Platform: Journal Communication HUB | hub.taylorandfrancis.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:
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.
This accessibility statement for Journal Communication HUB - UAT was last reviewed and updated on 10 April 2026.
hub.taylorandfrancis.com was last tested on 10 April 2026. The test was carried out by Arunraj K, Accessibility Test Lead (IAAP CPACC Certified). A selection of pages representative of the product was comprehensively tested.
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.
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.
Read the full Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) for Journal Communication HUB and check our Accessibility Roadmap 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 2.1 [and WCAG 2.2].
Accessibility testing tools:
Assistive technologies:
Laptop:
Browsers Tested:
Display settings:
At the Journal Communication HUB 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. Issues will be reviewed, and necessary fixes scheduled into our roadmap for completion.
| WCAG Criteria | Issue (Remarks and Explanations) | Completion Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A) | Issues: Logo icon present in all pages and profile image in account section. Interactive icons (Edit, Delete, Close, Favourite, Edit logo, Add SLA, Add more user, Bulk of create, Settings icon, Table dropdown icons, Search, Notification icon, Create journal icon ) are missing programmatic names. | Q2 2026 |
| 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) | Issues: Text visually styled as headings uses non-semantic elements (<div>, <span>) instead of native HTML heading elements. All pages miss a <main> landmark, and breadcrumb navigation lacks proper roles. Non-interactive elements(the numbers below in pie chart on dashboard page) are announced as clickable, All list report incorrect item counts, and All table headers announce extra/blank content. | Q4 2026 |
| 1.4.1 Use of Color (Level A) | Issues: On dashboard page (Home page) data visualization (Queries pie chart present in right side) rely exclusively on color to distinguish between different data points and map them to their corresponding legends. | Q2 2026 |
| 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A) | Issues: Critical global utility features (Search functionality, Notification toggles) cannot be accessed or activated using a keyboard. Custom select menus and dropdowns within all table headers are inaccessible via keyboard, and users cannot remove applied filters. The rich text editing toolbar and various Settings buttons do not receive keyboard focus. | Q2 2026 |
| 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap (Level A) | Issues: All reporting pages when a user expands certain dropdown buttons, a keyboard trap occurs. Users are unable to move focus away from the expanded submenu using standard keyboard navigation. | Q2 2026 |
| 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable (Level A) | Issues: After 3 hours of user inactivity on any JCH page, the application automatically logs the user out. Users are not provided with a warning prior to the expiration, nor are they provided with a mechanism to extend their session before being logged out. | Q2 2026 |
| 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (Level A) | Issues: The product does not provide a mechanism to bypass blocks of content that are repeated on multiple web pages. There is no “Skip to Content” or “Skip to Main Content” link provided, and all pages lack a <main> HTML/ARIA landmark. Additionally, the application does not implement a proper semantic heading structure (e.g., a structural <h1> at the start of the core content). As a result, users are unable to bypass repeated content efficiently, and heading navigation is not supported effectively for assistive technology users. | Q3 2026 |
| 2.4.2 Page Titled (Level A) | Issues: The <title> tag is not dynamically updated when users navigate to different JCH pages or views. The title of the webpage remains static globally ("Collaborate on -- CP"), failing to describe the specific topic, purpose, or context of the active page. | Q2 2026 |
| 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A) | Issues: When popups or modal dialogs are triggered, focus is not programmatically shifted into the new container (such as Create queries, Rename, Delete popup s in Favourite filters, Add more user, Bulk of create in User list, my account edit popup, create new in Stage master, and edit in company account). In some instances (e.g., Dashboard), hidden or non-interactive elements incorrectly remain in the tab order. Within complex navigation structures, the focus order between main menu items and sub-items does not follow a predictable sequence. | Q2 2026 |
| 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A) | Issues: Within data tables, action links such as "View", "Edit", or "Details" use identical visible text for different destinations. These links lack visually hidden text or programmatic context (like aria-label). This creates time-consuming experience for people using screen readers. While sighted users can visually connect an "Edit" or "View" link to its specific table row, screen reader users often navigate pages using an isolated list of links and will only hear the word "Edit" repeated over and over. Without hidden descriptive text telling them exactly what item they are interacting with, they are forced to manually back-track through the table to figure out the context of each link. | Q2 2026 |
| 2.5.3 Label in Name (Level A 2.1 and 2.2) | Issues: Across global forms, All input fields and dropdowns either lack a programmatic label or use an aria-label that does not match the visible text. All buttons use icons with accessible names that do not correspond to the hover-text or visible tooltips provided for sighted users. | Q3 2026 |
| 3.1.1 Language of Page (Level A) | Issues: The product does not provide a programmatic mechanism for assistive technologies to identify the default human language of the web pages. The <html> element throughout the application lacks the required lang attribute. As a result, screen readers may not announce content with the correct pronunciation or language rules, leading to misinterpretation of text. | Q2 2026 |
| 3.2.2 On Input (Level A) | Issues: On reporting pages, selecting an item from certain filters causes additional form fields or new content blocks to appear dynamically. This change is not announced to screen reader users, nor is focus moved to the new content. | Q3 2026 |
| 3.2.6 Consistent Help (Level A 2.2 only) | Issues: Although the "Help" button is consistently positioned within the global navigation, it is currently non-responsive. The link fails to trigger an action or navigate the user to help resources when activated via mouse or keyboard. | Q2 2026 |
