This is an accessibility statement from the National Consumer Law Center on the NCLC Digital Library.
Measures to Support Accessibility
The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) takes the following measures to ensure accessibility of the NCLC Digital Library website:
- Integrate accessibility throughout our internal policies and development practices.
- Assign clear accessibility goals and responsibilities across teams.
- Employ formal accessibility quality assurance methods.
- Engage Zenyth, an independent accessibility consulting firm, to conduct a comprehensive accessibility audit and provide ongoing oversight toward achieving conformance with recognized standards.
Conformance Status
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. They define three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA.
The NCLC Digital Library website is currently partially conformant with WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard.
A comprehensive accessibility audit of the NCLC Digital Library has been completed by Zenyth, a digital accessibility consulting firm specializing in comprehensive evaluation, design, and remediation oversight. Remediation is currently underway, covering both the website and the library's downloadable documents. The NCLC Digital Library is committed to achieving full conformance with WCAG 2.2 Level AA by April 26, 2027, including the remediation of all non-exempt PDFs and other downloadable documents.
Remediation Approach
Remediation is being carried out in prioritized rounds rather than all at once, so that the changes reaching the highest number of readers are delivered first.
For the website, defects are ranked by severity and by how widely they repeat across the site. Issues that originate in a shared template or script are corrected once at that level, so a single fix resolves the issue on every page where it appears. Each completed round is re-tested against the original findings to confirm the corrections hold before the next round begins.
For documents, the library is being remediated collection by collection, beginning with the most heavily used materials. Each remediated document is tagged and validated to PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1) and WCAG 2.1 Level AA. A limited number of documents are older archival materials that exist only as scanned images of printed pages, or are not owned by NCLC and cannot be recreated. For these, we will supply the content in an alternative format on request.
Accessibility Conformance Reports
Independent Accessibility Conformance Reports prepared by Zenyth record the results of the evaluation and are updated as remediation progresses:
- Accessibility Conformance Report for the NCLC Digital Library website (WCAG 2.2 Level AA)
- Accessibility Conformance Report for the NCLC Digital Library document collections (WCAG 2.1 Level AA and PDF/UA)
Feedback
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of the NCLC Digital Library website. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers:
- Phone: (617) 542-9595
- Email: [email protected]
- Mailing Address: 7 Winthrop Square, 4th Floor, Boston MA 02110
We aim to respond to accessibility-related feedback within 2-3 business days.
Compatibility with Browsers and Assistive Technology
The NCLC Digital Library website is designed to be compatible with the following assistive technologies:
- Firefox with NVDA on Windows
- Edge with JAWS on Windows
- Chrome with TalkBack on Android
- Safari with VoiceOver on macOS
- Safari with VoiceOver on iOS
Technical Specifications
Accessibility of the NCLC Digital Library website relies on the following technologies to work with your web browser and assistive technologies:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- WAI-ARIA
- Tagged PDF, conforming to PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1), for remediated downloadable documents
These technologies are essential for ensuring compatibility with current accessibility standards.
Assessment Approach
The accessibility of the NCLC Digital Library website is being assessed by Zenyth through the following approaches:
- Independent expert evaluation
- Manual and automated accessibility testing
- Screen reader and keyboard-only usability testing
- Ongoing remediation oversight and verification
Exemption of Archival and Third-Party Materials
Certain documents available on the NCLC Digital Library are exempt from full digital accessibility remediation due to their historical nature, age, or external origin. These include:
- Archival and Historical Documents: Companion materials including legacy PDFs, historical legal filings, outdated reference guides, and older publications created prior to modern digital accessibility standards are preserved in their original form for legal accuracy, historical research, and record-keeping purposes.
- Third-Party Content: Documents, filings, reports, and resource materials authored, formatted, or provided by external third parties are made available as-is. NCLC does not exercise control over the formatting or accessibility of third-party submissions.
Conference Materials
Supplemental companion materials—including slide presentations, event handouts, training decks, and conference resources—may not fully conform to current accessibility standards. These materials are often created under tight timelines or sourced from guest presenters and third-party contributors, and they are provided for contextual and reference purposes.
Requesting Accessible Formats & Assistance
We are dedicated to ensuring that all users can access the information contained in our library. If you encounter an inaccessible document, PDF, companion file, or conference resource, or if you need information in an alternative format:
- Email Us: Send a request to [email protected]
- Information to Include:
- The title or URL of the document/material.
- The specific accessibility issue you encountered or the format you require (e.g., accessible PDF, Word document, plain text, screen-reader-optimized transcript).
- Your contact information so we can follow up with you promptly.
We aim to acknowledge all requests within 2 business days and will make every reasonable effort to provide an accessible version or alternative solution in a timely manner.
Date
This statement was last reviewed and updated on July 30, 2026. We review it whenever a remediation round is completed or a conformance report is reissued.