Fulcrum Accessibility Conformance and Remediation Roadmap:
ACLS Humanities E-Book
Overview
This form serves as means for libraries and auditors to get a better picture of the accessibility gaps associated with Fulcrum and ACLS
Humanities E-Book content by documenting known issues and Fulcrum’s plans for addressing these issues in the future. It is meantto serve as a supplement to the ACLS HEB VPAT®.
Information about the fields in the table on the following page:
1.

2.

3.

Issue Description: Lists each major accessibility issue for the product Including the following:oGaps identified from the WCAG 2.1 A & AA guidelines, Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT®) andEPUB3 Accessibility Guidelines (if applicable)oGaps identified in other product support documentationoGaps identified by a third-party accessibility evaluation report (if available)

Current Status: Enter one of the following values:
oOpen: The issue has not yet been resolved

oClosed: The issue has already been resolved

oI/P: The issue is currently under investigation

oOtherDisposition: Enter one of the following values:oPlanned: The issue will be resolved

oDeferred: The issue will not be resolved

oI/P: The issue is currently under investigation

oOther4.

Remediation Timeline: Enter when you anticipate that the issue will be resolved

5.

Available Workarounds: Describes the business processes Fulcrum offers or third-party products that should be considered
to work around the issue until full remediation.

6.

Comments: Provide details/description regarding the issue

7.

Additional Information: Provide any additional discussion regarding accessibility plans

The list of issues in the following table has been divided into two areas: content issues and platform issues. We separate theaccessibility issues into these categories because resolving each requires a different approach from the other.

Vendor/Product Information
Vendor Name
Product Name
Product Version
Completion Date
Contact Name/Title
Contact Email/Phone

Fulcrum
ACLS Humanities E-Book Collection
3.5
October 18 2022
Jonathan McGlone
jmcglone@umich.edu

Specific Issues
Issue Description

Current Status(Open, Closed,I/P)

Disposition(Planned,Deferred, I/P)

Remediation
Timeline

Available
Workarounds

Comments

EPUB and PDF
Content: No alt text forimages

OpenDeferredN/A

Can be added
to a specificbook ondemand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader
violation - WCAG 1.1.1(A)

EPUB Content:
Heading structure
accuracy varies

I/P

I/P

Q4 2022Can be added
to a specificbook ondemand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader
violation - WCAG 1.3.1(A)

PDF Content:
Untagged so
information, structure,and relationships
cannot be
programmaticallydetermined andcorrect tab, reading
order cannot bespecified, andkeyboard navigation isnot supported.

I/P

I/P

Q4 2022Can be added
to a specificbook on
demand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader,
keyboard violation:
WCAG 1.3.1, 1.3.2,
2.1.1 (A), 2.4.6 (AA)EPUB and PDF
Content: Some don’t
specify language
attributes

Open

DeferredN/A

Can be added
to a specificbook ondemand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader
violation - WCAG 3.1.1(A)EPUB and PDF
Content: Somescanned books andimages in books may
have insufficient color
contrastOpen

DeferredN/A

Can becorrected in aspecific bookon demand via
request for
remediation

Visual violation WCAG 1.4.3 (AA)Content Issues

Issue Description

Current Status(Open, Closed,I/P)

Disposition(Planned,Deferred, I/P)

Remediation
Timeline

Available
Workarounds

Comments

EPUB Content: OCR forscanned books is
uncorrected

Open

DeferredN/A

Can becorrected in a
specific bookon demand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader
violation – WCAG
1.4.5 (AA)PDF Content: Imagesof text (no OCR)

I/P

I/P

Q4 2022Can becorrected in a
specific bookon demand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader
violation – WCAG
1.4.5 (AA)EPUB Content: Qualityof link labels varies(may not be
descriptive in context)

Open

DeferredN/A

Can becorrected in aspecific bookon demand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader
violation – WCAG
2.4.4 (AA)EPUB Content: Fixedlayout EPUB
publications (scannedbooks) do not include
headings.

I/P

I/P

Q4 2022Can be added
to a specificbook ondemand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader andkeyboard violation –WCAG 2.4.6 (AA)EPUB Content: No
language of parts
tagging

Open

DeferredN/A

Can be added
to a specificbook ondemand via
request forremediation

Screen reader
violation – WCAG
3.1.2 (AA)EPUB and PDF
Content: Publication
reading level varies

OpenDeferred

N/A

Can beresolved for aspecific bookon demand via
request for
remediation

Cognitive violation –Section 508 302.9

EPUB Content: Tables
do not include correctrow, column, andheader tags in fixedlayout publications

I/P

I/P

Q4 2022Can becorrected or
added to a
specific bookon demand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader
violation – Section 508
502.3.3

Issue Description

Current Status(Open, Closed,
I/P)Disposition(Planned,Deferred, I/P)

Remediation
Timeline

Available
Workarounds

Comments

PDF Content: No
descriptive titles

I/P

I/P

Q4 2022Can be added
to a specificbook ondemand via
request for
remediation

Screen reader
violation – WCAG
2.4.2 (A)When searching insidea book and following asearch result to its
occurrence in the text,
the matched result isonly indicated throughhighlighting of thematched text.

Open

Planned

Q2 2023

None

Visual violation –WCAG 1.4.1 (A); Will
be addressed duringupcoming e-reader
redesign.

Font type and font size
set through browser
extensions affect all
text except for thecontent of books in theFulcrum EReader.
However, the Fulcrum
EReader allows users
to change the font size
but not the type.

I/P

I/P

Q2 2023

Font size of thetext can beincreased using
the E-Reader’spreferences
menu.

Visual violation –Section 503.2;
Because the bookcontent is separated
and controlled
differently than the ereader application,
this may not be
resolvable. The goal toimproving usability
with this issue is tomake the user
preferences menu
clearer to users, sothat they can quickly
and easily adjust fontsize if needed.

Filter buttons andBrowse Books page
content do notrespond to voicecommand navigation
in Dragon
NaturallySpeaking

OpenPlanned

Q4 2022

NoneThe Fulcrum platform
has yet to be tested
voice commandassistive technology,
but we plan toconduct an audit ofessential functions
and solutions for thisand other issues
identified towards theend of 2022.

Platform Issues

Additional Information:
Notes on HEB Content Issues
At the current time, ACLS HEB staff do not plan to perform accessibility remediation upon the entire backlist collection of titles. Ouraccessibility plan for content going forward involves: 1) performing remediation of backlist content upon request from a user and 2)

re-formatting all backlist content to a more accessible format that better aligns with accessibility standards outlined in WCAG 2.1 AAand 3) working with publishers to ensure front list titles we receive from publishers meet accessibility standards, and when that is
not possible, perform basic accessibility improvements to the content before publishing to the collection.

Notes on Fulcrum Platform Issues
The Fulcrum development team regularly audits and performs accessibility focused development work to improve the overall
accessibility of the platform that supports the ACLS HEB collection. Of particular note is a planned re-design of the Fulcrum E-Reader
app in 2023, based on usability test findings with print-disabled users conducted at the beginning of 2020 and usability tests in early2022. The primary goal of the E-Reader re-design is to address known accessibility issues in the E-Reader and to improve theapplication so that readers have an intuitive and accessible reading experience, as well as to include accessibility metadata for each
title on product pages.