| 3.3.1 Error Identification (Level A) | Issues: All forms throughout the application, validation error messages are displayed visually but are not announced by screen readers. Error messages are not programmatically associated with their corresponding input fields. | Q3 2026 |
| 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A) | Issues: Across several pages, certain input fields and dropdown menus (Settings icon, in table, dropdown icon in all table headers, Refresh button in all tables)lack a permanent visible text label, relying solely on placeholder text that disappears. Complex data entry fields in the Reports section do not always provide clear instructions regarding custom data field appears when custom filters is selected. | Q3 2026 |
| 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A) | Issues: Several interactive elements (custom dropdowns, tabs, toggles) are built using non-semantic elements without appropriate ARIA roles. Elements that expand or collapse do not programmatically communicate their state. Multiple buttons (Edit, Delete, Close, Favourite, edit logo, Add SLA, ADD More user, Bulk of create, settings icon, Table dropdown icons, search, notification icon, create journal ) represented by buttons lack a programmatic name or aria-label. | Q3 2026 |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA) | Issues: Throughout the application (Dashboard, My queries, My draft, All journals, spam queries, create queries, Favourite filters, Reports and Settings ), small text and secondary labels fail to meet the minimum contrast threshold. | Q2 2026 |
| 1.4.4 Resize text (Level AA) | Issues: Resizing text to 200% causes icon-based controls (such as Search icon, notification and hide menu) to be partially cut off or obscured. Icons frequently overlap with surrounding borders, lines, and adjacent text. All table require horizontal scrolling to read content when resized. | Q3 2026 |
| 1.4.10 Reflow (Level AA 2.1 and 2.2) | Issues: Critical UI elements controls (such as Search icon, notification and hide menu) and the corporate logo appear irregularly or disappear entirely. | Q3 2026 |
| 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA 2.1 and 2.2) | Issues: The visual boundaries (borders) of input fields and custom dropdowns in the "Create Query" page do not meet the 3:1 contrast ratio against the background. Data visualizations(present in home page under the heading “Queries”) use colors for data points that do not have sufficient contrast against adjacent colors or the background. | Q3 2026 |
| 1.4.12 Text Spacing (Level AA 2.1 and 2.2) | Issues: In several areas (Dashboard page, All data tables), text (Subject, journal row in data tables, “collaborate on –cp” in menu bar, settings and Create query icon and search icon placeholder text ) is cut off because containers have fixed heights and do not expand to accommodate increased spacing. | Q3 2026 |
| 2.4.5 Multiple Ways (Level AA) | Issues: Users must rely solely on the primary linear navigation menu. There is no alternative mechanism provided, such as a site-wide search feature, a sitemap, or a comprehensive list of all available pages. | Q3 2026 |
| 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA) | Issues: Headings are not correctly implemented using HTML heading tags (<h1> through <h6>), preventing users of assistive technology from navigating via a document outline. Some icons within the toolbar still utilize generic labels that do not sufficiently distinguish their specific functions. | Q2 2026 |
| 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level AA) | Issues: The visible focus indicator completely disappears when navigating through toolbar icons and certain interactive elements. After interacting with specific icons (Edit and Delete icons available in user master page, Stage master page, SLA master, Add button in Email template list and fav icons in All journals page) the focus indicator is lost when the "Tab" key is pressed. | Q2 2026 |
| 3.2.4 Consistent Identification (Level AA) | Issues: The “Export” functionality is not identified consistently across the application. The export control is implemented differently in the Report Section, Resolution Report, and User Master pages, with variations in iconography, labelling, and/or structure. | Q4 2026 |
| 3.3.3 Error Suggestion (Level AA) | Issues: Error suggestions are displayed visually on the screen but are not announced by assistive technologies. | Q4 2026 |
| 4.1.3 Status Messages (Level AA 2.1 and 2.2) | Issues: Status messages like form errors, success pop-ups, and cookie policy acceptance, are not communicated to assistive technologies, such as screen readers. | Q3 2026 |
The Journal Communications Hub (JCH) is a specialized email management system utilized by the Taylor & Francis (T&F) Journals Production, Peer Review, and Implementations teams. It acts as a centralized operational hub designed to streamline, track, and manage complex communications with authors, editors, and internal stakeholders throughout the journal issue and article publication lifecycle.
As an internal communications platform, the primary content within JCH consists of email correspondence, system-generated notifications, and standard file attachments.
JCH is a cloud-based web application.
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).
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.
Offering alternatives for time-based media, such as captions for videos and transcripts for audio content.
Creating content that can be presented in different ways (e.g., simpler layout) without losing information or structure.
Making it easier for users to see and hear content, including separating foreground from background Colour.
Making all functionality available from a keyboard, ensuring that users who cannot use a mouse can still navigate and interact with the content.
Providing users enough time to read and use content, such as allowing users to extend time limits or turn off time constraints.
Avoiding content that could cause seizures or physical reactions, such as flashing lights or patterns.
Helping users navigate, find content, and determine where they are, including providing clear and consistent navigation mechanisms.
Making it easier for users to operate functionality through various inputs beyond the keyboard, such as voice commands or touch.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We are always developing solutions to further improve the site’s overall accessibility. In the meantime, should you experience any difficulty in accessing hub.taylorandfrancis.com please email us at jchsupport@codemantra.com. We endeavour to respond within five business days, or less.