SPIE Digital Library Accessibility Statement

SPIE is committed to providing an accessible digital library experience for all users, regardless of ability or assistive technology.

Accessibility is a core design principle of the new SPIE Digital Library

The redesigned SPIE Digital Library was built from the ground up with accessibility in mind. Every component, layout pattern, and content standard was evaluated against WCAG 2.2 Level AA. This page documents where we stand, what we have shipped, and what we are still working on.

Conformance Reports

Download our conformance reports for detailed information about the platform's alignment with applicable accessibility standards.

Combined Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR)
Our current report covering conformance to WCAG 2.2 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Download ACR

European Accessibility Act (EAA) Statement
Conformance to accessibility standards set by the European Commission and approved by the European Parliament.

Download EAA Statement

Previous Reports

Older reports are retained for reference. The combined ACR above reflects current conformance status.

On This Page

Our Commitment

SPIE strives to provide an accessible web presence to all people. To support this commitment, SPIE follows the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA as the enterprise Web Accessibility objective.

This statement also confirms our alignment with the European Accessibility Act (EAA) as it applies to our digital publication products. We continually monitor, analyze, and remediate the accessibility of our content to ensure it can be used by everyone, wherever and however they are accessing it.

Accessibility Features

Website

WCAG 2.2 Level AA contrast and luminosity standards
Keyboard navigation and visible focus states sitewide
Alt text on proceedings and journals content
Alt text on non-article web page images
Compatible with common screen readers
Responsive design for mobile and assistive devices

Article and Poster PDFs

PDFs published on or after June 28, 2025 include accessibility tagging, metadata, and alt text

Conference Presentation Videos

Transcripts available
Closed captioning
Adjustable playback rate

eBooks

Available in accessible EPUB format

Known Limitations

Despite our best efforts, the following limitations currently exist. All items are planned for remediation where possible. Please contact SPIEDLSupport@spie.org if you encounter an issue not listed here.

Older PDFs: Article and poster PDFs published before June 28, 2025 do not include accessibility tagging or alt text.
Article figure alt text: Scientific figures and graphics embedded within article PDFs do not yet have descriptive alt text.
Some form fields and interactive controls are missing accessible labels.
Some links are missing a text alternative.

Planned Improvements

We are actively working on the following:

Accessible labels for all form fields and interactive controls
Text alternatives for all links
Alt text for scientific figures and graphics within article PDFs
Retroactive accessibility remediation for PDFs published before June 28, 2025

We conduct regular accessibility audits and update this page as work progresses. Our ongoing program includes continuous testing, staff training, and active user feedback monitoring.

This statement was created on 3/15/26 and updated on 3/15/26.

Share your feedback

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of the SPIE Digital Library. If you experience difficulty accessing any content or feature, or if you would like to volunteer for end-user accessibility testing, please reach out. We review all feedback and respond as promptly as possible.

Email SPIEDLSupport

Technical specifications

Accessibility of the SPIE Digital Library relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

HTML
CSS
WAI-ARIA

These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.