MUP accessibility statement

General

Manchester University Press is committed to making its publications accessible to the broadest possible audience. If you require any information about accessibility not covered on this page, please contact [email protected]. We are keen to receive feedback; if you have comments on any aspect of accessibility at MUP, please contact us.

As part of the University of Manchester, Manchester University Press is committed to creating an environment where diversity is celebrated and everyone is treated fairly, regardless of gender, gender identity, disability, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, marital or transgender status, age, or nationality. For more information, please visit the University’s page on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Our websites

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our websites and we are continually working towards improving their accessibility. You will notice many accessible features whether you are visiting manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk or browsing and viewing content on manchesterhive.com. We follow general principles of usability and universal design, and endeavour to meet level 2 (AA) of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 for all our sites and content.

Our websites will allow you to:

• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen;
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard or speech recognition tools;
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader;
• view essential audio-visual information (captions or transcriptions are provided in most cases).

Documents

• The majority of documents on both of our websites, such as the guidelines in the Author Hub, are accessible PDFs.
• We are actively reviewing our hosted materials to assess their compliance and enhance the accessibility where we can. For more information, please visit the What we’re doing to improve accessibility at MUP section of this statement.

Audio and visual materials

• MUP video content is hosted on our YouTube channel, where you can turn on automatically generated subtitles and transcripts. We do not currently have audio descriptions for videos. youtube.com/@ManchesterUniversityPress
• MUP audio content has transcripts in most cases, and we are working to add these where needed. You can request transcripts for all episodes of the MUP podcast, One Book at a Time by contacting [email protected]

Our books and journals

In print

We aim to make print editions of MUP titles accessible for all readers. Since 2020, we have used Sabon font wherever possible for all main body text in our books, as it is a readable font style with many accessible characteristics. Body text in new MUP publications has a minimum point size of 10, which the RNIB consider a standard size for regular text.

Digital

We aim to publish ebook editions of all MUP content in a range of formats that are compliant with current industry standards for accessibility, and that are compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies so that they are available to all users.

• Ebooks published from 2021 onwards are available in EPUB 3.0 format.
• On manchesterhive, wherever possible we provide fully accessible full text XHTML and PDF versions of our frontlist titles.
• MUP ebooks that are available in PDF format or as EPUB 2 or 3 function with most screen reading and text-to-speech software types.
• We distribute our digital content to a wide range of retail and library sites and services without adding digital rights management (DRM) so it is as accessible as possible. If you are accessing MUP content via a third party, accessibility features may be different depending on their own processes or policy and we advise you to visit their accessibility statement or contact them directly for further information.

If you require a title in an alternative format, please contact [email protected] and we will be pleased to find a suitable file format solution for you. For UK-based users, we send all our frontlist titles to RNIB Bookshare, an accessible online library for people with a wide range of additional reading needs including dyslexia, and other print and visual disabilities.

Content notes

Some of our books and journals contain content that may be triggering, distressing or offensive. We do not currently have a standard policy on content notes or trigger warnings, and we encourage authors to consider whether a note to foreground certain types of content for the reader is appropriate. If you have any questions or concerns about specific publications, please contact us at [email protected]

Our building

The MUP offices are located at 176 Waterloo Place, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9GP. The building is not open to the public. Accessibility information is available here: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-manchester/access-guides/176-waterloo-place. Please do not attend the offices if you have symptoms which may indicate COVID. Most meetings can be held over Zoom or Teams. Please get in touch if you need to make us aware of any access requirements.

Recruitment

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/connect/jobs/disabled-applicants/

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/connect/jobs/equality-diversity-inclusion/

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/connect/jobs/international-applicants/

What we’re doing to improve accessibility at MUP

MUP colleagues are engaging with improving accessibility throughout our processes and presence. We have an internal Accessibility Working Group and also participate in external groups including scholarly publishing’s EvenUP Accessibility Working Group.

We are currently working on the following areas to improve accessibility at MUP:

• Working with our website hosts and typesetter suppliers to ensure our sites and ebook content are compliant with current standards and planning ahead so that we are compliant with the European Accessibility Act legislation ahead of it coming into force in June 2025. A recent Google Lighthouse evaluation of web quality for manchesterhive in July 2023 included high scores for accessibility (Homepage 100, Browse page 85, Content page 94).
• Working with the University of Manchester’s Disability Advisory and Support Service to set up regular user testing of our websites and ebook content.
• Reviewing the accessibility of all PDF and Word documents used at MUP, including those hosted in our Author Hub or sent out to authors.
• Reviewing the accessibility of MUP audio and visual materials, including adding transcripts of audio and alt text for images, whether hosted on manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk or manchesterhive.com, or produced as part of our social media output.
• Incorporating accessibility checks, such as colour contrast scores and image compliance, into the development of all MUP designed materials, including book covers, catalogues and promotional materials.

For authors

• Our documents and guidelines are Word and PDF files, which may not yet all be fully accessible. Please contact your commissioning editor or [email protected] to request these in alternative formats.
• Our Author Hub gives an overview of the process from submitting your proposal to marketing the book before and after publication: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/author-hub/
• MUP works together with authors to build best practice on accessibility into our processes. For example, our new guidance on creating alt text for any images in your book will soon be included in our Author manuscript submission pack.
• Writing and publishing a book may present extra challenges for neurodivergent authors. Our working groups are looking at how we can better support disabled and neurodivergent authors; if you have access requirements, please discuss these with your commissioning editor.

[last updated May 2024]