Legal statements

Accessibility statement for Library Search (Summon)

This accessibility statement applies to the University of Glasgow Library’s implementation of Summon which supplied by third party vendor, Proquest (part of Clarivate).

Using this website

This website is provided by The University of Glasgow but is delivered by Proquest. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you 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.
• Easily read text on the page due to high colour contrast.
• Listen to most of the website using a screen reader.
• Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software.
• Zoom in up to 400% using browser tools without text spilling off screen.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible:

• While the main workflow on this website is keyboard accessible, there are some areas that are difficult or impossible to navigate with a keyboard.
• Some repetitive areas on the page are not skippable using skip links.
• Labels are missing for controls in a small number of cases.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Web: UofG Helpdesk

Email: ithelpdesk@glasgow.ac.uk 

call: 0141 330 4800

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 business days.

British Sign Language

BSL users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the online British Sign Language interpreting video relay service.

Find out more about BSL assistance: contactSCOTLAND

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact:

Web: UofG Helpdesk

Email: ithelpdesk@glasgow.ac.uk 

call: 0141 330 4800

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Glasgow is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Keyboard Access

Most of the website can be navigated with a keyboard alone, but there are several areas that are currently inaccessible or hard to access.

Because the search results load continuously, the areas that appear after the results (on the right side of the page) cannot be accessed by simply tabbing through the page. To access these sections of the page, we recommend you navigate using headings; the titles of the sections are marked with heading level 3.

A small number of areas are inaccessible with keyboard navigation. On the Saved Items page, the citation style selection dropdown menu cannot be focused with a keyboard. On the results page, there are sometimes keyboard-inaccessible links that appear at the bottom of result entries for things like “About the author” and “look inside.”

Skip Links

While skip to content link is available, it doesn't take the user to the content. Users have to tab through the elements to get to the content or utilise the headings.

Status Messages

There are a number of controls within Summon that show and hide information. While this helps sighted users avoid information overload, the status of these controls is not always communicated to assistive technologies like screen readers.

Areas where status is not announced include:

• The suggestions that appear when typing a search.

Colour Contrast

While most text throughout Summon meets minimum colour contrast standards, but there are cases where text does not have enough contrast with the background colour. These relate to supplementary pieces of information around the result items. For example, the colour of “Original Research” and page number tags that appear before the titles of some results are too light.

If colour contrast is a concern for you, we recommend utilizing one of the free browser plugins that can increase text/background color contrast, such as the High Contrast extension for Google Chrome.

Labels

Throughout Summon, form elements and buttons are given accessible labels, so you can use assistive technologies to determine the purpose of various controls. The majority of elements have labels, but there are a small number of missing labels. In these cases, there are usually adjacent text labels that describe the purpose of the control.

One missing label that might affect your ability to do research relates to the functionality to search within a particular journal. If you want to search within a journal, you can click or select the journal name below a particular result. This will reload the page with the focus on the search input box. Searching at this point will search Summon for results from only the selected journal. In this case, there is a text description above the search box that says “Search within #journal name#” but this text is not assigned as a descriptive label. If you are using a screen reader, this label will not be discoverable.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Please see Proquest’s Summon accessibility conformance report (updated February 2023). 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working with our vendor, Proquest, to review the system’s accessibility and where possible influence improvements. We will refer any reported accessibility issues directly to Proquest.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 24 May 2023.

This page was last updated 18 September 2023.