Accessibility Statement
Accessibility declaration
Platform: F1000 | F1000.com
Taylor & Francis is committed to ensuring that our platform is accessible for all our users, regardless of their ability or technology. We are constantly working on improving the accessibility and usability of our platform.
Our platform endeavours to conform to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA Standard and Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (WAI-ARIA) 1.2.
We also adhere to guidance from:
- Section 508 Standards of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act
- Americans with Disabilities Act, Title II
- EN 301 549 – European Union Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe
- European Accessibility Act (28 June 2025)
- The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
These guidelines detail how to make content accessible to a wide range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This accessibility statement for F1000 was last reviewed and updated on 30 March 2026.
F1000 was last tested on 18 December 2025. The test was carried out by Jennie Mather – Accessibility Officer. It was reviewed by Phil Allum – Senior Web Development Manager.
Corporate Accessibility Statement
Read the Corporate Accessibility Statement for Taylor & Francis to learn more about what we’re doing as a company across all of our sites and content workflows.
Our commitment to accessible publishing
Publishing Accessibility Action Group (PAAG) Charter
Taylor & Francis signed the PAAG Charter in December 2022 and are committed to meeting the 10 commitments of this charter. Our objective is to make all content accessible and to embed accessible practices throughout the publishing ecosystem.
Inclusive Publishing (The DAISY Consortium)
We are an Inclusive Publishing Partner. Inclusive Publishing is co-ordinated and managed by The DAISY Consortium (Digital Accessible Information System). The group contributes to mainstream standards, develops guidelines to promote best practices, raises awareness of accessible reading systems and supports open standards for inclusive publishing and shares knowledge to make mainstream publications accessible to all, including people with print disabilities.
Accessibility Conformance Report
Read the full Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) for F1000 and check our Accessibility Roadmap to learn about any issues scheduled for review.
The Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) may also be referred to as a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT). The ACR is the final output, having populated the VPAT guidance document.
There are four VPAT templates, we use the combined template which covers Section 508, EN 301 549, WCAG 2.2.
Tools used for accessibility testing
We use a combination of automated tools and manual testing:
Accessibility testing tools: Siteimprove.com with site target set to WCAG 2.2 Levels A and AA, with ARIA and accessibility best practices included, to identify issues and potential issues. Accessibility Insights for Web (Edge Extension), axe-DevTools (Microsoft Edge), TPGi Colour Contrast Analyzer (CCA) Version 3.5.2. Accessibility bookmarklets have also been used.
Assistive technologies: Non-Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) screen reader Version 2025.3.1, as well as exclusive use of the keyboard to navigate site content and test user interface functionality. Goldtouch SK2730 split keyboard. Penguin Ambidextrous Vertical Mouse (model 9820100).
Laptop: Microsoft Edge 143.0.3650.80 and Chrome Version 143.0.7499.41on a DELL laptop running Microsoft Window 11 Enterprise Version 23H2 with OS build 22631.6060.
Resize display settings: 1280 × 1024 and 1280 × 768, with scaling at 100%, and browser set to 200%. Reflow display settings: 1280 × 1024, with scaling at 100%, and browser set to 400%.
Mobile: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, running Android 16 and One UI version 8.0, with Chrome Version 143.0.7400.109. Used for checking Orientation with locked and unlocked screen rotation settings.
Accessibility roadmap
At the F1000 platform, we release updates regularly. In each release, accessibility is a fundamental aspect of the development and quality assurance processes, ensuring that the platform adheres to the legislation and guidance outline in our accessibility declaration.
In June 2024, we partnered with a third-party company, Siteimprove. This comprehensive tool allows us to regularly audit our products, producing a report on any areas that require fixing and their priority status.
Issues are reviewed, and necessary fixes scheduled into our roadmap for completion.
