Alexander Street Press

Introduction

(NOTE: This statement applies to https://search.alexanderstreet.com/ – the Alexander Street streaming video platform video.alexanderstreet.com is covered under a separate accessibility statement.)

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.

At ProQuest, we make every effort to ensure that our platforms – including Alexander Street – can be used by everyone. Alexander Street is continually designed and developed to meet Level AA of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2) and Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act for features and functions.

Accessibility features and gaps

Users of Alexander Street should be able to:

• Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
• Go directly to main content areas on the page using skip links.
• Listen to most of the website using a screen reader.
• Access fully searchable transcripts and captions for most video content.
• See track lists for all audio files
• Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• Zoom in up to 200% using browser tools without text spilling off screen.

There may be some parts of this website that are not fully accessible:

• Some features on pages are not easily accessible with a keyboard
• Not all PDFs on this site are entirely readable by screen readers
• A small portion of the content which was provided to us from our vendors can’t be guaranteed to follow accessibility guidelines for color contrast, flashing
• content, or PDF coding guidelines
• Text descriptions of audio files are not available

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 add-ons offered for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

Technical Information about this site’s accessibility

Alexander Street is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with:

• Level A and Level AA of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2)
• 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 v2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Access the full Accessibility Compliance Report (VPAT 2.5 and WCAG) for Alexander Street.

Accessibility of this platform

The user interface of the Alexander Street product is designed to be accessible and operable with multiple input mechanisms, including keyboards, screen readers, and voice control technologies. This is enabled by comprehensive labeling of most form elements and icons, and features like headings that are used to make the platform easier to navigate without a mouse.

Skipping repetitive page content via skip links is also possible on every page. Skip links allow you to bypass persistent header links and jump directly to main content.

This product includes audio and video content. These multi-media elements are equipped with fully searchable transcripts which scroll along with the video, or audio, playback. Most of the video files also are enabled with full captions, and audio files have track lists.

Accessibility gaps

Video player

The standard video player on the search.alexanderstreet.com platform is accessible, but videos can also be accessed from the streaming video platform at video.alexanderstreet.com.

Keyboard accessibility

There are several features which are not easily accessible with the keyboard. These include some features of the date graph filter, and some menus. You can work around some of these features with the following steps:

On mouse hover on the date filter graph, the content is updating the top of the graph, however keyboard users can not focus on the individual graph bars. Keyboard users can get that information by moving the graph handles with the arrow keys to the desired positions and then see the same information.

Media accessibility

Some of the content in this product was provided by a third-party vendor and therefore may not comply with all the requirements of accessible features that other content on our site has. For example: they may have sections in them which do not adhere to color contrast or visual flashing frequency requirements, or the PDFs may not have all appropriate accessibility tags.

PDF accessibility

The accessibility of the original PDFs found on the Alexander Street Platform varies depending on the manufacturing process used by the original publisher. Despite having a fixed layout, most PDFs include text that can be selected, copied, and read by assistive technologies.

Some PDFs contain text that is not able to be searched or selected. In general, PDFs published more recently will have more accessibility features.

Rather than reading the PDF on ProQuest’s on-page display, you may find that downloading the PDF and opening it in a PDF reader will give you more options to manipulate the format and appearance of the text.

You can use the “print” option to download the PDF by choosing the print icon on top of the PDF viewer in the platform. This is the printer icon in the top right corner of the viewer. (see screen shot below)

When you select this option – make sure that all the settings for number of pages is what you want to download and then choose “print”

At this time you will be taken to the print view of the document, with a dialogue box on top of this which gives you the option for where to print it to. The “Save as PDF” will be the default option – and that will allow you to specify where you want to save your pdf.

Printing options:

This will give you the ability to open the PDF in a separate PDF reader which may have more accessibility features and allow for greater manipulation of the text – for example – copying and pasting where it may not be possible on the platform.

Some PDFs also contain content which is in a different language than the main content and this new language content is not labeled appropriately for a screen reader to pick up on the new language introduced.

The items listed above are scheduled to be addressed in Q4 of 2025.

Accessibility testing

The accessibility of Alexander Street is a continual effort at ProQuest. Accessibility standards are built into our design, and style guides are included as part of requirements in our software development and quality assurance pipeline.

Alexander Street code is checked for accessibility using a range of automated and manual checks including but not limited to:

• Color Contrast Analyzer provided by WebAIM
• High Contrast Chrome extension
• Keyboard-access manual testing and assessment
• WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation tool) provided by WebAIM
• Axe DevTools
• JAWS with Windows
• NVIDA on Windows

Alexander Street is tested on both the previous and the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, and MS Edge, as well as on a variety of 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 include:

• Testing with users of all abilities
• 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, and performing audits through, 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 Support

Phone:
United States & Canada (toll free):
+1 800 889 3358

Outside North America:
+800 4997 4111 or +1 734-707-2513

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This accessibility statement was prepared on June 16, 2025. It was last reviewed on June 16, 2025.

The website was last tested in March 2025. The test was carried out internally at ProQuest.