Accessibility at PKP: From Audit to Action

Feature image with title of the post and photograph of a bridge in a forest representing accessibility efforts. We're bridging websites, infrastructure and more so it is accessible.

PKP accessibility continues to advance as we move from a completed independent audit to concrete remediation work across our publishing platforms, guided by disabled users, assistive technology testing, and evolving global accessibility legislation.

Accessibility remains a core priority at the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), and over the past year we have made significant progress toward improving the accessibility of our platforms: Open Journal Systems (OJS), Open Monograph Press (OMP), and Open Preprint Systems (OPS).

Building on earlier work, PKP has now completed a comprehensive, independent accessibility audit of key platform interfaces. The audit was conducted by Access Changes Everything (ACE) and delivered in March 2026.

Because PKP’s platforms share many interface components, testing focused primarily on Open Monograph Press (OMP), including both the reader‑facing interface and editorial workflows. Where OMP overlaps with OJS and OPS, findings apply across platforms, allowing for more efficient remediation.

Accessibility Shaped by Real Users

A defining feature of this audit was the direct involvement of people with disabilities using real assistive technologies in real publishing workflows. Auditors included blind, Deaf‑Blind, and low‑vision users, as well as people with cognitive, attention, anxiety, and mental‑health‑related disabilities.

Testing was carried out using a wide range of assistive technologies, including screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, Narrator, VoiceOver), refreshable braille displays, keyboard‑only navigation, magnification and zoom tools, high‑contrast settings, and mobile accessibility features. This approach ensured that findings reflect real barriers experienced by real users, not only automated test results.

As we noted in our last update:

Accessibility must be shaped by the people it’s meant to serve. Testing with people with disabilities helps ensure our platforms respond to real needs, not assumptions.

Israel Cefrin, PKP’s Digital Accessibility Lead

What’s Happening Now

With the audit complete, PKP’s focus has shifted to action:

Audit findings are being translated into GitHub issues, mapped to WCAG 2.2 criteria and prioritized by user impact.
Accessibility work is being unified into a single cross‑platform project, covering both backend platform code and frontend themes, starting with the default theme.
Once issue filing is complete, PKP will publish an updated Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) covering core platforms and audited themes.
Accessibility improvements are also being extended beyond platform code to PKP websites and supporting infrastructure.

Looking Ahead: Regulations and Responsibility

Recent updates to ADA Title II in the United States include extended compliance timelines for public entities. PKP is not treating these extensions as a reason to pause. Instead, we are increasing our efforts to align with accessibility legislation and procurement requirements across regions, including in (but not limited to) Canada, the U.S., and the EU.

Our goal is not minimum compliance, but meaningful accessibility. Hence, PKP software can be confidently adopted by institutions and genuinely used by everyone.

We are grateful to the auditors, contributors, developers, and community members who continue to support this work, and we look forward to sharing progress as remediation advances.