April to June (Q2) remediation plan
| WCAG criteria | Issue detail |
|---|---|
| 1.4.1 Use of Colour (A) | Form field level error messages: no supporting visual indicator, rely on red colour alone to present error information. Contact Us, Open Research Services, and Resources for Researchers. |
| 1.4.1 Use of Colour (A) | Top of form error message: no supporting visual indicator, relies on red colour alone to present error information. Resources for Researchers. |
| 2.4.3 Focus Order (A) | Webinar videos: the Tab Stops to navigate the video listings do not consistently go left to right down the page. Some videos include a Tab Stop on both the video thumbnail and button, others just the button. |
| 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (A) | News: the “previous page” and “next page” links at the bottom of the page, contain visual triangle icons only – no visual or accessible name text. |
| 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (A) | Links in the same context with the same text alternative: four pages display multiple links with the exact same link text – despite pointing to different pages. See Accessibility Conformance Report for full list. |
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A) | Hidden element has focusable content: Three pages contain parts hidden from view for users who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, but these hidden sections still contain buttons or links that can be selected. This creates confusion because users may encounter interactive elements that seem to appear out of nowhere, disrupting their navigation and making it harder to use the site. Resources for researchers (carousel) F1000 Research (carousel) Article Types (collapse/expand buttons) |
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A) | ARIA attribute unsupported or prohibited: two pages have text within a carousel block that uses unsupported or prohibited aria-labelledby code. F1000 Research Open Research Services |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA) | Colour contrast does not meet minimum requirement: 11 pages (73 occurrences) with text and background contrast ratio below 4.5:1. The occurrences range from 1.48:1 to 4.36:1. This affects the breadcrumb navigation, links in body copy, carousel call to action buttons, and privacy policy link. |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA) | Blog category banners: grey text against a dark multi-colour background. Ratio ranges from 1:1 to 4.4:1. Parts of the text are impossible to read. |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA) | Form issues – colours to be reviewed and forms across the site to be consistent: Error messages: different shades of red, against a pink. Some fall below ratio threshold. Asterisks: light green on pink asterisks, marking required fields. Form field labels: light grey text, on white. Submission confirmation message: dark grey and white text, on dark green background (multiple shades). Ratio ranges from 3.2:1 to 5.1:1. Privacy link: green text, on green. |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA) | Mint green text (00C49A) on white. Ratio 2.24:1. Example: Mint green text (00C49A) on grey (EBEFF0). Ratio 1.94:1. Hyperlink text green (007E61) on grey (EBEFF0). Ratio 4.4:1. Grey text (253746) on orange (F2673C). Ratio: 3.96:1. Mint green text (00C49A) on dark green (00614B). Ratio 3.33:1. |
| 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (AA) | Subscribe Now – form button: poor contrast when it receives keyboard focus (dark blue text on dark green). |
| 3.3.4 Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data) (AA) | Subscribe opt-in: users are asked to agree to receiving marketing communications without clear access to the Privacy Policy, which could lead to uninformed consent. |
July to September 2026 (Q3) remediation plan
| WCAG criteria | Issue detail |
|---|---|
| 1.2.2 Captions (prerecorded) (A) | Captions are not available for content hosted in T&F Wistia. This content will be moved to YouTube, which has the functionality to add captions. |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A) | Container element is empty: across three pages there are five empty containers, used to generate blank lines within content blocks. The elements are marked as role=”list” which is a parent role. However, they do not contain a required child role group or listitem element. |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A) | Article Types: contain three collapse/expand content block buttons where text is visually styled to look like a heading. The H3 tags are empty and incorrectly used, can cause issues with accessibility and page structure. |
| 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (A) 2.4.3 Focus Order (A) 1.4.4 Resize Text (AA) | Secondary navigation menu (Terms, Cookies): when the browser zoom is set to 150%+, this becomes a burger menu. Whilst this can be reached by keyboard, the order of engagement is not a good user experience – Tabbing an excessive number of times to reach the two list items in the expanded menu. The list items cannot be reached using NVDA keyboard shortcuts either, such as ‘K’ for links. |
| 1.4.12 Text Spacing (AA) | The following text parameters are to be reviewed and confirm they are met throughout the site: Line height (line spacing) to at least 1.5 times the font size; Spacing following paragraphs to at least 2 times the font size; Letter spacing (tracking) to at least 0.12 times the font size; Word spacing to at least 0.16 times the font size. |
| 1.4.4 Resize Criteria (AA) | About Us – Our Story So Far: the carousel block becomes difficult to read when the text is enlarged, it goes outside of the date period box, and joins with words in adjacent blocks. |
| 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide (A) | Moving patterned background: The background of grey circles moves when scrolling up and down the page – this can affect visual processing, cause cognitive exhaustion, and can affect colour contrast. Examples: Contact Us, Webinars, Publishing Venue, and Open Access |
