VCU Scholars Compass: Accessibility Statement

VCU Scholars Compass is committed to making digital content accessible to individuals with disabilities. The following information provides details related to the ADA standards compliance and accessibility features of this site. If you would like additional assistance or have accessibility questions about VCU Scholars Compass, please contact the VCU Libraries by email, text (804) 435-5420, or call (844) 352-7399. Please see the VCU Libraries Accessibility page. You can also contact bepress Consulting Services via email at or by phone at 510.665.1200 ext. 2.

Accessibility Resources

Resources on Creating Accessible Content

Standards Conformance

bepress endeavors to meet all guidelines and standards established by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 at level AA conformance, and Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act. These guidelines define how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities, and conformance to them improves the web's usability for all people.

Digital Commons is partially compliant with WCAG 2.0 at level AA, and we make continual improvements with the aim of achieving full compliance. In certain areas, Digital Commons implements level AAA success criteria.

For a detailed review of how Digital Commons conforms with WCAG 2.0 success criteria, please refer to our Voluntary Product Assessment Template (VPAT) document. This document was produced by the members of the Elsevier and bepress internal accessibility teams.

Digital Commons VPAT (PDF)

Accessibility Measures at bepress

Accessibility is a product development priority at bepress, and full standards compliance is represented on our product roadmaps. We promote awareness of accessibility principles among our employees, providing opportunities and resources for them to further develop web accessibility expertise. We maintain a dedicated internal accessibility team to evaluate, support, and improve web accessibility on our platforms.

Our Consulting Services team works together with the VCU Scholars Compass administration to publish accessible pages and content on VCU Scholars Compass. We strive for open communication with our community of repository administrators on our shared challenges and successes in promoting accessible scholarship on the web.

Accessibility Support and Feedback

If you have accessibility questions regarding Digital Commons, or to report accessibility issues, please contact bepress Consulting Services via email at or by phone at +1 (510) 665-1200 ext. 2. We usually respond within 24 hours on weekdays.

Accessibility Features

Portable Document Format (PDF) Files

Digital Commons records may include PDF files as downloadable primary full texts or supplementary content.

VCU Scholars Compass may choose to make tagged PDFs available for users of assistive technology. Document processing within Digital Commons preserves the tag structure of uploaded PDF files. Primary files may have a standard Digital Commons cover page (which contains appropriate tags) prepended to the document.

VCU Scholars Compass may choose to make PDFs with searchable text or Optical Character Recognition (OCR) available.

Structural Markup

Main navigation links are consistent across pages in VCU Scholars Compass. Site structure is standardized, as all pages comprise 4 sections:

  1. A header bar that includes the main navigation
  2. A main content area
  3. A sidebar
  4. A footer

When Cascading Styles Sheets (CSS) are disabled, or when using assistive technology, the 4 sections are read in the above order.

Most content and features are operable using only the keyboard. Most of the content of static pages can be accessed with JavaScript disabled in the web browser.

Skip Navigation Link

Keyboard users may bypass repetitive elements at the top of each page by immediately tabbing to the first interactive item, which is a “Skip to Main Content” link. This allows users to jump to the main section of the current page context.

Visual Design and Mobile Display

All pages and content may be enlarged using standard browser controls or screen magnification software.

A mobile-specific style sheet, with a smaller viewport, is applied for users loading pages on mobile devices. Pages are mostly usable when style sheets are disabled.

Text has sufficient contrast (4.5:1 for small text; 3:1 for large text) with its corresponding background to be clearly legible in almost all areas of the site. Links are visually distinguished from text, and most interactive elements also have obvious visual hover and focus states.

Access Keys

Access keys allow users to jump to specific elements of a web page using keyboard shortcuts. To activate an access key, press the modifier key + the access key.

Access key modifiers differ between the web browsers and operating system platforms:

  • Chrome: Alt on Windows. Ctrl + ⌥ Opt on Mac.
  • Firefox: Alt + ⇧ Shift on Windows. Ctrl + ⌥ Opt on Mac.

All pages in VCU Scholars Compass define the following numeric access keys:

  • Access key 1: VCU Scholars Compass Home (navigates away from current page context)
  • Access key 2: Main Content Area (of the current page context)
  • Access key 3: My Account Page (navigates away from current page context)
  • Access key 4: Search (activates search input field)
  • Access key 0: Accessibility Statement (navigates away from current page context)

Additionally, search results pages may be navigated using the following alphabetical access keys:

  • Access key f: First results page
  • Access key n: Next results page
  • Access key p: Previous results page
  • Access key l: Last results page

Rich text fields on submission forms have the following built-in keyboard shortcuts:

  • Alt + 0 - Help
  • Alt + F10 - Toolbar (also allows user to return to the previous field)