite
That means accessibility needs to be checked across the publishing ecosystem, not just at the source level.
How to fix it: Include accessibility validation for the formats your readers actually receive: HTML, PDF, EPUB, XML-derived outputs, and other digital formats.
Why WCAG 2.2 Compliance Matters for Publishers
For publishers, accessibility is no longer simply a technical consideration.
Universities, libraries, researchers, educators, government organizations, and digital platforms increasingly expect accessible content. Regulatory requirements and procurement policies can also make accessibility an important part of publishing operations.
WCAG 2.2 provides an internationally developed framework for improving the accessibility of web content, while publishing-specific standards such as EPUB Accessibility address the requirements of digital publications. W3C
For journal publishers, the practical question is therefore not just:
“Is our website accessible?”
It is:
“Can our entire journal content workflow consistently produce accessible content?”
That includes JATS XML, article metadata, HTML, accessible PDF, EPUB, figures, tables, equations, navigation, reading order, and accessibility metadata.
Make Accessibility Part of Your Publishing Workflow
Fixing individual accessibility issues title by title can become difficult when you are managing hundreds or thousands of journal articles.
A structured accessibility workflow can help publishers identify gaps earlier, remediate existing content, and maintain consistency across formats.
Wordium’s Accessibility Services supports publishers with accessibility audits, accessible EPUB production, PDF remediation, alt-text and structural validation, and workflows aligned with WCAG and EPUB accessibility requirements. WORDIUM
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