| 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A) | Resources for researchers: graphic for “What is open research?” needs to be marked as decorative. |
| 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (A) | Asterisks: where these are provided at form field level, to mark fields that require completion, there is no message at the top of the form to confirm their meaning to users. |
| 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (A) | No visual indicator for required fields: announced to screen readers as “required”, but have no upfront visual indicator for sighted and low vision users. They only know it’s required once an error message appears. |
| 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (A) | Non-persistent field names: labels must be persistent (not placeholder text that disappears when a user starts typing) so users can understand what information is always expected, including when reviewing their input or encountering an error. |
October to December 2026 (Q4) remediation plan
| WCAG criteria | Issue detail |
|---|---|
| 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (prerecorded) (A) | Standard transcripts are not available for content hosted in T&F Wistia. This content will be moved to YouTube. |
| 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A) | Footer and Breadcrumb landmarks: there are three landmarks with the same name, “Navigation LM” (breadcrumb, footer links, social media). They need to be uniquely named, so users clearly know what each one is for. |
| 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A) | Page region missing an accessible name: five pages display carousel blocks with the role of “region”. Their landmarks are named “Region LM” and have not been assigned accessible names. |
| 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) (AA) | Research Archives: has six buttons that are 22px high. |
| 3.2.6 Consistent Help (A) | Contact Us: does not provide alternative contact methods (email, phone, chatbot) to meet different user communication needs. |
| 3.2.4 Consistent Identification (AA) | Error messages are usually displayed inline, below the related field. One form has the error message placement above the field – this may be confusing, as expectation is that it would then relate to the field above, which it doesn’t. |
| Best practice issues | Content missing after heading: seven pages contain headings with no identified content below them – often going straight into another heading. May lead to confusion about whether there is hidden information. |
| Best practice issues | Headings are not structured: one or more heading levels skipped: Submitting your article: missing H3, jumps H2 to H4. News: missing H2, jumps H1 to H3. Case Studies: missing H2, jumps H1 to H3. Category Researchers: missing H2, jumps from H1 to H3. |
| Best practice issues | Overuse of italics: two pages contain carousel banners displaying customer feedback quotes. The quote paragraphs are in italics, against a patterned background – which may add extra cognitive exhaustion and reading difficulty for users. F1000Research Open Research Services |
Content types and formats
Platform
F1000 is an open research publisher and services provider that enables researchers, funders, research institutions, societies, and associations to accelerate the reach of knowledge.
Content
F1000 provides content in various formats, ensuring accessibility and usability for all users. User guides are available to assist with accessing and using the platform.
Videos
For content hosted on YouTube:
- Standard, time-stamped transcripts are available, and the timestamps can be toggled on/off.
- Closed captions are provided and the caption font style can be changed to meet user preferences.
Review of video content is required to ensure content, has all its meaningful visual information made available through either (a) a separate audio description track, or (b) a text-based descriptive transcript that captures both what is heard and seen, or (c) both.
Accessibility features
Embedding accessibility
Taylor & Francis aims to ensure that accessibility is at the heart of our platform development, by subscribing to the Four Principles of Accessibility – POUR, as published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
- Perceivable: Users must be able to perceive the information being presented to them by at least one of their senses.
- Operable: Users must be able to operate the interface; it cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform.
- Understandable: Users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface.
- Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies. This means that users must be able to access the content as technologies advance.
Text alternatives
Providing text alternatives for non-text content, such as images, icons, and multimedia, so that it can be changed into other forms people need, like large print, braille, speech, symbols, or simpler language.
- Most non-text content has a text alternative.
Time-based media
Offering alternatives for time-based media, such as captions for videos and transcripts for audio content.
- No audio-only content on the site.
- No video content without an audio track on the site.
- Closed captions are provided for content hosted on YouTube, and the font style can be changed to meet user preferences.
- Standard, time-stamped transcripts are available for videos watched via YouTube. Timestamps can be toggled on/off.
- Live webinars provide options for captions.
Adaptable content
Creating content that can be presented in different ways (e.g., simpler layout) without losing information or structure.
- The order of content in the website’s code mostly matches the logical reading order that users expect.
- Instructions do not solely rely on characteristics such as size, visual location, orientation, sound, or shape.
- When rotating a device from portrait to landscape the site remains readable and usable.
- Form fields can be identified by the browser, so that auto-complete suggestions can be offered.
