Scalar Accessibility
This page gathers the IT Subcommittee's resources and reviews of the accessibility of Scalar. This page will be updated as new information is available or further reviews are conducted.
Accessibility Overview
Created by the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture, Scalar is a digital publishing platform with a heavy visual media focus. In general, we found that Scalar was not accessible. We tested several ebooks created with Scalar as they appeared on their Showcase page, as well as the authorship platform. We encountered several major barriers for screen reader users as well as those who rely on keyboard navigation.
General Information
We were unable to find any VPAT or page on accessibility support on Scalar's website. We used the contact us to request a VPAT and ask questions, but never received a response after 5 months.
- Overview of Scalar geared toward online instruction courses
- A Pressbook on Digital Publishing with Scalar from York University (there is no mention of accessibility in the Pressbook)
- Scalar User's Guide (doesn't include any info about accessibility)
Known Accessibility Issues
Keyboard Control
We were unable to find any information on keyboard shortcuts for the Scalar platform. Some sites created with Scalar were somewhat navigable by keyboard, while others were not. The visualizations we were able to access could not be navigated and used by the keyboard only. On the creator end, the tabs were keyboard navigable, but not the sub tabs nor the main content areas.
Screen Reader Access
While most of the tested sites were at least minimally navigable with a screen reader, there were missing alt text and incorrect headings that got in the way. On some pages, the navigation menu was not usable with a screen reader. On the backend, there was broken ARIA and navigation issues that were the same as with keyboard control.
Other Accessibility Issues
After 200% zoom, the menus become inaccessible. Several low color contrast errors were reported on several pages, as well on the creator side. The link text also came up as low contrast.