Distinguishable content
Making it easier for users to see and hear content, including separating foreground from background
- Mostly, colour is not the only visual means of conveying information.
- No audio-only or video content plays automatically.
- Some text meets contrast ratio requirements.
- Most pages can be resized up to 200% without impacting functionality or requiring horizontal scrolling.
- Text is used to convey information, rather than images of text.
- New content triggered by hover or keyboard focus, can be dismissed, and/or interacted with.
Operable
Keyboard accessible
Making all functionality available from a keyboard, ensuring that users who cannot use a mouse can still navigate and interact with the content.
- All functionality is operable using the keyboard only.
- No specific timings to complete individual keystrokes.
- No keyboard traps, or shortcuts.
Enough time
Providing users enough time to read and use content, such as allowing users to extend time limits or turn off time constraints.
- Where time limits cannot be avoided, they can be turned off, adjusted, or extended.
- Carousel blocks do not scroll automatically.
- YouTube content can be play, paused, stopped.
Seizures and physical reactions
Avoiding content that could cause seizures or physical reactions, such as flashing lights or patterns.
- No flashing content on the site.
Navigable
Helping users navigate, find content, and determine where they are, including providing clear and consistent navigation mechanisms.
- First clickable item on the page is a “skip to main content link”.
- Landmarks define core parts of the page.
- Pages have unique title element to describes what’s on that page
- Focusable elements, mostly receive focus in an order that preserves meaning and operability.
- Mostly, a link’s destination is clear.
- Header navigation is not the only way to get around the site.
- There is visible keyboard focus styling.
- Content receiving Keyboard focus is always at least partially visible.
Input modalities
Making it easier for users to operate functionality through various inputs beyond the keyboard, such as voice commands or touch.
- No author-created gestures that require actions to be carried out using a gesture or drawing, or device motion.
- Functions that use a single pointer are completed when the user releases the pointer.
- Components with labels that include text or images of text, have a corresponding accessible name.
- No actions that require dragging.
- Most clickable elements are at least 24 × 24 pixels in size.
Understandable
Readable
Making text content readable and understandable, which involves using clear and simple language, providing definitions for unusual words or phrases, and ensuring that the reading level is appropriate for the audience.
- Page language is identified (en-GB).
Predictable
Creating web pages that appear and operate in predictable ways, such as ensuring that navigation is consistent across the site and that interactive elements behave in expected ways.
- When a component receives focus, it does not initiate unexpected changes.
- No unexpected changes of context on user input.
- Placement of help details and options is consistent across the site.
- Navigation is consistent from page to page.
- Components are identified consistently.
Input assistance
Helping users avoid and correct mistakes, which includes providing clear labels and instructions for form fields, offering error suggestions, and ensuring that forms are easy to complete.
- Errors are automatically detected, clearly indicated and described.
- Error messages are provided as text and announced for assistive devices.
- Help is provided to prevent form errors.
- Forms do not ask users to enter the same information more than once.
- Helpful suggestions are provided to correct errors.
Robust
Compatible
Maximizing compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies. This involves using well-formed markup and following standards to ensure that content can be reliably processed by different devices and software.
- Elements and components have the right names, roles, states, properties and values.
- Status messages are communicated to assistive technologies.
Feedback and contact information
Contact us
We are always developing solutions to further improve the site’s overall accessibility. In the meantime, should you experience any difficulty in accessing F1000 please email us journalswebdev@tandf.co.uk or use our online contact form. We endeavour to respond within five business days, or fewer.
Request service
Taylor & Francis request service
When a work is unavailable for purchase in a suitable format, we endeavour to provide one within three working days. Institutions and individuals can place their request via our Academic VIP (Visually Impaired Persons) Team. Note, this team handle alternative format requests for all print-disabilities.
RNIB Bookshare and Bookshare
Our titles are also available through RNIB Bookshare | UK Education Collection, and Bookshare | Benetech in PDF and EPUB formats, and are shared with these platforms as part of our automated publishing workflow. Where EPUB is provided, titles can be downloaded as a Word, DAISY, Braille Ready File (BRF) or EPUB file, as well as being supported by the built-in reading tool and Dolphin Easy Reader.
General information
If you would like more general information or help with web-accessibility, we recommend the BBC Accessibility Help page.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has information on assistive aids and technology for blind and partially sighted people.